In an era of global crisis — ecological and economic; sanitary and socio-political — symbiosis is a notion that allows us to explore the metamorphosis afoot and to imagine possible futures. This symposium offers an experimentation incubator where artists, designers, scientists, and other thinkers will exchange and debate on processes and practices, exhibiting innovating projects along the way.

Symbiosis is a cornerstone of life itself — no organism, nor any species more widely, could survive isolated and without exchanges . This applies as much to human societies as to the relations of those societies with their environments. More than a simple co-existence, symbiosis involve interdependence. It can be positive, neutral, or negative, varying according to the dynamic between the relations between the parties. We must, then, choose our symbiotic models wisely. This is the thematic orientation of this year’s conference.

Symbiosis — at once object, subject, and pre-condition for this international gathering.

ISEA2023 SYMBIOSIS is a symbiotic event: trans-disciplinary (including visual arts, theater, music, design, cinema, sociology, philosophy, economics, engineering, mathematics, biology, physics , …) and inter-sectorial, concerning the arts, creatives industries, research, and citizenship more widely.

Farfara2031, referring to an island that appeared sporadically on maps of the 16th century, is a project and research process, using the procedure of bidding with this fictional island for the title of European Capital of Culture (ECoC). Designed as an artistic experimental platform Farfara2031 aims to push the boundaries in thinking, practising and experiencing what an ECoC may be if virtuality is considered as a new form of cultural ‘physicality’. Farfara2031 takes the model of ECoC as a working template for investigating innovative structures and improved relations of creative and systemic thinking to develop models of collaboration, common curation and hybrid / blended models of training, capacity building, informal education and artistic production with participants and audiences at the heart of the work done.The project believes that arts programming and producing art in the digital realm should go beyond a process of digitisation of an analogue format. However this requires a shift in creative practice and, in particular, thinking and conceptualisation. Within the context of a European Capital of Culture – created in a pre-digital world – we need to examine how the knowledge transfer from current trends in arts programming and production within the digital space can be extended to an ECoC digital programme and subsequently serve as a point of departure for digital culture. The project aims to contribute to a European vision beyond the usual or known parameters, terminologies and factual argumentations, or rhetoric of competitions of “The City in the Age of Touristic Reproduction” (Boris Groys). It attempts to explore new modes of digital and analogue learning and sharing, and takes Farfara – this mythical Maltese island – as a potential host, model or test-bed of a new way of approaching the intense activity surrounding the conferring, programming and managing of an ECoC.In a broader context, the project will implement the first step of a longer-term project (Comino-Farfara2031) by looking specifically into the mysterious island of Farfara, to critically examine how virtuality can create a different understanding of creative activity within a non-physical space, and through the framework of the ECoC programme, itself made up of three key elements; ‘European’, ‘Capital’ and ‘Culture’. By using this framework, and the three key elements which refer to many-layered elements, such as identity, history, religions, conviviality, economics, and geographies, the project proposes a rethinking of the process of cultural experimentation. Thus, in this context, Farfara highlights the speculative components of futuring the three terms as a dynamic field of perspectives, and asks what potentials can be found by looking closely at concepts of place, community or identity through the lens of programming an ECoC for a space that simply does not exist – in other words, what does a cultural programme for digital communities which goes beyond spatial thinking look like?Ultimately, the project’s research question is: How can virtuality – understood here as a new form of urban and cultural ‘physicality’ – shape a more radical understanding of what European Capital of Cultures should achieve, by planning a cultural programme for a non-physical place?This research question will be explored through the project’s planned programme of field research, a series of online forums with a broad circle of collaborators, several workshops with experts in various related fields, and a residency programme through an open call to artists and researchers. The project will conclude with a fictional online bid for the title of Farfara2031.

EFAP members were due to meet during the SAR conference, which unfortunately was cancelled due to COVID-19.
Statement by the SAR organisers: Due to the current Coronavirus outbreak, we unfortunately find it necessary to cancel the conference in Bergen. We apologize for the inconvenience this entails for the participants. The decision is founded on an overall joint assessment by the University of Bergen and SAR, based on the current advice from The Norwegian Institute of Public Health in relation to the growing concerns on the quick spreading of the virus.
The Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design and SAR are truly sorry for having to cancel the conference due to these unfortunate circumstances, but are looking into the possibility of transforming the contributions into a more permanent format, like a publication or through digital dissemination.

The innovative and critical potential of artistic research lies in its capacity to generate personally situated knowledge, implying that ideas and theory are ultimately the result of practice, and that the emergent process of research methods unfolds through practice. Based on the notion that knowledge is derived from doing and the senses, this ACMlab hands-on workshop led by Maren Richter and Dr Adnan Hadzi will explore collaboration in artistic research and curatorial practice.

Workshop participants will have the opportunity to discuss the necessity of design for such projects from the point of view of the artist engaged in industry partnerships and projects. Whether you are the curious artist who is interested in testing out productive gaps in your practice or thinking of applying for the next call of the Malta Arts Fund – Research Support Grant, this may be the session for you.

This ACMlab is being organized in collaboration with the Department of Digital Arts at the Faculty of Media & Knowledge Sciences, University of Malta.

Maren Richter

Maren Richter is a curator and researcher. She defines her curatorial practice as one that creates space for exchange with, for and on experimental artistic practice based on the production and politics of space and alternative knowledge production. Between 2016 and 2018 she was the curator of the main visual arts exhibition in the Valletta 2018 Cultural Programme. She is the co-initiator of ‘Grammar of Urgencies’ a research-based series of collaborative projects, initiated in 2015. In 2013 she co-curated the first Maldives Pavilion at the 55th Venice Bienniale, which was designed as an ‘eco-aesthetical’ space for international exchange of artists, theorists, campaigners and researchers. Between 2010 and 2013 she was the artistic director of the Regionale, a festival in Styria/Austria, which looked into the question of how rural areas and landscapes could become a model for a new socio-political discourse in times of urban growth and climate change. She was curator at Camouflage Art/Culture/Politics in Johannesburg and at CCASA in Brussels, and the co-curator of a series of researches and exhibition on alternative and informal life between 2003 and 2006 (amongst others “Naked Life” at MOCA Taipei).

Dr Adnan Hadzi

Adnan Hadzi is currently working as resident academic in the Department of Digital Arts, at the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences, University of Malta. Hadzi has been a regular at Deckspace Media Lab, for the last decade, a period over which he has developed his research at Goldsmiths, University of London, based on his work with Deptford.TV. It is a collaborative video editing service hosted in Deckspace’s racks, based on free and open source software, compiled into a unique suite of blog, cvs, film database and compositing tools. Hadzi is co-editing and producing the after.video video book, exploring video as theory, reflecting upon networked video, as it profoundly re-shapes medial patterns (Youtube, citizen journalism, video surveillance etc.). Hadzi’s documentary film work tracks artist pranksters The Yes Men and ! Mediengruppe Bitnik Collective – a collective of contemporary artists working on and with the Internet. Bitnik’s practice expands from the digital to affect physical spaces, often intentionally applying loss of control to challenge established structures and mechanisms.