Final Report Summary - ISWA (Immersion in the Science Worlds through Arts)
Executive Summary:
The objective of the project was to use art to communicate emotions related to the understanding of nature and to stimulate students to create artistic initiatives able to demonstrate commonalities of artistic and scientific fascination. The objective was pursued according to two strictly related aspects:
1) produce artistic works based on scientific phenomena at a professional level;
2) stimulate students of EC schools to produce their own works and to organize an international competition to prize the best ones. (We considered this a form of very deep and long lasting interactive action that we prefer to the sometimes superficial and ephemeral interactive processes available in some popularization science exhibitions).
Practically we intended to realize artistic events based on scientific issues per each of the following artistic disciplines: Modern dance, Cinema, Contemporary art, Imaging, Literature.
The produced art work were exploited in a double way:
a) By presenting them in live events in the different countries involved in the project addressing not only the targeted category of persons (high school students (15-19 years), but also the general public;
b) By organizing a competition among the EU high school students for each of the 5 considered disciplines (with a consequent interactive process involving a large number of students of all Europe).
The consortium included several scientists, artists, art critics, film directors, actors, musicians and specialists in science popularization, who did work together to achieve the goals synthetically above reported. The activities were coordinated by the project leader who is, at the same time, a well-known scientist and a person active since long time in several artistic activities. Universities, research institutes, dance schools, museums, theatres were involved, together with the famous European Synchrotron Radiation Facility which hosts every year thousands scientists, including Nobel price winners.
In fact the partner ESRF together with the coordinator organized the final event in Grenoble, as it represents a unique combination of science, art and European spirit, in a town of human size: Grenoble is host to three European research institutes (ILL, ESRF and EMBL), along with a leading French research university and numerous research centres of international visibility. The Musée de Grenoble, inaugurated in 1994, hosts the second-most important collection of contemporary art in France, functioning in concert with the Centre National d’Art Contemporain (CNAC) of Grenoble, which focuses on artists entering the international scene. Finally, Grenoble is home to the Cité scolaire internationale, one of the very few international public secondary schools in France.
The ISWA final event has been held at the Centre de Culture Scientifique, Technologique et Industrielle. The 5 winners of the different disciplines have been invited to Grenoble and presented their own art works to the public during the inauguration ceremony, where the different ISWA partners were present together with the Director of ESRF. The artworks remained in the public exhibition for two months
Project Context and Objectives:
Aim of the project "Immersion in the Science Worlds through the Arts" (ISWA) was to make people emotionally involved in scientific subjects by establishing a connection between Science and Art.
Main target was the students in the last three years of high school, in order to give them a more correct idea of what science is and help in the choice of their future university studies.
The project involved 16 partners form 15 European countries and had a duration of 24 months expiring February 28 of 2013.
The original idea of the ISWA project started from the consideration that nowadays, in our society, science is generally presented to young people without paying enough attention to the fact that science always originates from a creative and emotional process. This lack of a realistic description of how a scientific discovery or observation is intimately related to a creative process, is partially to blame for the reduced interest in science shown by young people, as evidenced by recent trends in their educational and career paths. At the same times, adults not commonly involved in science related activities are not familiar with and sometimes reluctant to understand scientific concepts. A deeper knowledge of the true meaning of science can make an effective difference in the way people make life choices. Unfortunately science is increasingly confused, especially by children and teen-agers, with the use of high technology devices such as play-stations and cellular phones, which are considered as a sort of natural products to be found in supermarkets like vegetables and apples.
This misleading perception can persist into adult age and can reduce the interest in science even in those very gifted children, which represent the hope for the future of our society. At the same time adults become reluctant to understand the role of science, which is relegated mostly into niche programmes by our modern means of communications, and people often look suspiciously at the work of scientists. Science popularization, TV programs which inform seriously a wide audience tend to fail in attracting people who are not interested in science in the first place, but provide information only to those who already showed a particular interest to science issues.
There is a clear and growing realization of the importance of bridging the gap between science and society.
Involving the arts in order to assist young people in understanding the creative processes underlying scientific discovery and technological innovation seemed to be an appropriate tool to stimulate that kind of emotional interest which is the principal driving force in the learning process.
