Art and science. The international meeting to explore the intersections of art, technology, science and society will take place in Barcelona from 10 to 16 June with a wider public offer.
The programme of the 27th International Symposium on Electronic Art, ISEA 2022 Barcelona, to be held in the city from 10 to 16 June, was presented at a press conference at the CCCB. The event, promoted by the UOC with the collaboration of various institutions, including Barcelona City Council through Barcelona Science and Universities and ICUB, will bring together professionals from all over the world from fields such as art, design, technology and science to debate and explore the intersections between these disciplines and society. In parallel to the symposium, around fifty proposals open to the public will take place in numerous venues in Barcelona and elsewhere. The new additions to the public programme were announced at press presentation, which took place on 25th May.
The ISEA is one of the most consolidated annual events on electronic art on an international scale. After more than ten years without setting foot on European soil, Barcelona is hosting a new edition this spring to reinforce the city’s international projection in research, scientific production and artistic and cultural creativity. In this context, the celebration of ISEA 2022 is part of the Barcelona Science Plan 2020-23, specifically in objective 13 for the promotion of the relationship between art, science, technology and society from a cross-cutting point of view. For this reason, the event includes a wide range of public proposals to bring the debate of the symposium to all citizens.
Open programme
Last April, the first confirmations of public activities for ISEA 2022 were announced, with the theme of “possibles” as a common thread. At press conference of 25th May, new proposals open to all citizens were presented, along with other details of the programme, both public and of the symposium itself. Among the new features are those that will take place in the Sant Pau Recinte Modernista, which will become an exhibition space with the international exhibition Possibles, made up of digital art works by figures such as Thierry Fournier, Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss, and a mapping that will pay tribute to Quebec, the driving force behind the previous edition of the symposium. Another notable novelty is the cycle of activities on art and science that will be held from 7 to 15 June in the Gardens of the Julio Muñoz Ramonet Foundation, a facility that is clearly committed to exploring the interactions between these two fields.
The CCCB and the CERC will host workshops on 11 and 12 June where, through code and software, participants will be able to experiment with the synergies between natural phenomena, the body and technology, or create immersive experiences, as well as various performances from 13 to 15 June, with music and audiovisual proposals that combine live coding with artificial intelligence. Arts Santa Mònica also joins the actions with the main exhibition of the ISEA 2022, The Irruption, made up of 32 proposals by international and local artists of reference that investigate the ecological, climatic and social crisis of today from different perspectives, and which can be visited from 9 June to 21 August. The group exhibition What is possible and what is not will delve into the crisis derived from the possibilities offered by technological advances and can be visited at La Capella from 9 to 19 June.
ISEA 2022 brings us a host of other proposals and, to round off the event, it will offer us a spectacular closing event that will take place on Somorrostro beach on Wednesday 15 June at 22:30. The event proposes an aerial show of synchronised drones that combines technology, lights and electronic music to translate into a collection of very unique shapes and figures.
Professional meeting
The Symposium will bring together the community of experts in art, science and technology from around the world. ISEA 2022 Barcelona aims to contribute to the growing debate on our world of “possibles”, the central theme of the symposium, through multiple formats that include 140 presentations by leading experts in their field, 45 institutional presentations, 40 artist talks, 23 screenings, 18 posters and demonstrations, 16 round tables, 13 workshops and 13 performances, all of them coming from the open call launched more than a year ago where a total of 1100 proposals were submitted.
To these formats must be added the more than 80 works that make up the exhibition project of ISEA 2022 Barcelona. The CCCB and MACBA will be the main meeting point for an international community of experts in art, science and technology who will come together to address current issues such as the creative capacity of artificial intelligence, the possibilities of immersive experiences, the imaginary of biotechnologies in the arts, the challenges of climate change and new ways of approaching education, as well as our cultural legacy.
Organisers
ISEA 2022 Barcelona has been promoted by the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) in collaboration with Barcelona City Council through Barcelona Science and Universities and the Barcelona Institute of Culture, the CCCB, Arts Santa Mònica, MACBA, the New Art Foundation, the new art, science and technology hub Hac Te, the Department of Culture of the Catalan Government and the Ramon Llull Institute.