ArtScience on Seti
Robin Deirkauf and Kasper van der Horst
KABK BB203
In 1810 the German mathematician Karl Friedrich Gauss proposed to cut a gigantic pattern in the pine forests of Siberia, in the shape of a triangle with 3 squares, showing the Pythagorean theorem. In 1840 the Austrian astronomer Joseph von Littrow wanted to dig big trenches in the Sahara desert in the shape of triangles, circles and squares. The idea was to fill them with water and a layer of burning kerosine at night. In 1869, French physicist Charles Cross had the idea to erect an array of monumental mirrors across Europe to reflect sunlight into space.
These wild ideas where the first steps towards communication with the extraterrestrials that the people of that time suspected might live on the moon and on mars. Today the Seti (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligent life) institute in California runs a very comprehensive program, conducting in their own words "the most profound search in human history: to know our beginnings and our place among the stars". The main activity of the Seti institute is that they look for signals in radio waves, they do not regularly broadcast messages. Symbolically, however, they have sent a simple picture describing our solar system, a DNA molecule and a human being from the Arecibo radiotelescope in Puerto Rico.
One of the branches within Seti is called Ceti: Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence. This is a research program into mathematical languages, pictorial systems, algorithmic communication systems and computational approaches to detecting and deciphering natural language communication. In 2003 they were involved in a workshop in Paris named "Encoding Altruism" where anthropologists, philosophers, physicists, astronomers, theologians, musicians and artists came together to address the challence of communicating with extraterrestrials in a language and syntax that would be intellegible to an alien civilization.
Many of these approaches resemble land art, sky art or abstract art. How can the idea of developing communication with extraterrestrial civilizations be an inspiration for artists ? This research group will investigate how to communicate with completely unknown aliens, zooming in on the art of interstellar message composition, transforming/translating incoming radio data in light, sound, movement, installations, objects, text, other languages etc, keeping our feet down on earth, and our antennas up, whatever may occur. To put all of this in a wider context we will briefly discuss a number of ancient and modern themes, such as; myths, science fiction, music, books, films, series, ancient astronauts, pilosophy, religions, ufos, conspiracies, militairy experiments, robotics, abductions, contacts and of course art.
Dates: 29, 30 september, 2, 6, 7, 9, 13, 14, 16, 27, 28, 30 october, 3, 4, 6 november
Credits: 7 EC
Objective: Exploring the connection between art and artificial languages
Literature: to be announced in class
Competencies: A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7
Location: KABK BB203
Number of Classes: 15 classes of 8 hours each
Examination: small assignments, attendance
Embodied Time
Horst Rickels, Robert Pravda and Joel Ryan
KABK PB301
Time treats us and we treat Time
How does Time work in Nature
How in Culture
How to make Timing-Concepts
How does an Audience Perceive it
How to prepare for a Moment
How for Long Terms
How to embody Time while in a Performance
What is Time
Dates: 29, 30 september, 2, 6, 7, 9, 13, 14, 16, 27, 28, 30 october, 3, 4, 6 november
Credits: 7 EC
Objective: to reflect the practical and artistic consequences of our conception of time
Literature: to be announced in class
Competencies: A1, A2, A3, A6, A7, C1, C2, C3
Location: KABK PB301
Number of Classes: 15 classes of 8 hours each
Examination: small assignments, attendance
Art That Breeds Art
Maria Verstappen and Erwin Driessens
KABK BB203
Art that breeds Art
A theoretical and practical exploration of Artificial Life and Artificial Evolution in contemporary art practice.
The term Artificial Life is used to describe research into human-made systems that possess some of the essential properties of life. This effort is truly interdisciplinary and runs the gamut from biology, chemistry and physics to computer science and engineering. While a large part of Artificial Life is devoted to understanding life as we know it - a significant effort concerns the search for principles of living systems which are independent of a particular substrate. Artificial Life also considers life as it could be, exploring artificial alternatives to a carbon-based chemistry. Artificial Life has moved beyond the disciplinary boundaries of computer science, and became involved in the cultural and artistic practice.