The ISWA project tried to awake and stimulate the interest of young people (in particular European secondary school students) to approach science by making use of both parts of the brain: the rational one and the emotional one by discovering that the creative process is a common feature of both science and art. In order to achieve this purpose we have preferred cinema and ballet to theatre in spite of many existing excellent theatre pieces concerning science related stories. Music and visual expressions dominate in fact both in cinema and dance, while theatre is based mostly on words and can then transfer emotions in a indirect way (i.e. only through the rational part of us). Moreover, theatre (in this context) is usually related to biography of scientists (Galileo of Bertold Brecht) and reports on discoveries, whereas dance can express movements of atoms, vibration and librations of molecules, transmitting directly the emotions related to the fascinating phenomena occurring in the world of the infinitely small which is normally hidden by formulae and specialist language, as mentioned before. In addition cinema with the ambition of producing pieces of artistic values (as it is foreseen in the present project), besides satisfying science popularization goals, can exploit a much larger freedom as compared to theatre, choosing creative means and techniques. and is much more dynamic as compared to theatre. The project proposed also a kind of fantasy-literature based on science-like suggestions as the famous Cosmicomics of Italo Calvino. We think, in fact, that the process of reading this kind of stories, written in a sort of poetical way, i.e. using metaphors and puzzling images, can bring us into a nearly visible imaginary world, full of emotions, easily filtering (as it were a poem) through the barrier of rational language. Finally, visual contemporary arts and photography were also considered when inspired by scientific subjects.
Summarizing: all the following artistic disciplines were considered to produce science inspired works.
- 1) Modern dance
- 2) Cinema
- 3) Contemporary art
- 4) Imaging
- 5) Literature
The produced art works were exploited in two ways:
1. By presenting them at live events and showcasing them in appropriate venues addressing both the targeted category audience of high school students in the 15-19 years of age bracket and the general public;
2. By organizing a competition among EU high school students for each of the 5 considered discipline.
For disciplines 1, 2 and 3, one or more artworks based upon scientific issue of relevant interest were realized by professional artists. This artwork were conceived at the same time by professional artists (e.g. professional directors in case of cinema) and by scientists, i.e. university professors, scientists, science communicators, etc., which monitored both the artistic level of the final result and its capacity to effectively communicate the scientific issue.
In discipline 3, the Project organized exhibitions of contemporary art able to transmit to the public a science related message. Distribution of illustrative brochures joint with the active presence of art and science experts, and furthermore short "coffee-break conferences" helped the public to share the emotional content of a natural science phenomenon as it appears expressed by the artist. The physical presence of scientists in these kind of events provided an added value: while professional science communicators know very well how to spread knowledge, only scientists actually involved in research can communicate a real passion for science. In discipline 4, a real wide database of video describing the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble and the research that is developed in, was made available for European secondary school students via a lot a different media and using several communication strategies. Videos were distributed to students, who worked with this material by selecting some interesting photograms which were manipulated, superimposed, assembled, partially painted (as it was done for instance by Andy Warhol) in order to produce a piece of art to be used in the European competition.
In discipline 5, well known literary works bearing relationship to science were considered as examples to inspire EU students to produce their own science related stories.
During the presentations of the artworks related to the disciplines 1-4 (produced by professional artists and scientists) students did choose among one of the artistic expressions proposed and both conceived and realized artworks taking as an example the works realized by the project consortium. For each discipline (literature, dance, cinema, etc.) a commission of experts choosed the seven best artistic works realized by the students. Videos of these artworks were presented in the final event in Grenoble, near European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, where the coordinator announced the winners of each discipline.
Students were requested to realize their works either as a single or in groups.
A project website was realized to facilitate the communication of artistic and scientific materials between the project management and the schools as well as to promote the project’s activities.
The project was assumed to evolve in five parts:
1) Preparation of the artworks related to the discipline 1-4 by professional scientists and artists.
2) Live performances and artwork exhibitions in the different partners cities and simultaneous live dissemination in the local schools by the coordinator and a local scientist of the project and call for student competition.
3) Preparation of the artwork by students participating to the 5 competitions.
4) Evaluation by the 5 committees of the artworks produced by the students.
5) Final event with the participation of the student winners in each of the 5 disciplines.
Project Results:
DANCE
In the Task 2.1 TESLA together with UNIVPM determined the science and physical phenomena to be the subject of choreographies.
