Sustaining Life, Designing Life

A two day symposium

Organised by

 

The Social Futures Institute, University of Teesside & The AV Festival

 

Sponsored by Tees Valley Investment Fund

 

Friday 10 March - Saturday 11 March 2006, Middlesbrough, UK

 

The Social Futures Institute and the AV Festival is writing to announce a
two day symposium to be held at the University of Teesside, Middlesbrough,
on 10 - 11th March 2006. The second AV Festival http://www.avfest.co.uk
<http://www.avfest.co.uk/> will take place in March 2006 and will explore
and present new ways of thinking about Life.

 

To contextualise the festival, this symposium will explore the theme of
life from a social, political, scientific, technological, artistic and
ethical perspective. With artists and scientists fabricating new
life-forms and ecologies, our understanding of what life is and where it
can happen is shifting, evolving and mutating. This symposium analyses the
artistic, ethical and social aspects of the robotics, nanotechnology,
biotechnology and information technology, as all of these areas merge to
modify humankind. The symposium will take place over two days:

 

Day One: Sustaining Life

 

On the first day of the symposium, we will ask, what is the impact of
technology on Sustaining Life? Designers, artists and scientists have made
claims about the way people's lives can be sustained and enhanced through
the mediation of natural systems and digital technology. Increasingly,
people expect to be able to modify and improve their bodies through
medical intervention, diet and exercise. What are the consequences of a
technologised and consumerised food market on the population, in terms of
health and a changed pace of life? Technological and medical intervention
has affected notions of the perfect body and has led to the development of
industries devoted to body transformation though medical intervention,
cosmetics, diet and fitness. Ever increasing consumer demand is costly in
ecological terms.  But what should we do?  Is it possible to lower
expectations of comfort, consumption, convenience and culture? Or is it
the case that our high-speed culture is, in reality, uncomfortable,
inconvenient and devoid of culture?

Day Two: Designing Life

 

On the second day, we will explore the impact of a fast changing and
increasingly technologised society on people, economy and environment. We
ask what role does science and technology play in Designing Life?  
Certainly, many people now immerse themselves in virtual and artificial
worlds through their use of the internet. Worlds within worlds have been
created as people connect with on-line communities, interactive
environments and games. At the same time, genetic engineering allows for
the creation of synthetic biological worlds, which are constructed in the
laboratory. Life is increasingly something which we can design, sculpt and
evolve through our interactions with science and technology.  The
symposium will interrogate the boundaries of what is 'natural' and what is
'synthetic', aiming to extend and rework these notions.

 

 

The Symposium Themes

 

These issues will be addressed by participants from the worlds of science,
business, government, academia, art and design. Our aim is to dig deep
into a set of key issues that asks what impact artists, designers and
scientists have on people, society, economy and the lived environment.

 

To achieve this we will focus on the theme Sustaining Life, Designing
Life, and within this broad theme we will stage six plenary sessions for
presentations and debate.  These are:

 

*	Transforming the body: is the body being transformed from something that people are born and have to live with to a blank canvas for improvement, decoration and celebration? 
*	Sustaining environment and ecology: what role can artists and designers play in raising consciousness about environmental issues and designing sustainable environments? 
*	Sustaining lives and the geopolitics of food production: what are the impacts of modern methods of food production and consumption on life in the richest and poorest countries of the world? 
*	Mimicking life: if artificial life mechanisms, robotics and cybernetic systems can successfully mimic life, what are the consequences for humanity and society? 
*	Life in the lab: now that biotechnology laboratories are becoming places in which life is sculpted, is it time to relax ethical objections to the limits of scientific interventions? 
*	Future of Life: Sociologists, scientists and political commentators present scenarios of ways that life is evolving in new directions, what is the role of artists in imagining and imaging the future of life. 

