Hi all,

Wish I had more time to engage with the discussions here. Some interesting insights for sure, also from the artists’ perspective (Memo) which is really good to read. I also enjoyed reading Vicky’s comments about ANAT. Didn’t have time to read everything yet unfortunately. 

So as my (final) response here to Suzy’s question about the strategies in curating and open and playfulness collaborative working models, I’ll share some of ideas behind some of the projects we develop. It’s most convenient to share the Age of Wonderland program here as much has been written down about it recently.

Another interesting project I could share would be the Hack the Body program which is an open innovation platform based on EEG data and hardware. Artists, scientists, companies from different backgrounds collaborate to co-develop three (artists driven) research ideas, each contributing from their very own specialisation topic and research fields. Goals is that the developed technology or ideas will benefit in a larger setting with other projects in the HTB program. Maybe some other time, I can explain more about this.

Age of Wonderland is a four year program based on the idea of social innovation (..in a nutshell..) Age of Wonderland is a platform / incubator for the research and development of interdisciplinary ideas facilitating tailor-made collaborations between (young) artists/designers/researchers from the Hivos networks in Africa, Asia and Latin America together with practitioners from NL/Eindhoven in collaboration with Baltan Laboratories in The Netherlands. We see social innovation as a collaborative process in which the program carries out several stages to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and networks by fostering peer-to-peer strategies and mutual inspiration. An open call was distributed via the Hivos network within the theme Fair & Green Food. We selected six artists covering these three continents to visit NL for a residency period and presenting their research trajectory during DDW. Projects developed in Eindhoven, will be shared and implemented upon return within their community, to improve local situations/issues in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The six candidates will meet with artists/designers locally, as well as representatives from Dutch organisations, institutions and companies, who share a similar field of interest and who are keen on joining forces with the Age of Wonderland guests in order to develop their research proposals. A mutual exchange of ideas will be stimulated during this expert meeting. Aim of this introduction and expert meeting is to sharpen the selected topics prior to their residency period by establishing local connections and stimulating new collaborations up front. The summer break will allow further research and preparation prior to the residency period in Eindhoven. The research period in sept/oct. concludes with a presentation/exhibition of the research projects during the Dutch Design Week. This series of activities are jointly developed by Baltan Laboratories, the Dutch Design Week, and the Hivos’ Food Program, the Arts Collaboratory (an arts platform for transnational exchange and cooperation made up of over 20 arts organisations from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.) Meetings with businesses, institutions and organisations in the Dutch (agri-food) sector are initiated to investigate possible collaborations to upscale the projects. 

OBJECTIVES:
1. Facilitating networking opportunities between our international quests and Dutch counterparts ( e.g. artists/designers, companies, organisations.)
2. Providing a platform and a residency trajectory to facilitate reciprocal knowledge and a place for experimentation between creative practitioners from the global North and South.
3. Staging new knowledge by sharing collaborative research processes with the international audience of the DDW.
4. Fostering the implementation of concepts, by functioning as a catalyst / pressure cooker by enabling strategic collaborations.
6. Sharing / developing a better understanding of the systematic gaps in the ecological, economical, and social structures through peer-to-peer collaboration with practitioners from different backgrounds and disciplines.
7. Experimenting with new models for collaboration through open work labs, not steered by result driven strategies / products..
8. Contributing to knowledge development by facilitating a long term trajectory and the support of follow ups..(also after the residency period).

The open call is also available online via: http://www.ageofwonderland.nl/ <http://www.ageofwonderland.nl/>
The website will be updated soon...


warm regards,

Olga Mink
Vriendelijke groeten /  Kind regards,

Olga Mink
Artistic Director I Baltan Laboratories
http://baltanlaboratories.org <http://baltanlaboratories.org/>
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> On 27 Mar 2015, at 12:58, Vicki Sowry <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Yes, that can be the difficult thing. Some of our partners have met at
> art/science speed meet events (we ran one in 2007, and they've been running
> them as part of the Ultimo Science Festival for a few years:
> http://ultimosciencefestival.com/2014/event/art-science-soiree-connect-create-and-collaborate/).
> We also help broker partnerships through our networks and facilitate
> introductions. And then there is the Synapse database, which went live in
> 2007 @www.synapse.net.au - a fantastic resource that we're working on the
> backend of at the moment. Note that it wasn't moderated until three or four
> years ago, so whilst now the intent is to capture info about art/science
> collaborations that have taken place (and thus providing info about
> possible partners who have already demonstrated their interest) it also
> contains records of people expressing interest in setting up such
> partnerships.
> 
> There is also the artsactive.net site (which is rather inactive, but a
> great resource for what has happened and with who over the past half dozen
> years).
> 
> cheers
> Vicki