The choreography realized ‘On the Way to Immortality’ is inspired by the proliferation and differentiation of stem cells. It has been created by Prof. Rustichelli (UNIVPM) with the collaboration of the dance school DOCK11 and the choreographer Jadi Carboni
A dance company of 8 dancers has been involved both in the planning and in the realization of the ballet, taking advantage of the partnership and the coordination of the dance school (DOCK), which is already well known in the European Dance context. The coordinator took advantage from his previous experience of the choreography “Stochastic Movements nr. 1” - Dance steps from the world of infinitely small - which was inspired to him by the movements of atoms in crystals and liquid crystals. The ballet was presented in Venice in 2002 (in the frame of the official Summer Festival), involving four professional dancers.
"On the way to immortality" develops in 8, with a duration of approximately 45 minutes. It is supported by interactive video projection and an especally composed digital/instrumental sounds cape. The articulation of these artistic languages creates a grid of movements related to organic processes,similar to the way the pieces on a chessboard develop a life history through the game. Sulla via dell'immortalità is inspired by the movements and the vibrations of atoms and molecules. Through the medium of dance, it expresses and reporduce the proliferation and differentiation of stem cells resulting in the creation of life. These phenomena are then also theatrically linked to cognitive growth and social and emotional development.
The dancers embody the ability of stem cells to differentiate into any type of cell thus creating distinctive tissue and regenerate organs. In this qwy, stem cells provide us a concrete basis for the dream of unlimited etension of human life.
The observation of the patterns, relationships, and movements occuring in the microscopic world have provide the work with concrete images, choreographic structure, and stage mechanism. These are integrated into the performance to help visualize and understand the possibilities that scientists are exploring to improve human biological structures.
In fact a peculiarity of this performance is given by the interaction of different skills and the complementary work of a dancer-choreographer like Jadi Carboni and a scientist with an artistic background like Franco Rustichelli.
The rehearsals started in March 2011, while the Premier took place on the 3-4 of June 2011, at Dock11 Berlin with a short introduction by Franco Rustichelli.
The choreography has been presented in several other European cities (Paris - Theatre Adyar; Moscow - Aktovy Zal), listed on the leaflet (Annex1), and the Ancona and Rome performance is visible on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMzgsXnL7JE.
The dance performance "On the Way to Immortality" was presented in Rome at the Ruskaja THEATRE - NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DANCE on 11 July 2011 and in Ancona at the Mole Vanvitelliana on 14 July 2011.
Moreover, one of our ISWA partners, CBRAS, who hosted the performance in Moscow “offered” a choreography, performed by Anna Abalikhina in Moscow and Ancona.
The details of her performance are given here below:
/Asymmetrique Answer/ is first of all a union of creative artists fused by the wish to create. It`s a high-tech inter-junction project involving design, fashion, choreography, media arts, experimental programming. It`s a union of technology and a actual art. Technology of transformation of dancer`s movements into video graphic and sound is used. The performer becomes an impulse of the created interactive graphic and sound environment on the screen.
/Asymmetrique Answer/ is a reaction to the surrounding reality. It`s not confrontation or protest but rather a positive and creative action.
Quad/Round/Line (2008)
Choreography/dance: Anna Abalikhina
Video Artist: Nikita Tsimbal
Costum: Maria Smirnova
Programming engineer: Sergei Komorov
Sound: The Het
Info: www.asyan.ru / anna.abalikhina@gmail.com
the projection is on the black wall
Quad
Round
Line
In tasks 2.1 and 2.2 the TESLA partner together with selected chemists and nanotechnology scientists (from Czech Academy of Sciences, Technical University of Liberec etc.), scenographers, choreographers, visual artists and musicians have been involved both in the planning and realization of Night in NanoPOLIS – an experimental fusion of dance, music, visual art and live-science experiments. Thematically the show draws its inspiration from the following themes:
• Atoms, molecules and light - interactions and chemical reactions
• Properties of the matter at 10-9m, entrophy
• Sensing and exploring of the world of nano.
• Electrospinning - physical-chemical process at the molecular and macromolecular level which is responsible for formation of industrially significant nanofibers and nanostructures.
• Nanotechnology and society.
Synopsis of the show: Night in nanoPOLIS is an expedition into the realm of the nano dimensions.
The viewer is immersed into very different and restless world of 10‐9 m and showcased examples of nanotechnology encompassing medicine as well as theatre.
Science mediation fuse with a choreography of DEKKADANCERS in opening show of what a chemist sees at the bar, how reaction produces light, how light is stored in molecules, how it triggers reactions– small explosions! and how the chemist meets with nano with 3 ballet choreographies Lampyridae, H2Cl2 and AFM) Nanotechnologists and theoretical physicist visualize and interpret relationships and self‐organization of a matter at the dimension of 10‐9 m through the dance performance of 30 young dancers in live show of NANOSPIDER with ballet choreography Electrospinning.
