RETAKE: IMAGE-MATTER, IMAGE-RELAY

Context: Hexagram is launching a call for contributions to its co-researcher and students members for an event organized as part of La nuit des idées – January 28, 2021 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m – in collaboration with the Musée des arts et métiers (Paris) and the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris).

As part of the 2021 La nuit des idées, for which the theme is “Close”, a distributed, transatlantic, multi-site and networked apparatus will be activated to discuss, visit an exhibition (Fossilation, Hors-Pistes, Centre Georges Pompidou), and discover research-creation practices that interrogate, from environmental and societal perspectives, the materiality of images and of interfaces that can bring us closer. In addition to formal discussions, the event will include video capsules and integrate a resolutely performative format, anchored in action, making, and demo, and that from the very locations of creation and dissemination (Centre Pompidou, Paris; Speculative Life Biolab, Milieux Institute, Concordia University).

Call: The ecological crisis is a subject, but it is above all a condition that comprises the production of images. In the current context where marketing promoting the dematerialization of media has succeeded in making an impression that paved the way for a frantic consumption of images, how can we think and implement images as an instantiation of a material and energetic system? How to awaken, activate, and make visible the energetic and material life of images? While an image is usually understood as a point of view, Retake: Image-Matter, Image-Relay examines the politics of this grasping by considering its environmental, social, and symbolic dimensions. The event aims to question, in a ‘relay’ mode, the aesthetic modalities and the ecosophic value of the production of contemporary images.The reflection will be modulated by three pivotal concepts: (1) fossil-imprint, which will question the eco-signatures left by contemporary images; (2) residual energy, which will question methods of capture and recovery of energy linked to images and; (3) matter-data, which will critically examine the ubiquity of big data and its infrastructural as well as socio-environmental weight. This event will therefore be an opportunity to construct a reflection and a collective dialogue on planetary futures, in connection with major projects of technological infrastructure that condition the production and circulation of images.

Submissions Deadline: Monday, December 14, 2020

The final format of the presentation will be a 3-minute video capsule. To participate, members are invited to send: (1) A short biography (50 words); (2) A research question likely to be addressed at the conference (50 words); (3) A short description of their intervention (75 words); (4) An example of achievement or contribution related to the theme (exhibition, performance, article, term paper, etc.); And (5) the theme linked to your intervention (fossil- imprint; residual energy or matter-data). With respect to needs of equity, diversity and inclusion, the submission of original formats is encouraged, including stories, manifestos, poetry, and any other artistic interventions related to research-creation.

Send proposals to: coordination@hexagram.ca

Hexagram co-researchers and students whose proposals are selected will be contacted around December 21, 2020

* If you are selected, your contribution must be pre-recorded and sent to coordination@hexagram.ca no later than January 22, 2021

** Please note that moderation will be bilingual. While proposals in English are welcome, the video capsules will have to be minimally subtitled in French.

*** Please note that changes may be made to the schedule and programming in order to meet the health standards that will be in effect in January 2021.

This event is co-organized by Hexagram and the research-creation team of the international project Membranes in action: Multidisciplinary Creation of Sustainable Interfaces between Communities, Ecological Milieux and the Built Environment (dir. Alice Jarry, Concordia University, Montreal; Samuel Bianchini , EnsadLab – laboratoire de l’École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs – Université PSL; Marie-Pier Boucher, University of Toronto Mississauga).The project is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC); Concordia University; Chaire arts et sciences de l’École polytechnique; École des Arts Décoratifs – PSL; the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation; Hexagram – International Network for Research-Creation in Arts, Culture and Technology and; Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology at Concordia University.

 

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Image: Bioplastic membrane prototype for the Fossilation artwork by Alexandra Bachmayer, Maria Chekhanovich, Vanessa Mardirossian, Speculative Life Biolab, Milieux Institute (dir. Alice Jarry), Concordia University. Photo: Vanessa Mardirossian. Using fossil prints from obsolete media devices, and activated by the residual energy of the Pompidou Centre’s infrastructure, Fossilation explores the ecosophic dimensions of contemporary images. The project is collectively developed by Brice Ammar-Khodja, Alexandra Bachmayer, Samuel Bianchini, Marie-Pier Boucher, Didier Bouchon, Maria Chekhanovich, Matthew Halpenny, Alice Jarry, Raphaëlle Kerbrat, Annie Leuridan, Vanessa Mardirossian, Asa Perlman, Philippe Vandal and Lucile Vareilles

 

 

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