Cyber-Body-Systems

Artistic research and production project that investigates the relationship we have with the ever-so-present technology around us, in order to assess its impact on how we relate to and connect with our surroundings (both digital and non-digital).

  • Details

    Artistic research and production project, in the form of a bilateral residency with Johannes Kepler University (Linz), focused on sensemaking in digitalization processes

  • Project team

    Curators: Dr. Claudia Schnugg & Andrei Tudose | Artists: Daniela Brill, Cip Făcăreu, Raluca Ghiță | Researcher: Alexandra Sofonea (neuroscience consultant)

  • Key Parteners

    Linz Institute of Technology - Johannes Kepler University, CNDB, UNATC, Augmented Space Agency, Austrian Cultural Forum

  • Financed by

    AFCN

Cyber-Body-Systems is an artistic research and production project that investigates the relationship we have with the ever-so-present technology around us, in order to assess its impact on how we relate to and connect with our surroundings (both digital and non-digital) through a trans-disciplinary approach, developing new understandings of what interactivity means in art, its role both in artistic creation as well as exhibiting artworks, and creating a potential reference model for artist to further develop for new media artworks. It is built as a bi-lateral artistic residency, between Bucharest, Romania and Linz, Austria.

Building on the DIGI-Sense project previously developed within Johannes Kepler University in Linz, and led by Claudia Schnugg, the Romanian extension will focus on expanding the previous research framework through a collaborative structure for professionals of various disciplines and career stages to work together, exploring human-technology interactions through performative practices, involving a diverse trans-disciplinary team of visual artists, performers and neuroscientists, in partnership with the National Center for Dance Bucharest and National University of Theatre and Film “I.L. Caragiale”.

The project opens a space for critical discussion about digital transformation through cultural/artistic engagement with digital technologies, building on the ideas of sensemaking and embodiment/ the role of the body in approaches for interaction with digital technologies and in digital transformation processes which are often perceived and realized through a cognitive approach.

The aim is to create an opportunity for artists, performers, dancers, local art students to get in touch with this discourse on bodily engagement with digital technologies and connect to international community discussing these ideas, in ways that are relevant for art, science, but even in industry, showcasing how artistic research can be based on scientific research, in a direct application in the Romanian cultural field.

“The  ongoing discussion about digitalization in art, science and technology shows how important it is to also make sense of the interactions with digital technologies, the information produced by digital technologies and those processes transformed into digital technologies. The critical discussion has to go beyond a rational/cognitive discourse of what it “means” or can be “understood”, but also need to include an approach and a platform for critical discussion that transcends this mind-body duality which is proclaimed in most current discourses (policy making, industry, etc.).” [Dr. Claudia Schnugg]

Cyber-Body-Systems: Open Research

Open Research is the first stage of the project, during which the artistic team will re-iterate the previous experiences developed in the DIGI-SENSE PROJECT, alongside new ones proposed by the Romanian team, aiming to investigate the differences between the Romanian and Austrian public, on one hand, and because the public input is essential for the performative installation that will be developed during the next stages of the Cyber-Body-Sense project. The experience will include a series of performative exercises, centered around the way we use our body to interact and make sense of technology.

The Open Research days will take place at the National Center for Dance Bucharest, between the June 23 30, 2024.

The Distance between Us is Music by Bulgarian media artist Antoni Rayzhekov, part of DIGI-Sense Phase 2, was showcased by Marginal in the Post-Digital Intersections opening Exhibition, in Timișoara in 2023.

  • Open Research @CNDB, June 2024

Photo credit: Andreea Săsăran

Artistic team

Daniela Brill (CO/ AT) – artist

Daniela is an artist and researcher from Bogotá, living and working in Vienna. Daniela’s creative process is nourished by her interest in complexity sciences, aesthetics, and non-hierarchical structures of knowledge. In her work, currently focused on origin of life research, astrobiology, and the physics of life, Daniela uses matter that mutates, changes and interacts, to question western taxonomies and categories, particularly that of life-non-life.