Darwinian evolution is the natural process of variation and selection, often summarised by the phrase: “survival of the fittest”. This process has led to the creation of many of the complex and wonderful phenomena of our world, including life, consciousness, language, and perhaps even art.
Computers are powerful machines to harness artificial evolution to create visual images. To achieve this we need to design genetic algorithms and evolutionary programs. Evolutionary programs allow images to be “bred”, rather than designing them by hand. Through a process of artificial mutation and selection, each new generation of images is increasingly well adapted to the desired “fitness” criteria.
The research group will be an introduction to the cultural and artistic implementations of those artists/scientists that are most closely involved with the inventions and development of the techniques. After this theoretical introduction some practical instructions and short assignments will be given to develop basic skills and techniques. With these assignments as a starting point, projects will be developed that apply the studied concepts and techniques.
Dates: 10, 11, 13, 17, 18, 20, 24, 25, 27 november, 1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 11 december
Credits: 7 EC
Objective: a theoretical and practical introduction to the artistic uses of artificial life and artificial evolution
Literature: to be announced in class
Competencies: A1, A2, A3, A5, A7, B2, C1, C2, C3
Location: KABK BB203
Number of Classes: 15 classes of 8 hours each
Examination: small assignments, attendance
Rec/PLay on Location
Robert Pravda and Kasper van der Horst
For a number of years students have been participating in RecPlay, a live electronica and mechanica improvisation group initiated by Robert Pravda. This year the activities of RecPlay will intensify during this research group, aimed at taking RecPLay performances to a next level. Specially designed instruments and interfaces will be built to generate and control sound, image and light in real-time. The central theme of this research group will be to experiment with the design and use of multiplayer instruments, as a challenge for the exploration of new ensemble forms. This research group will work towards two public performances in Theatre Zeebelt on the 6th and 7th of december.
Regular RecPlay members are encouraged to join this research group, but it is open to all students.
Dates: Dates: 10, 11, 13, 17, 18, 20, 24, 25, 27 november, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 december
Credits: 7 EC
Objective: an introduction to collective improvisation and multiplayer instruments
Competencies: A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, B2, B4, B7
Location: KABK PB301, Theater Zeebelt
Number of Classes: 17 classes of 8 hours each
Examination: live presentation, attendance
Alter Ego
Sanne van Rijn and Taco Stolk
KABK BB203
One tends to think that artists grow in their work by developing their personal taste. This is a romantic misconception: personal taste blurs the objective view of the artistic qualities of a work. Instead, artists develop their creative skills much more efficiently by learning to master the principles of communication and composition. In this research group students learn to anticipate choices that benefit artistic control rather than relying on their art as a means to express personality. To achieve this, they analyze each other’s style and inspiration from the viewpoint of their conceptual and structural base. Students participating in this research group should prepare a short speech (5-10 mins.) in which the artistic points of view underlying his or her own work are presented.
Dates: 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 12, 16, 17, 19, 23, 24, 26, 30, 31 march, 2 april
Credits: 7 EC
Objective: rethinking one's artistic principles from a more communicative and compository point of view.
Competencies: A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7, C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, C7
Location: KABK BB203
Number of Classes: 15 classes of 8 hours each
Examination: small research assignments, attendance
Electric Music Theatre
Paul Koek and Paul Slangen
KABK PB301
Music and theatre share their origin as a human response to natural phenomena, such as the sounds and movements of animals, thunder, lightning, etc.
In this course students are asked to create small music theatre scenes, first to be executed on the tabletop, to later perform them on stage and in architectonic spaces. Starting from these scenes a larger performance will be developed with the aim to present it outside of the school walls.
Students interested in following this course are encouraged to take part in the AdLib course that will run during most of the year.
