LEONARDO LASER Linz presents Lab Songs Vol. I

LASER Chairs: Christa Sommerer (AT) & Fabricio Lamoncha (ES/AT)

You are welcome to our Leonardo LASER Linz event, to learn together with others and enjoy our Solar cooking pop-up workshop, pop-up exhibition and series of talks and discussions about other ways to rethink and experience new Laboratory formats. 

EVENT INFO

When: Friday 6^th September 2024 at 11am – 6pm CEST

Where: Danube river bank around the Salonschiff Florentine & Kunsthalle Linz https://frl-florentine.at

Scientific revolutions are characterized not only by discoveries but also by changes in their practices, goals, protocols, and evaluation methods. The laboratory, originally dedicated to scientific work and characterized by rigour and dedication to experimentation, now resonates across disciplines, promoting creativity and collaboration. Through our guests' experiences and songs, we will explore the laboratory as a heterotopic space capable of generating new agendas and structures for collective creation.

PROGRAM:

The program is taking place in the context of ArsElectronica Festival 2024 and consists of a Solar Cooking Workshops, talk series LASER Linz and an exhibition opening at Kunsthalle Linz.  

11am-3pm - Solar cooking workshop, Pop up cantina solar by Solar Manufaktur (Irene Lucas)

3pm-5pm - Leonardo LASER Linz - Lab Songs Vol. I

- Laura Benítez Valero - “Laboratory Philosophy: The Construction of Situated Knowledge” 

- Vanessa Lorenzo Toquero (aka Hybridoa) - “Hybrid media ecologies in times of digital and ecological transition”

- Irene Lucas Fernández - “Cantina Solar, a mobile art research work, touching and thinking about learning communities through solar cooking dispositves”

5pm - Kunsthalle Linz exhibition opening “Ecology of Fire” by Volkan Dinçer 

A great circle of Taste, Culture & Cuisine on Complexity, a mobile research labor, conceived as a platform to cook, eat and build together. The Pop-up Cantina Solar develops a quality space for low-energy food processes, from cooked to raw and fermented, through the collective to the individual needs., the participants can taste the energy of the sun, the richness and simplicity of low-tech inventions and the playfulness of the way that materials inspire us, dealing with solar cooking prototyping out of upcycling materials. http://solarmanufaktur.at/

“Ecology of Fire” displays a bonfire GIF on a small screen powered by a solar panel. It explores entropy and organization, likening the energy harvester and converter to an organism as a display of a bonfire. It reflects on humanity's technological evolution and relation to environment elements, portraying energy as a cycle of harvesting, converting, and controlling. https://volkandincer.com/

SPEAKERS BIOS:

Laura Benitez has a Ph.D. in Philosophy and is a researcher and university lecturer. Her research connects philosophy, art(s), and technoscience. She is an associate professor at the Department of Philosophy at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She also teaches at Elisava. She has served as the coordinator of the Theory area in the Arts and Design Degree at Massana, where she has taught Critical and Cultural Studies. She has been a visiting researcher at the Ars Electronica Center and the Center for Studies and Documentation of MACBA. She has also collaborated with international institutions such as Interface Cultures Kunstuniversität Linz, Sónar Festival (Barcelona/Hong Kong), Royal Academy of Arts London, and the University of Puerto Rico. Between 2019 and 2021, she directed Biofriction, a European project (Creative Europe) on bioart and biohacking practices, led by Hangar in collaboration with the Bioart Society, Kersnikova, and Cultivamos Cultura. She is co-director of the Master on Design For Emergent Futures (MDEF).

Vanessa’s experience spans industrial design engineering, trans-disciplinary artistic research and workshopology combining speculative design on emerging technologies, biomedia practices, transfeminism and open source philosophy. She has worked extensively with the European cultural and Swiss biohacking communities such as Hackteria, Utopiana Geneva, and Hackuarium. Currently based in Bilbao, Vanessa is coordinating a STEAM pilot project in the metropolitan area, aiming to create synergies among the local industrial tissue and the innovative global scene. www.hybridoa.org

Irene Lucas is a visual artist working at the interrelation of science, art, and technology. She relates common territories of critical art practice, combining methods of nature, art, and play pedagogy. The Expanded Garden in Vienna with the artist Christoph Euler or Corridor Breaks at Manifesta 8 in Murcia are some examples. She is the founder of Solarmanufaktur and the art space at ZOMIA.

Volkan Dinçer's work focuses on inter-system relations and ecological questions within a board research field ranging from perception tendencies to symbiotic relationships. Dinçer primarily produces his own electronic systems using various digital tools such as low-level electronics, video, and animation and sometimes combines them with living materials, usually to blur the boundaries between the systems and produce some questions in this way.

SPONSORS

In 2004, Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau founded the Interface Cultures Master program at the University of Art and Design Linz, named after Steven Johnson's book. The program highlights the diversity of digital intersections and added a focus on Critical Data in 2020 when Manuela Naveau joined the team as a professor. It explores media art, interface design, and sustainable IT. Students' projects are featured at the Ars Electronica Festival, contributing to Linz being named a UNESCO City of Media Arts in 2014. interface.ufg.at/blog

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 50 cities around the world. To learn more about how our LASER Hosts and to visit a LASER near you please visit our website. @lasertalks