The first part dedicated to encounter of science and scientist with art concludes in ENTROPIC SYMPHONY by Petr Cigler one of the performing nanotechnologists accompanied with a ballet choreography EntroPIcture.
The second part represents an artists (and layman‘s) encounter with science and nanotechnology in a delicate dance story of the nano age – the NANOPICTURE – a set of ballet choreographies by DEKKADANCERS with music and multimedia performances of the TATABOJS band.
Music: Nanoalbum and the Symbol of Infinity by M. Cais and Tatabojs, Entropic Symphony by P. Cigler
Choreography: DEKKADANCERS – T. Rychetsky, D. Stransky, L. Rellichova and her DS Magdalena
Science mediation: P. Slavicek, P. Holzhauser, P. Cigler, D. Lukaš and P. Pokorny
Screenplay, dramaturgy and supervision: T. Žižka and A. Prokop
Selected choreographies from the Night in NanoPOLIS will be live performed and screened at Košice and Vienna in the spring 2012.
The next target of WP2 is to shot an inspirational documentary on the development and execution of the ballet choreographies covering scientific phenomena as a part of a rich multi-genre science-art synthesis, with the emphasis on the capture of the creative process (Deliverable 2.2 ).
As partner in charge of dissemination of the project (WP7), UNINA has collected the documentaries of ballet choreographies On the way to immortality and NanopolisNight. These
videos have been published on the ISWA website and on cannel of Youtube devoted to the modern dance performing realized in the framework of ISWA project
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL87457086E292AC85&feature=edit_ok
In order to give a effective and large dissemination to activities of the project connected with the video's production UNINA has implemented a channel on Youtube for the ISWA project
http://www.youtube.com/user/ISWAPROJECT/
These video of the ballets are available on this Youtube channel of ISWA project (Deliverable 2.3).
Participants to the ISWA competition, either individuals or groups, sent a video of their choreography to the email address iswa.art.science.project@gmail.com or through an online platform to share the file with the ISWA team.
A dropbox has been created where all the artworks received were saved. Together with the video, participants were asked to send additional information:
Title of the artwork
Name and surname of the author
Category of the artwork
Description of the artwork
In the Modern Dance category, 7 entries, coming from 3 countries: Italy, Czech Republic, Lithuania. (Deliverable 2.4) were received.
The Internal Evaluation Committee for the Modern Dance category was composed by:
(1) Franco Rustichelli (Italy)
(2) Tomáš Žiška (Czech Republic)
(3) Jadi Carboni (Germany)
(4) Peter Walters (Great Britain)
The 7 winners of the Modern Dance category have been chosen by the IEC among the 7 artworks received, and are (Deliverable 2.5):
MD5: Ludmila Rellichová, “There is Plenty More Room at the Bottom”, Czech Republic
MD6: Nadezda Gregorová, “The Echoes, Czech Republic
MD7: Dovydas Sablauskis, “Kaleidoscope”, Latvia
MD2: Chiara Cesaraccio, “What is a star”, Italy
MD3: Daniele Montesi, “Protein’s trip”, Italy
MD4: Elena Giulietti, “Movements of liquid crystal”, Italy
MD1: Arianna Cimarelli, “Two foleating particles”, Italy
Follow up professional workshops were organized for the winning dance team in the category Modern dance with the intention to further develop the winning choreography “There is plenty more room at the bottom” into art-sci dance performance for the Municipal theatre at Jablonec nad Nisou and the international Open Air Festival Hradec Králové 2013.
Preparatory meetings of professional artist and pedagogues on updating art-sci dramaturgy, scenography, music, visuals and choreography of the performances took place at the New Stage in early January 2013. In follow up to the meetings selected nanotechnology experiments were recorded at the laboratories at Technical University of Liberec.
In situ workshops for the students performers were carried out on 19th and 26th of January and 2nd February 2013 at Rychnov u Jablonce nad Nisou.
1st workshop was aimed on developing new dramaturgy structure and basic dance motion elements closely interlinked with selected scientific phenomena. The workshop included also explanatory sci lecture and live experiments performed by scientists from TUL.