 




Confirmed Speakers 

 

Oron Catts, Tissue Culture and Art Project (Australia)

Gina Czernecki, Artist (Australia / UK)

Professor Robin Bunton, Social Futures Institute, University of Teesside (UK)

Amanda Drago, Choreographer, Dancer (UK)

Andy Gracie, Artist (Spain / UK)

Professor Eileen Green, Social Futures Institute, University of Teesside (UK)

Heath Bunting & Kayle Brandon, Artists (UK)

Brian Lee Dae Yung, Scientist (USA)

Dr Sally Jane Norman, Director, Culture Lab, University of Newcastle (UK)

Kira O'Reilly, Artist (UK)

Kate Rich, Artist (UK)

Kenneth Rinaldo, Inventor and Artist (USA)

Professor Gerda Roper, School of Arts and Media University of Teesside (UK)

Tom Shakespeare, Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre (PEALs) (UK)

Professor Carolyn Summerbell, School of Health and Social Care, University of Teesside (UK)

Professor Graham Street, School of Science and Technology, University of Teesside (UK)

 

 

About the Organisers

 

The Social Futures Institute

 

The Social Futures Institute brings together over 50 specialist
researchers concerned with the North East's social and cultural well-being
and economic prosperity. The Institute provides the focal point for the
University of Teesside's commitment to the future of the Tees Valley and
the North East's social and economic regeneration. Researchers explore
issues surrounding community cohesion, social inclusion, cultural change,
and are committed to finding practical ways of getting people involved in
neighbourhoods and communities so they can make a difference and develop a
positive environment for change.

 

The AV Festival

 

The AV Festival is the UK's newest and largest international festival of
digital culture, electronic art and new media.  It takes place in
Newcastle Gateshead, Sunderland and Middlesbrough.  It is organised by the
Tyneside Cinema, Middlesbrough Council, the University of Teesside and
Sunderland City Council.

 

The 2006 AV Festival will explore biotechnology, artificial life,
evolutionary computation, technologically mediated ecosystems,
philosophical investigations of boundaries of nature and virtual spaces as
social 'living' environments.  Through a lively programme of exhibitions,
concerts and films it will probe digital and biological lifeforms and
living systems, asking what do these 'creations' look, sound and feel
like? What is it like to 'inhabit' these systems? Who are the demiurges of
the artificial age?

 

The AV Festival is commissioning major new exhibitions from artists such
as Kenneth Rinaldo (USA), Andy Gracie (UK) and Anthony McCall (UK), new
concert pieces by Ryoji Ikeda (Japan), Carsten Nicolai (Germany), Suguru
Goto (Japan), and d-fuse (UK), and new moving image works by artists like
Richard Fenwick (UK), Marius Watz (Germany), Clare Davies (UK) and Gina
Czarnecki (UK/Australia).  The festival will also present works by Oron
Catts & Ionat Zurr (Australia), Time's Up (Austria) and many other
artists.

 

Delegates of the symposium will receive free or discounted entry into a
range of special festival concerts, events, receptions and exhibitions.

 

 

Booking Details

 

The symposium runs over two days.  Delegates may attend the whole
symposium or register on a daily basis.  The early bird booking fee for
the whole symposium is £60.00 and £30 per day (including lunches, tea and
coffee). Early bird bookings must be received by Friday 10th February
2006.  The full registration fee for the whole symposium is £75.00 and
£35.00 per day.

Concession rates will be available for students.

 

Booking forms will be available on the Social Futures Institute website in
early December 2005 http://www.tees.ac.uk/socialfutures

 There will be no accommodation available at the University, but we will
assist delegates in making bookings in local hotels.

 

 

Contact

 

If you would like more information on the symposium, please contact Tony
Chapman Tel: + 44 (0)1642 342321 or Catherine Iles, Tel. + 44 (0) 1642
384477

Email: [log in to unmask],  [log in to unmask]

URL http://www.tees.ac.uk/socialfutures

Address: Social Futures Institute, University of Teesside, Middlesbrough TS1 3BA, UK.

 

If you would like more information about the AV Festival, please contact Honor Harger:

Tel: +44 (0)191 2328289, ext 112

Email: [log in to unmask]

URL: http://www.avfest.co.uk/ <http://www.avfest.co.uk/> 

Address: c/-Tyneside Cinema, 10 Pilgrim St, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 6QG, UK