[artinfo] Call for proposals - ENERGY conference and exhibition

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Please see below CALL FOR PROPOSALS - for conference, exhibition and 
performances - for forthcoming Art+Communication festival, which this 
year's theme is - Energy.

Deadline: August 31, 2009.

ART+COMMUNICATION 2009: ENERGY
XI International festival for new media culture
October 8 - 10, 2009 in Riga, Latvia

-- Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only be 
transformed. -- (The law of conservation of energy)

The 11th edition of "Art+Communication" festival in Riga with this 
year's theme: Energy, will investigate the notion of 'sustainable 
development' from various perspectives - artistic, scientific, 
cultural, technological, social, architectural, and environmental.

The main festival programme will take place in Riga, October 8 - 10, 
2009, featuring:
_ International art and science conference (organized in 
collaboration with Art Research Lab of Liepaja University)
_ Media art exhibition "Energy" (in RIXC gallery at Spikeri)
_ Experimental film screenings, live performances, workshops and 
artists' presentations (in RIXC Media Space)

- - - Conceptual background:

Energy makes change (E=mc2)

In nature, energy is found in many different forms - kinetic 
(avalanches), motion (wind), sound (thunder), water (rain), thermal 
(fire), electrical (lightening), magnetic (Earth's magnetic field), 
radiant (light), etc. Energy is involved in all processes that take 
place in Universe and on Earth.

In human society, energy is the most essential resource driving its 
economy and its future development. Now, in the twenty-first century, 
it has turned out that human society with its information 
technologies need more resources to sustain its development then ever 
before. Yet, currently used forms of terrestrial energy production 
known today, have turned out to be finite, non-sustainable, posing a 
serious danger to the climate, people and environment.

Creative ideas and new approach today is requested nearly in all 
fields, while sustainable development of both energy and information 
technologies have become  key issues in nowadays. Smart devices and 
energy internet, clean and renewable energy resources, alternative 
and ecological design and production methods, open source and hybrid 
approaches to information technologies - are just few of the broad 
potential quests that could change the future landscape of 
sustainability.

"The quest for a sustainable world may succeed, or it may fail. If it 
fails, the world will become unthinkable. If it works, the world will 
become unimaginable. In practice, people will experience mixed 
success". (Bruce Sterling)

Yet, scenario of "saving the world" can only have any success, if 
people from different fields - scientists and artists, politicians 
and business people, theorists and practitioners, futurists and 
engineers, producers and consumers, etc. - will eventually be open 
for new ideas and new collaborations.

The Energy festival will offer a space of exchange for an 
interdisciplinary group of participants, who will share their 
scientific and artistic, utopian and critical visions of future 
terrestrial energy.

- - - Themes:

I ENERGY IN NATURE AND SOCIETY: - The concept of energy and its 
various contexts: in Universe and on Earth - Invisible energy: in 
myths and legends, in nature and science - Energy technologies: in 
human life and in information society

II ENVIRONMENTAL AND CULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY: - Environmental science 
research, climate change and ecology - Permaculture and biosystem 
design - Historical traditions vs. modern alternative solutions in 
urban planning and architecture - Transition theory and futuristic 
visions of sustainable living -

III OPEN SOURCE, INFORMATION AND ENERGY: - Synergetic and co-relation 
between information and energy - Smart devices and Energy Internet - 
Sustainability using open source approaches: in art, culture, 
ecology, architecture, environmental design -
IV ART AND ALTERNATIVE SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGIES: - Dye sensitized 
solar technologies - Green chemistry: new approach in biotechnology - 
Artistic explorations of clean and renewable energy technologies 
(sun, wind, water, tides, biomass, etc.)  -

- - - Call:

For Energy conference we welcome proposals by artists, science 
researchers, engineers, activists, sociologists, philosophers, 
architects, designers, futurists, and other lateral thinkers, who are 
engaged with the issues of sustainable development, in relation to 
the themes proposed above.

The deadline for conference papers and exhibition proposals: August 31, 2009

Please send your short abstracts (200 words) and bio (60 words) to 
e-mail: 2009 ( at ) rixc.lv

  - - - Organisers and support:

Organised by RIXC, Center for New Media Culture (Riga, Latvia) with 
the support of State Culture Capital Foundation, Riga City Council, 
Nordic Culture Fund and Nordic Culture Point.

Email: rixc( at )rixc.lv
http://rixc.lv

ENERGY festival website:
http://rixc.lv/09

Symposium Art and Renewable technologies blog:
http://renewable.rixc.lv/

RIXC on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/rixcriga

- - - Satellite-event series:

The festival is prefaced by a series of satellite events - already 
past: Terike Haapoja's "Entropia" installation, a film programme 
Wonderful World (Riga, May 11, 2009), and forthcoming: Art and 
Renewable Technologies symposium (Aizpute, August 13-16, 2009), 
http://renewable.rixc.lv and Erik Hobijn's "Chemo-bar" performance 
(Riga, September 12, 2009).