2nd and 3rd workshop aimed at developing the motion elements into full choreographies and composing them with the accompanying music and visuals into updated dramaturgy structure.
Further rehearsals are foreseen before the actual public performances takes place in June 2013.
CINEMA
The aim of ISWA project is to stimulate the interest of young people (in particular European secondary school students) to approach science by making use of both parts of the brain:
the rational one and the emotional one by discovering the common characteristic of the “creative process” that arts and sciences share. In order to achieve this purpose we have preferred cinema and ballet to theatre in spite of many existing excellent theatre pieces concerning science related stories.
In other word the cinema is much more dynamic as compared to theatre and therefore fit much better to the complex purpose of this call.
The WP3 is dedicated to the Cinema and the objectives are:
1.To conceive and realise a series of 7 short movies based upon scientific phenomena and to develop popular science lectures that will accompany the movies projections. This activity is described in the Task 3.1. and submitted in the Deliverable 3.1.
The 7 short movies have been conceived and realized by UNIVPM. The general title is "Let's save the Professor". Each movie is based on a topic on scientific topic, explained with example related to everyday life.
The text of the movie have been written by Mario Stefanon and Franco Rustichelli, they have been directed by Italo Moscati, costumes have been realized by Giancarlo Collis, and CapitalVideo cared about production, montage and audio. The Italian actress Vanessa Gravina plaid together with Franco Rustichelli.
There are 7 movies each one of 7 minutes. The subjects of the movies are:
1 -FRACTALS
Order, Chaos and Beauty
Snow crystals, the skyline of a mountain or the branches of a tree can be described as fractals: they are characterized by a pattern which repeats itself in ever-smaller sizes, so that a detail is similar to the whole.
Besides natural fractals there are also fascinating mathematical fractals created with a computer.
Science brings into evidence the magic threads connecting the concept of a fractal with Order and Chaos in Nature, suggesting a relationship they may have with our conception of beauty.
2 - NANOTECHNOLOGIES
An adventure from small to even smaller
In recent years great progress has been made in the study of small and even smaller objects. With electron and atomic force microscopes one can observe nanometer sizes i.e. the dimensions of a few atoms. Modern technology allows us to operate on objects of this order of magnitude and opens a new frontier of possible applications. Incredible possibilities are expected as well as new knowledge of that microscopic world bordering on the mysteries of chemical catalysts and the miracle of life.
3 - OSCILLATIONS AND WAVES
In the magic steps of Pythagoras and Galileo
Waves are very common things. Everybody knows what a sea or sound wave is. But the role that waves play in our speech or singing, and in the structure of atoms is not usually considered. The magic role of waves and harmonic ratios in nature is underlined as being the common principle of very different phenomena, and of the permanent features of matter. The ideas of old philosophers like Pythagoras and Epicurus are deemed to fit the modern concept of nature.
4 - CRYSTALS, LIQUID CRYSTALS AND PHOTONIC CRYSTALS
From diamonds to butterflies
Starting from these different crystal categories, it is shown how nature uses the different properties of ordered atom arrays, from the hardness of solid crystals to the amazing properties of liquid and photonic crystals. From the wonderful colours of peacocks’ tails or butterflies’ wings we learn how photonic crystals can increase the speed of computers. A mysterious, hidden role of the rules of Nature appears to be shared by animals and things.
5 - THE RELATIVITY THEORY
Everything started with a young boy’s dream
The curiosity and the fantasy of a boy enabled him to imagine a kind of space, different from that of our common sense: this was the leading idea of the Relativity Theory. The strange predictions of this theory about space and time at high velocities are compared with our common experience of how an object appears to change according to the observation point. This shows the magic role that geometry plays in our lives, as well as in the cosmos. It clearly appears how the progress of mankind depends on the ideas and dreams of young people, when coupled to serious efforts to acquire the enlightening instruments of science.
6 - THE HUGE MACHINES OF PHYSICS
Charmed by the unknown
The European synchrotron of Grenoble and the Large Hadron Collider of Geneva are taken as examples of the two-fold nature of science: the use of knowledge for practical purposes or the improvement of knowledge to discover the mysteries of nature.
For both purposes we need increasingly large machines, as equipment must get larger as the objects to be studied get smaller. An overview is given of different applications, fascinating researches, and also the kind of life that researchers lead in such centres, leaving open the question of how far it is possible to push the frontiers of knowledge.