Dates: 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 12, 16, 17, 19, 23, 24, 26, 30, 31 march, 2 april
Credits: 7 EC
Objective: learning the basics of electric music theatre
Literature: to be announced in class
Competencies: A1, A2, A3, A5, A6, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7
Location: KABK PB301
Number of Classes: 15 classes of 8 hours each
Examination: live presentation, attendance
Extra Senses, Extra Interference
Edwin van der Heide and Joost Rekveld
KABK PB301
In 1964 Marshall McLuhan wrote his now classic book 'Understanding Media', in which he developed a completely new view of what a medium is. Instead of focussing on the content offered by the new, technological media that have been appearing in the last century and a half, he called attention to how the experience of a new medium changes the web of relations between our senses, how it changes the way in which we interpret what we perceive and how it ultimately changes our worldview. For him, every medium is an 'extension of man', and every new extension has a profound, total influence on how we sense, think and act. In developing this view he was influenced by the bauhaus artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, who was fascinated by the new perceptual possibillities offered by the new media of his time (photography, film, electric sound) and who thought that artists had a responsibility for literally shaping mankinds' perception of the world.
In science, views on the flexibility and adaptability of our senses were developed by the Mexican/American scientist Paul Bach-y-Rita. In a series of far-reaching experiments he showed the incredible extent to which our perceptual system can adapt in real-life situations. This 'Sensory Plasticity' was most dramatically demonstrated in a series of experiments in which Bach-y-Rita restored sight to a number of blind people. He gave them a crude interface that translated a camera image into a series of tactile impulses on the skin. After a short period of accomodation these people reported visual sensations, and they could recognize objects, move through spaces or even catch a ball thrown at them. As a kind of cyborgs they were truly seeing, not through their blind eyes, but through their interface and their skin. Key to the success of these experiments was that the people involved could move around with their interfaces and use them in real-life situations, in which perceptions are always related to intentions, bodily movements and actions.
In this research group we want to apply this perspective on the plasticity of our senses to interactive art. We are going to develop and build (preferably wearable) interfaces that will enable us to navigate through the world on the basis of information to which we normally have no access. We are going to try and build new senses. In order to translate these normally imperceivable aspects of the world into sound, image or tactile sensations, we will study different approaches to sonification, visualization and the tactilization of data. Also we will have to think about the environment for which we build these senses and perhaps design a special environment for them.
Dates: 14, 16, 20, 21, 23, 27, 28 april, 4, 7, 11, 12, 14, 18, 19 may
Credits: 7 EC
Objective: to investigate the potential of extensions to our senses
Literature: to be announced in class
Competencies: A1, A2, A3, A6, A7, B2, B3, C1, C2, C3, C5, C6, C7
Location: KABK PB301
Number of Classes:
Examination: small assignments, attendance, presentation
Virtual Communities
Robin Deirkauf and Kasper van der Horst
KC CAM30
In the research group Virtual Communities the possibilities are studied of creating net art, by creating real-time 3D environments. Students are asked to create a “sample” of a world within a given condition: a virtual space in a transparent sphere, a globe with a diameter of 600 m. By creating a community of living creatures, having audible language and visual script, designs can be made to express concepts such as “genesis”, “evolution”, “growth”, and “development”. Special attention will be given to molecular particles, micro and macro scales, mutual relationships, repetitive structures (golden ratio, Fibonacci series, etc.) and the Russian Doll concept: a world in a world, in a world, in a world. The designs made by the students will be placed in an all-embracing virtual space, the Geoman Matrix Constellation, the central interface from which visitors may navigate to the different worlds.
Dates: 14, 16, 20, 21, 23, 27, 28 april, 4, 7, 11, 12, 14, 18, 19 may
Credits: 7 EC
Objective: Introduction to the creation of real-time 3D environments
Literature: to be announced in class
Competencies: A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, B3, C1, C2, C3
Location: KC CAM30
Number of Classes: 15 classes of 8 hours each
Examination: small research assignments, attendance
