"Art and science share a common drive to explore"

 

Fruitful interaction between art, design, technology and science can generate all sorts of combinations that, in many cases, shift boundaries, blur dividing lines and broaden horizons. The coronavirus crisis has contributed to accelerating digital culture processes that have already been evolving for some time. We talked about the dialogue between culture and technology with Pau Alsina, professor at the UOC's Faculty of Arts and Humanities and editor of the digital journal Artnodes.

 

 

Fruitful interaction between art, design, technology and science can generate all sorts of combinations that, in many cases, shift boundaries, blur dividing lines and broaden horizons. The coronavirus crisis has contributed to accelerating digital culture processes that have already been evolving for some time. We talked about the dialogue between culture and technology with Pau Alsina, professor at the UOC's Faculty of Arts and Humanities and editor of the digital journal Artnodes.

 

All cultures involve technology in one way or another, just as any technology is an intrinsic part and expression of a culture. Both culture and technology are human constructs and it is precisely through them that we build ourselves as humans. They are complementary and inevitably must find a way to coexist. Sometimes we talk about the impact of technology on culture, as if the former were a meteorite that falls to Earth and destroys a culture previously uncontaminated by technology, but that is not how it happens.

With lockdown, we have all looked for ways to enjoy art and culture, whether from our balconies or through our screens, because we understand the structural role they play in our lives. So we could say that the interrelation between art, science, technology and society has become more pervasive than ever. Albeit being different areas of knowledge with different goals, they often address the same global challenges, and in their approach to these challenges, they often show a high degree of interconnection. As a space for freedom par excellence, art allows us to delve into unknown territories, travel along uncertain paths and explore all that we have yet to know. Viewed in this light, art and science share a common drive to explore, to find and push back the frontiers of what we know.

The current situation puts the spotlight on a digital transformation process that has been evolving consistently over a considerable period of time. Face-to-face interactions have suddenly become a scarce, highly valued asset, which in turn raises the challenge of redefining how we relate to culture. However, we should avoid going to the other extreme of wanting to digitize and virtualize everything, without considering the contribution made by physical contemplation and participation. Thus, while we endeavour to generate other types of medium-specific experiences, we should also determine what we lose and gain in this process. Adopting a critical distance and a detached gaze would help us distinguish between what could contribute meaningfully to culture and what may be dazzling in the short term but lead to disorientation in the long term.

Precisely by not trying to virtualize a face-to-face studio, but by creating a virtual studio with specific features, in which how you learn to paint is different and specific to the UOC's online environment. This enables a learning process to be created that is not focused so much on developing technical dexterity and expertise but on acquiring the competencies, skills and concepts that are necessary for learning how to paint. The basic premise we worked from when we decided to design a bachelor's degree in Art was to create a different way of teaching art, extracting the best from what we have learned during all these years of online teaching and taking it even further.

It is still an ongoing process and each new course raises new challenges in designing new subjects, laboratories, seminars, workshops and project courses. One of the key aspects is how the continuous assessment process is applied to students. From the very beginning, they are encouraged to document their creative process and the evolution of their work, so that little by little they build a portfolio. Properly documenting the entire process entails deep reflection; it is a process that is naturally conducive to analysis and learning. The response to the challenge has been very positive from the word go.

The ISEA was founded in 1988 and since then, it has travelled to different cities around the world. It is a privilege to organize the symposium in Barcelona and our intention is to make it a memorable event. The fact that the UOC is supporting the project is a great contribution – and a great responsibility – because of the transformative action and impact that an event of this type will have on the city and the country. The ISEA is a conference, but it is also a festival, with exhibitions, concerts, workshops, seminars, performances, talks given by artists, resident projects, etc. It spans nations, sector and institutions, and connects art, design, science, technology, thought and society through a theme that we chose three years ago and which is more relevant today than ever: Possibles.

Throughout history, we have tended to think that when we bring in a new technology, the previous technology will cease to exist and the entire system will be turned on its head, but this has not happened. Digitized culture has come to stay and we still have a lot of ground to explore. However, we would do well to think that this does not necessarily need to be in detriment to other cultural manifestations, for example, physical attendance of events. Culture will continue to be consumed through as many channels or formats as possible. The important thing is to identify and exploit each proposal's differential traits. Technology and culture will be mutually beneficial; culture can be empowered by digital technology and digital technology can be empowered by culture and art.

The goal of Artnodes is to contribute to disseminating, debating, discussing and sharing the results of the research carried out at the intersections between art, science and technology. We publish articles that are assessed using a blind peer-review process and which either talk about artistic research projects related with science and technology, or analyse this cross-disciplinary field, write its history or make theoretical contributions to our knowledge of it. A scientific journal is not just a publication. With time, it also becomes a knowledge community.

After almost 20 years, thanks to the support provided by the Library and the UOC, Artnodes has become a leading international journal. The latest issue was devoted to the relationship between artificial intelligence, art and design, while questioning the role of learning machines. It was published in collaboration with the journal Leonardo, published by MIT Press and currently the definitive publication in this field. We hope to undertake further collaborations of this type in the future.

Being able to disseminate all Artnodes' content in an open-access, digital format is crucially important. It is a major contribution that is highly appreciated by our readers and by the academic community in general. By publishing online, it is possible to build an archive and retrieve information quickly. It also enhances the articles' accessibility, and shortens publication and distribution times considerably compared with other paper-based formats. In a context in which rapid, free access to knowledge makes a vital difference, an initiative like this journal is a key contribution.