7 - STEM CELLS
The dance of life
Recent developments in regenerative medicine and modern biology are going to have an enormous impact on our lives. Also the way itself we face the problem of sickness, aging and death changes as the hope (or the illusion?) grows that we always can fight and delay them. Stem cell research is in fact changing our knowledge of the fundamental mechanisms of life and feeding the idea that we can increasingly contrast the cruel natural selection rules which make us fall ill, grow old and die. A new frontier opens and unpredictable changes in our culture are taking place. People’s hopes and fears grow at the same time.
For the Task 3.3 (Deliverable 3.2) as partner in charge of project dissemination (WP7), UNINA has spread the seven short movies via the project website http://www.iswaproject.eu
The seven videos have been published on the webpage devoted to the thematic area “Cinema” http://www.iswaproject.eu/index.php/cinema.
To give an example we report one shot from this page.
The videos have been reported also in the section of the website “Video gallery”
(http://www.iswaproject.eu/index.php/video-gallery) devoted to the thematic area “Cinema”. In order to give a effective and large dissemination to activities of the project connected with the video's production UNINA has implemented a channel on Youtube for the ISWA project http://www.youtube.com/user/ISWAPROJECT/
These seven videos are available on this Youtube channel of ISWA project in English and Italian versions.
Fractals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGnWzpWyA_w
Nanotecnologies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEAkcrarYI
Oscillations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPbuSHbsOWE
Crystals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtm7gTADcek
The Relativity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhhXKTVMXmY
The Hudge Machines: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGOVQzXRiqQ
Stem cells: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA4VQsZlsJ4
In the Task 3.2 (Deliverable 3.4) the 7 movies have been presented for the first time in Ancona, Italy, in the main hall of the Engineering Faculty in presence of the authors, on January 24th, 2012. Schools, students, professors, Ancona citizen were invited. Around 350 persons were present.
Short movies projections have been organized in the following European cities:
• 29 February: Zurich (CH) – Thimios Mtsiadis (UZH), University of Zurich
• 14 March: Porto (PT) – Rui Reis (UMINHO), University of Minho in School of Engineering Auditorium
• 23 March: Ancona, Civitanova (IT)
• 28 March: Vienna (AT) – Christian Hellmich (TUW), Haydnkino popular English cinema in Vienna
• 29 March: Kosice (SK) – Jan Dusza (IMRAS)
• 2 April: Senigallia (IT)
• 4 April: Osimo (IT)
• 10 April: Castelfidardo (IT)
• 11 April: Prague (CZ) – Alexandr Prokop (TESLA)
• 17-20 April: Malta (MT)
• 24 April: Siauliai (LT) - Virginija Šidlauskienė (SU), Šiauliai University
• 26 April: Kaunas (LT) - Virginija Šidlauskienė (SU), Vytautas Magnus University Faculty of Arts
• 27-28 April: Uppsala (SE) – Carla Puglia (UU)
• 2 May: Roma (IT)
• 10 May - Zaragoza (SP) – Juan Pablo Perez (ARTSIC)
• 14 May - Barcellona (SP) – Carlos Semino
• 18 May: Jesi (IT)
• 23 May: Krakow (PL)
• 24 May: Warsaw (PL) – Michal Basista (IPPT)
• 28-29-31 May: Moscow (RU) – Kostantin Skryabin (CBRAS)
• 1 June: Ancona (IT)
• 6 June: Paris (FR)
• 13-14 June: Grenbole (FR) – Claus Habfast (ESRF)
• 24 June: Pesaro (IT)
In the Task 3.4 the 7 winners of the competition have been selected by the Cinema Committee. 17 videos have been received in the Cinema category, and evaluated by the IEC.
The IEC for the Cinema category was composed by:
(1) Franco Rustichelli (Italy)
(2) Italo Moscati (Italy)
(3) Jan Dusza (Slovak Republic)
(4) Didier Laval (Belgium)
The IEC had to evaluate 17 entries, coming from 7 countries: Malta, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Greece, Bulgaria, Latvia, Czech Republic.
