As part of the conference and funded by the 4TU.Ethics, the ESDiT Art Track is organizing an Art Exhibition. This exhibition will open on 2 October during the reception of the conference and will stay open until 10 December.

The rapidly advancing technological landscape of contemporary societies has far-reaching impacts across different aspects of our individual and social lives, continually shaping how we perceive ourselves, how we communicate with each other, how we encounter nature, and how we relate to the outside world at large. As it becomes crucial to understand and reflect on these technological 'disruptions', we turn to a wide range of sources and communities to help us navigate this technological landscape.

One such source is the practice of art. Art stimulates the imagination, invokes emotions, and enables us to experience (possible) effects of new and emerging technologies. Artistic practices pursue their inquiries in their own unique ways, surveying technologies from alternate viewpoints and uncovering new insights. This exhibition casts a spotlight on these artistic practices and their knowledge-producing capacities by bringing together works of eleven artists, including four philosophers who engage in artistic processes as a complementary form of research.

Seven artworks will be displayed in the Vrijhof building – UT’s exhibition space. These will remain open until 10 December.

Four artworks will be displayed at Gallery, in the Ideate space, only during the conference. These are all interactive installations that can be tried out during the conference.

The Art Track will also organize Art panel 1 and Art panel 2 that will be part of the conference program. Art panel 1 is co-organised with Waag FutureLab.

 

Gallery
 

• Age-Fi is a living room installation by visual artist Lotje van Lieshout that features four short, AI-enabled films that explore whether—and how—we want social robots to assist with ‘healthy’ aging at home. The films are based on speculative scenarios developed through the collaborative research project Age Fiction(s) Investigations (https://www.age-fi.nl/), a partnership between the University of Twente, Eindhoven University of Technology, and Delft University of Technology. Blending self-made and AI-generated elements, the films offer unexpected, strange experiences that echo the possibilities of caregiving robots. In this intimate living room setting, viewers are invited to imagine how they might want to age alongside technology in their own futures.

Pictures of the installation at the Dutch Design Week 2023.

• Bellies is an interactive installation by multimedia artist Laura A Dima that allows two individuals to experience each other's bodily signals through wearable sculptures. These haptic sculptures, worn by two remote participants, appear as extensions of the body and mimic vital signs such as heartbeat, breathing, and body temperature. Evoking the imagery of a pregnant belly or an alien organ, they symbolize the fusion of bodies and the connection made possible through technology. ‘Bellies’ continues Dima’s exploration of mediated social touch—an area of haptic technology that simulates and facilitates touch between physically separated individuals. Through this project, Dima seeks to discover whether tactile feedback alone can foster empathy and accountability.

Photo: Laura A Dima

• The Improvised Inflatable Device is a speculative work by artist Dani Ploeger that explores how everyday technologies can be repurposed for destructive ends. Accompanied by the speculative film Bunkeridylle, shot in a WWII bunker in Koudekerke, the installation challenges the conventional design of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). IEDs typically mimic the destructive power of formal weapons but not their disturbing aesthetics. What if an IED did the opposite? The installation and film came out of Destructive Circuits (https://v2.nl/publications/destructive-circuits/), a four-year research project at V2_Lab for Unstable Media, Rotterdam, at the intersection of IED development, globalized techno-consumerism, and media politics, through a combination of archival research, interviews with scholars and IED witnesses, and collaborative artistic experiments.
   
• The DiscReTe wearable is an AI-enabled wearable that facilitates communication, boundary-setting, and interaction management for individuals with diverse communication needs. Acting as a mediator, the wearable helps users navigate social situations, manage symptoms, and effectively communicate their needs to those around them. The wearable was created through DiscReTe, an ongoing interdisciplinary research project led by Birna van Riemsdijk and Michaela Honauer at the University of Twente. The project integrates artistic and participatory approaches in its concept design and draws on the poetics of air to explore the underlying principles of intimate computing. Concept Design and Development: Malou Beemer, Emil Gravier, Jonas Hentschel, Michaela Honauer, and Birna van Riemsdijk; Choreography: Laisvie Andrea Ochoa; Performative Practice: Laisvie Andrea Ochoa and Dennis Massar.

Vrijhof 

●        In her song “Divergent: a plea for empathy across differences”, postdoctoral researcher and song writer Caroline Bollen expresses what it means to be empathetic in a diverse and digital world. An integral part of her research on empathy, the song captures the sensitivity and emotional understanding needed to make sense of injustice and the plea for empathy. 
 

●        Ellen Gilbert’s film “Freedom to Think” explores the impact of digital technology on human autonomy and cognitive freedom. With the artist themselves performing a visual narrative with anti-facial recognition makeup, the film reveals how pervasive digital surveillance and behavior manipulation threaten our fundamental rights and freedoms. 


 

●         "Resurrecting Digital Souls: Kintsugi Macintosh" by multidisciplinary artist Guido van der Kooij draws a contrast between the rapid consumerism and competitive nature of Western development of technology and the Japanese philosophy of Shinto, which honors the spirit in all things including their devices.
 

 

●        The installation AIxxNOSOGRAPHIES by new media artist Špela Petrič is a remix of material generated during Petrič’s artistic research on the automation of care. As AI is tested for use in every sector of society, Petrič and her collaborators peered into the near future through an interview with the chief researcher of a medical regulatory body to learn how they have dealt with issues arising from the implementation of AI in healthcare.

 ●        With her poster wall “Technologically mediated encounters with nature”,  PhD candidate, environmental activist, and artist Patricia Reyes invites the viewer to contemplate questions concerning what we mean when we speak of “nature”, and how technology influences that meaning
 

 ●        “Cobalt”, the experimental dance film of PhD candidate and artist Julia Rijssenbeek, explores and imagines future nature-technology-human relationships. The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between a philosopher of technology, an AI researcher and dancer, and a cinematographer, culminating in a non-verbal philosophical essay that asks: Can humans find a new way to move, to relate differently to other beings? A new (body) language?

 ●        “Somewhere Around 900MHz” by computational artist Christian Schwarz  is a repurposed surveillance-tool that generates a sound composition in real time by collecting sensitive information from nearby cellular devices. The viewer contributes to the resulting involuntarily collaborative sound piece with their unique data.

Organisation

The exhibition is an initiative of the ESDiT Art Track and is curated by Dr. Aafke Fraaije (TU Delft), Dr. Julia Hermann (UT),  and Kaush Kalidindi (TU/e). It aims to foster exchange between philosophers of technology, artists, and the general public.

More about this exhibition https://www.utwente.nl/en/culture/events/2024/10/1700636/exhibition-rethinking-ethics-reimagining-technology