LASER Talks in Bergen presents Therolinguistics: the digital and the feral

From algorithms to animals, this event brings posthuman and more-than-human voices into creative practice as Rewa Wright and Audax M. Gawler explore non-anthropocentric ways of thinking, feeling, and making.

Chaired by Alinta Krauth

EVENT INFO

When: March 16, 9am Oslo time zone, 7pm Melbourne time zone. Find your timezone here

Where: Online via Zoom

Access info: Join via ZOOM , Meeting ID: 629 4017 0571, Password: 9FuUTjB6

Website: https://www4.uib.no/forskning/forskningssentre/senter-for-digitale-fortellinger/aktuelt/leonardo-laser-talks-bergen

How do we engage posthuman and more-than-human 'voice' in critical creative practices? Computational artist and real-time animator Rewa Wright, and multispecies therolinguist and installation artist Audax M. Gawler discuss how nature-culture interactions, and non-Western and new-Western concepts of non-anthropocentric thinking, feeling, being, making, and writing, all come together in their distinct techno-practices.

SPEAKERS BIOS

Audax M. Gawler

Audax M. Gawler is an award-winning, multigenre Symbiopunk whose practice sits at the intersection of speculative design, ecological humanities, and more-than-human world-building. Their research-driven work develops embodied and participatory prototypes that enact ecological futures attentive to multispecies justice, feral imaginaries, and collaborative survival. This inquiry spans exhibitions, publications, workshops, and public programs commissioned by leading institutions including the Powerhouse Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Australian Network for Art and Technology, Art + Australia, Sydney Institute for the Environment, Multicultural Arts Victoria, Next Wave, Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design, and the International Digital Media & Art Association. Gawler has received the Association of Professional Futurists’ Most Significant Futures Works Award and a Green Room Award, and has been a finalist in The TMRRW Awards, the Incinerator Art Award: Art for Social Change, and the Northern Beaches Environmental Art & Design Award. They are co-founder of the Trans* Ecology Club, one half of the queer-time lab GEOFADE, and director of Urthling, a transdisciplinary studio supporting the transition to the Symbiocene. They also serve as a steward of Queer x Futures and occasional co-curator of the Seaweed Appreciation Society’s Giant Cuttlefish Residency. https://www.audaxaudax.com/

Rewa Wright

As a computational arts, real time animation, and emerging technologies researcher, Rewa is driven by a commitment to exploring the intersection of bleeding edge technologies, creative practice, and critical thinking. A key aspect of Rewa's work is fostering interdisciplinary collaboration—bridging the fields of art, science, and technology to develop innovative frameworks that showcase the potential of computational creativity. Rewa is deeply invested in mentoring and supporting underrepresented voices in digital media, ensuring that diverse perspectives shape the future of emerging technologies. Rewa participates in International groups such as ACM SIGGRAPH (as a member of the Digital Arts Committee), IEEE Vis Arts Program (co-Chair two years running for the Annual Conference), and the ISEA International Advisory Panel, which affords the capacity to deliver a range of digital and interactive arts projects globally, for the benefit of diverse communities. Rewa is currently Senior Lecturer in Film, Screen, and Animation at QUT and the co-founder of UnCalculated Studio. https://rewawright.com/

SPONSORS

LASER Bergen largely operates under the pressing themes of 'Posthuman Communication', 'Narratives of Interspecies Care', 'Animals and AI', 'Animal-Computer Interactions' and 'Climate Storytelling' - each contributing to an overall theme of SciArt Interventions for Ecological Survival. We provide panel talks and artistic engagements that discuss emergent epistemologies and technologies for communication, narratives, meaning-building, and the potential roles played by artists and storytellers in multispecies futures.

The Center for Digital Narrative (CDN) is a Norwegian Centre of Excellence at the University of Bergen, funded by the Research Council of Norway for 2023–2033 to establish a new, interdisciplinary field focused on digital storytelling. Working across arts, humanities, media studies, game studies, and informatics, CDN explores how narratives shaped by computation such as electronic literature, interactive games, social-media conspiracies, and AI-generated stories are transforming culture. The center operates through six research nodes and organizes rich academic activities including exhibitions and podcasts. In particular, the LASERs will be hosted by the CDN's Artistic

Integrated Research node: The Artistic Integrated Research node serves as a vital experimental hub where digital technologies are leveraged to create, interpret, and contextualize digital narratives. AIR champions groundbreaking artistic research that
materializes in digital art, creative writing, interactive installations, and site-specific works, often showcased in galleries, libraries, and museums to engage diverse cultural
audiences.

The Leonardo/ISAST LASERs are a program of international gatherings that bring artists, scientists, humanists and technologists together for informal presentations, performances and conversations with the wider public. The mission of the LASERs is to encourage contribution to the cultural environment of a region by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building to over 60 cities around the world. To learn more about how our LASER Hosts and to visit a LASER near you please visit our website. @lasertalks