Open North is a new network initiative that aims to support sustainable culture development in the North European region by fostering open innovation in art and culture and providing accesible routes into the sector of creative industries. The Open North Launch Meeting will take place on September 6 – 7, 2013 in the emerging RIXC Innovation Lab space and outdoors in Riga Spikeri Creative Quartier. The Launch Meeting will gather together artists, cultural operators and other creative producers from Riga and Liepaja / Latvia, Kaliningrad and St Petersburg / Russia, Tallinn / Estonia, Copenhagen / Denmark, Stockholm / Sweden, and Mons / Belgium.
The intent of the meeting is two fold. The first is to launch OPEN NORTH Creative Network and Think Tank for facilitating both — development of strategies and policies for open innovation in creative industries in the region at large. And the second is to work out models and tactics for providing artists, cultural organizations and other creative producers with accessible routes into the sector in particular.
The Day 1 on September 6, 2013 will feature the RENEWABLE FUTURES conference that will focus on digital media art, techno-sciences and open business development in the North European region. The conference will include the presentations and discussions by participants with the aim to investigate the current state of emerging creative industries sector in the region. It will be followed by two parallel working sessions – (1) Networking, Culture and Sustainability and (2) Designing New FabLabs.
The programme of Day 2 on September 7, 2013 will take place in the framework of WHITE NIGHT, Riga forum for contemporary culture, with the aim to introduce wider public with open innovation approach in digital media art and culture. Open North project will feature two workshops – SOCIAL GAMING workshop for manifesting techno-social innovation, and BACTERIA BATTERY workshop – showing art and science collaboration. The workshops will be followed by public demonstration of interactive video games and audiovisual performance programme.
PROGRAMME:
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6
RENEWABLE FUTURES, Open North Launch Meeting and Conference
10.30 – Coffee and registration
11.00-11.10 – Welcome words by Rasa SMITE / RIXC Centre for New Media Culture / Latvia & Agnese Baranova / RIXC Centre for New Media Culture / Latvia – OPEN NORTH – building new network and creative think tank in the region.
11:10 – 12:30 Session 1: THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL MEDIA ART
Presentations on past and future (introduction to cases):
Nils CLAESSON / Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts / Sweden – THE FUTURE OF LABORATORIES AND LIBRARIES (10 min)
Piibe PIIRMA / Estonian Academy of Arts / Estonian Media Artists Union / Estonia (10 min)
Yulia BARDUN / Tranzit, Non-governmental Agency / Russia & Anna KARPENKO / Tranzit, Non-governmental agency / Kaliningrad, Russia (10 min)
Timo SOPPELA / Artists’ Association MUU / MUU gallery / Finland (10 min)
Victoria ILYUSHKINA / CYLAND Media Art Lab / Russia & Sergei TETERIN / CYLAND Media Art Lab / St Petersburg, Russia (10 min)
Agnese Baranova / RIXC Centre for New Media Culture / Latvia (10 min)
Rihards VITOLS / Liepaja Art Reserch Lab (10 min)
Discussions on future of digital media art (moderated by Rasa Smite and Nils Clasesson)
12:30 – 12:50 Coffe break
12:50 – 14:15 – Session 2: CREATIVE HUBS
Mihkel SALM / Tallinn Creative Hub / Estonia (10 min)
Association of Riga Creative Quartiers / Latvia and representatives from other independent cultural organizations – tbc. (10-20 min)
TechHub / Latvia – tbc. (10 min)
Centre for Sustainable Business / Stockholm School of Economics in Riga – tbc. (10 min)
Pascal KEISER / TechnocITé / Belgium and Yves VASSEUR / Mons2015 – European Capital of Culture / Belgium (10 min)
Rasa SMITE / RIXC Centre for New Media Culture / Latvia – Spikeri Innovation Center (project) (10 min)
Discussions on creative networks and its hubs (moderated by Rasa Smite and Oleg Koefoed)
14:15 – 15:00 Lunch break
15:00 – 17:30 Workshops
Workshop 1: CREATIVE NETWORKS, CULTURE AND SUSTAINABILITY – conducted by Oleg KOEFOED / Cultura21 / Denmark and Rasa SMITE / RIXC
Workshop 2: DESIGNING NEW FABLABS (in Riga, Liepaja and elsewhere in the Baltic Sea region) conducted by Ali Neissi SHOOSHTARI / Aalto University Media Factory / Finland.
17:30 – 18:00 Closing discussions
18:00 – Guided tours to the Latvian artist exhibitions in kim? Contemporary Art Center in Spiker, and Synthetic Nature exhibition by young Liepaja artists in RIXC Media Space.
19:00 – Dinner
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
Open North public events in the framework of WHITE NIGHT, forum for contemporary culture in Riga
SOCIAL GAMING
14:00-18:00 – public open workshop conducted by Fishing Cactus and TechnoCite (Belgium)
19:00 – interactive video games demonstration by TechnoCite (Belgium)
BACTERIA BATTERY
19:00-21:00 – art-science workshop conducted by RIXC (Latvia) and young scientists from Latvian University
21:00 – performance programme – audio and visual interpretations of “bacteria battery” signals by Voldemars Johansons, Martins Rokis and Rihards Vitols.
For more information visit: http://renewable.rixc.lv