The 7 winners of the Cinema category have been chosen among the 17 artworks received, and are (Deliverable 3.5):
C6: Felix Wallin, “The Black hole”, Sweden
C1: Angelina Dimitrova, “The Science of Playgrounds”, Malta
C2: Damiano Bedini, “Science for Tomorrow - La scienza per il domani”, Italy
C16: Sergio Gabriele Di Dato, “Stem cells - The black book”, Italy
C15: Nora Jekabsone, “The perfect whistle “, Latvia
C11: Georg Kleisel, “Shaping Metal' by Julian Bragagna and Georg Kleisel”, Austria
C4: Eleonora Biagetti, “Londra”, Italy
CONTEMPORARY ART
In WP4, the consortium organized exhibitions of contemporary art able to transmit to the public a science related message. Distribution of illustrative brochures joint with the active presence of art and science experts, and furthermore short "coffee-break conferences" helped the public to share the emotional content of a natural science phenomenon as it appears expressed by the artist.
The physical presence of scientists in these events provided an added value to this type of event: while professional science communicators know very well how to spread knowledge, only scientists actually involved in research can communicate a real passion for science.
Task 4.1
This task covered selection of mathematical, physical and chemical or biological-phenomena, intelligent materials and/or high technologies available for artists as a basis for their artworks. The primary considerations for the selection of the S&T basis of the artworks are, therefore: (i) attractiveness of the selected scientific themes and technologies so as to engage and inspire the imaginative and creative processes in artists/students; (ii)potential to utilize locally available S&T basis in order to provide the artists and students with real “hands on science” experience, through seminars, excursions, laboratory workshops etc.(iii)to provide diversity and complementarity of themes and technologies between the partners’ exhibitions.
Skype teleconferences were carried out to coordinate/optimize the selection process with other partners (SIMPLE, UNIVPM, ARSTIC) resulting in selection of several complementary themes and approaches:
The thematic scope for WP4 by UTESLA encompassed broad range of themes linked to chemistry and nanotechnology building on its previous experiences with these thematic areas. The exhibition concept put emphasis on new as well as traditional S&T themes linked with local R&D institutions transformed into site specific public art using mix of traditional and new media combined with variety of art engagement events.
The UNIVPM (curator Camilla Boemio) built on art-historian analysis of the creative and productive relationship between arts, technology, techno – science, media and networks in the second half of the 20th and the beginning of 21st century.
SIMPLEWARE utilised its expertise in the area of 3D image analysis and image processing for CAD, Rapid Prototype, CFD and Finite Element models.
ARSTIC built on experience in the area of audiovisual media and information and communication technologies were translated into the S&T choices for their exhibition, which emphasized new audio, video, lighting and interactivity technologies.
For details on the selected S&T phenomena see Deliverable D4.1.
Task 4.2
This task aimed to inspire and initiate realization of experimental artworks for ISWA exhibition. From March till October several excursions, seminars and laboratory workshops for artists were organized independently by each of the partners to (i) familiarize with R&D environment (ii) meet scientist to discuss themes and concepts of the artworks and (iii) assist their development utilizing local R&D capacities. For details on the seminars, workshops and other accompanying events aimed at Art&Sci inspiration of artists and/or students see Deliverable D4.4.
Apart from the seminars and workshops the S&T information were also actively disseminated/communicated to the participating artists at bilateral meeting by skype, email etc. Members of realization team of UTESLA as well as of the other partners took active part in ideation and realization of several artistic concept inspired by S&T both by themselves and/or teamed with artists.
Task 4.3
This task covered selection of artist and their existing artworks and/or their concepts, which will be developed into artworks, to be exhibited during ISWA exhibitions.
TESLA considerations for selection of artists were: (i) ability to handle and creatively transform different aspects of natural science and nanotechnology in the works of art; (ii)ability to realize site specific art works exploiting potential of the unique environs of the Faculty of Chemical Technology University Pardubice and the New Stage of National Theatre/Academy of Sciences of CR; (iii) to show broad range of art forms ranging from the classic to the new media together with a wide array of artistic approaches; (iv) ability to realize accompanying seminar or workshops to inspire and motivate students (and their pedagogists); (v) to realize thematic and conceptual link between the NanoPOLIS exhibition and the Night in NanoPOLIS show.