Ciprian Făcăeru (RO) – artist

Ciprian is a research assistant and P.h.D at CINETic, UNATC, and co-founder of Augmented Space Agency, a studio for extended reality (XR) experiences and applied digital mediated interactions and augmentation technologies. His doctoral research is focused on set/scenographic design for interactive-immersive-augmented reality media technologies applied in visual and performative arts. Architect of virtual spaces, experience designer, and new-media artist, his research interests are focused on emerging new-media technologies and their technological impact on modern societies through new art forms and expressions, like the digital visual and performing arts.

Raluca Andreea Ghiță (RO) – performer

Always keen to understand how the body works and moves and how it can create new shapes. Body is a powerful and expressive tool which can be used in a bunch of stuff such as creation, useful everyday tasks and supporting ourselves. How technology works nowadays makes me think that the big inspiration for it was our body, our brain, different processes that we still try to understand. I take inspiration from surroundings, both people and environment, and work with different textures of movement similar to tailoring a coat. A moving body is as healthy as one that is fed and clothed. Raluca graduated UNATC – Choreography in 2022 and is currently a student at UNEFS – Physiotherapy and special motricity.

Alexandra Sofonea (RO) – neuroscience consultant

Alexandra is an independent multidisciplinary researcher, psychologist, and theatre director from Romania. She has worked in several interdisciplinary projects, either as an artist or scientist. Her PhD is in the field of Theatre and is a closeup of the psychology of actors and their mental health. Her interests are in aspects that target mental health using knowledge and tools from fields like Neuroscience, Psychology, and Art. She has taught contemporary dance independently but also collaborated with the National University of Theatre and Cinematography in teaching psychology-related concepts in an Interdisciplinary Communication class. She is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in a neuroscience project and as a Narrative Exposure Therapist working with teenagers.

Dr. Claudia Schnugg (AT) – co-curator

Claudia is a curator of art and science collaboration and a scholar researching the intersections of art and aesthetics with science, technology, and organizations. As social and economic scientist with an additional background in cultural science, her recent work focuses on intertwining artists and art projects with new technologies and scientific research. She has explored effects of artistic interventions on social settings, especially framing artistic interventions and art programs in organizations. Claudia curates artscience collaborations, artist-in-residence programs, media art projects as well as various projects intertwining art, science, technology, and innovation in business, industry, scientific organizations and cultural organizations. She also mentors artscience processes, and artists, scientists, researchers and facilitators, runs research projects, and gives talks about developments on the intersection of art, science, technology, and business.

Andrei Tudose (RO) – co-curator

Andrei is a curator and cultural manager, developing projects that explore the potential to generate positive societal change through the intersection of art, science and technology. Co-founder of Marginal and VAGon – in(inter)disciplined space, Andrei has developed platforms that facilitate artscience artistic exploration. His background in marketing research, sociology and visual studies underpins this transdisciplinary approach, materialized in projects that encourage active public participation and generate critical discussions about significant contemporary issues.

About DIGI-SENSE

The project focuses on sensemaking in digitalization processes, especially in the interaction with digital twins and robotics. Artistic engagement – with a specific focus on dance and performance – is central to the research method to gain insights into the embodiment and relevance of aesthetic/sensory knowledge in sensemaking processes. Thereby the team aims at advancing understanding of the mechanisms underlying artful articulation and sensemaking in digital transformation projects by examining the socio-technical design and development process through the lens of digital twins (DT). Moreover, a special focus will be on researching aesthetics, aesthetic experiences and embodied knowledge in relation to sensemaking processes.

This project was a Seed Project at the Linz Institute of Technology, which is realized at the Institute of Communications Engineering, part of the Linz Business School at the Johannes Kepler University Linz.

[excerpt from the DIGI-SENSE webpage]

Cyber-Body-Systems is co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.

The project does not necessarily represent the position of The Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The Administration of the National Cultural Fund is not responsible for the content of the project or the manner in which the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding recipient.

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