The starting point of the selection was the portfolio of approx. 35 artists that we keep lasting cooperation on art&sci themes and projects such as NanoSCOPE (2009). In addition to them we have searched additional namely young artists (such as students of the studio of super media at Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague) that are willing to signed up to the ISWA challenge. Using the UTESLA website and email distribution of our dissemination material (see attachment) we tried to reach also artists outside our primary searches and portfolios. (For more details see Deliverable 4.2). The selected authors were:
Ondrej Janoušek, Pavel Kopriva, Pavel Korbicka, Jakub Nepraš, Jaroslav Jebavý, Petr Korunka,Svatoslav Krotký, Irena Juzová, Jan Nálepa, Ladislav Plíhal, Matej Smetana, Linda Cihacová, Lenka Kahuda Klokocková, Vladana Hajnová, Amanita Design ( Jakub Dvorský ), Adolf Lachman, Kurt Gebauer, Veronika Psotková, Zdenek Danek, Veronika Doutlíková, Roman Kudlácek, Miroslav Hoza, Petr Moško, Jan Bažant, Przemyslaw Truscinski, Jana Komárková, Miroslav Schönberg, Jirí Grus, Tomasz Tomaszewski, Karel Zeman, Tomaž Lavric, Branko Jelinek, Igor Kordej, Igor Baranko.
UNIVPM – Camilla Boemio aimed at presenting large mosaic of science as interpreted by international artists who have been studying its changes and transformation processes for years such as: Justin Cooper, Trevor Paglen, Ravi Agarwal, Damir Ocko, Donato Piccolo, Emmanuelle Villard, Francesco Patriarca, Wout Berger, Cassander Eeftinck Schattenkerk, Marek Kvetan & Richard Fajnor, Klaus Thymann, Gino De Dominicis, Steven Siegel.
SIMPLE selection of artists/artworks aimed to: (i) present the new technologies such as 3D imaging, image analysis, rapid prototyping, computer simulation/modeling as the artistic concepts as well as the tools, (ii) allow the artist the access to local R&D facilities for workshops and (iii) to provide the exhibition with broad range of different forms such as drawing, prints, video, objects, installations, site specific art and new media.
The selected artists are primarily from Great Britain such as Mat Chivers, Pery Burge, Jo Golesworthy, Paul Magee, Paula Madden, Tim Oldham, Deborah Robinson, David Strang, Christine Sawyer, David Sawyer, John McDermott with a notable exceptions being Ludwika Ogorzelec – a Polish author living in Paris.
ARSTIC has selected the following authors for the exhibition ART AND SCIENCE, at the University of Zaragoza: Santiago Latorre, José Ramón Beltrán, ARSTIC, Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems Marcos Serrano, José Luís Serrano
Task 4.4
This task covered realisation of ISWA contemporary art exhibitions.
TESLA has organized 2 exhibitions with the aim at presenting diverse approaches to the phenomenon of art and science and to showcase some of their contemporary forms using mix of traditional and new media. The concept of both exhibitions put emphasis on site-specific public art combined with variety of art engagement accompanying events as a means of addressing and motivating students to take part in ISWA. The locations for the exhibitions NanoSCOPE Redux and NanoPOLIS have been chosen to exemplify the duality of art & science and the links between the two. NanoSCOPE Redux (26th May 2011 – December 2012) NanoSCOPE Redux takes place at Art gallery GAMA established directly within heart of S&T environs oft the Faculty of Chemical Technology of the University of Pardubice, which is the largest art gallery of this kind in Czech Republic. NanoPOLIS (1st November 2011 – 4th January 2012) was located at the New Stage of the National Theatre whose modernist glassy façade mirrors the buildings of the Head offices of the Academy of Sciences located across the street symbolizing the intellectual and cultural centre of Prague.
The place and the timing of the exhibitions was conceived also to provide maximum synergy with the science festival Week of Science and Technology (1st-11th November 2011), art festival Other Fields (European project TIK, 9th-11th November 2011) and the Night in NanoPOLIS show, an experimental fusion of dance, music, visual art and scientific experiments (on 23rd November and 12th December 2012) organized by UTESLA as a part of the ISWA project WP2.
The exhibitions NanoSCOPE Redux and NanoPOLIS have presented 44 authors (more than 150 artworks). 37 new artworks were developed as a result of seminars and workshops of ISWA. The exhibitions were opened to public for nearly 9 months, with extension until the end of 2012. Both exhibitions were accompanied with textual information by artists, art-critic/historians and scientists on the exhibited artworks / related S&T phenomena. In coordination with other ISWA partners the exhibitions by UTESLA also shown several authors/artefacts from exhibition in Zaragoza and those developed within WP5. For more details see deliverable D4.3 and D4.5.
The UNIVPM - curator Camilla Boemio organised the exhibition After the Crash Orto Botanico in Rome(11th – 18th June 2011). The exhibition presented a large mosaic of artworks encompassing Bio tech art, art inspired by astronomy, meteorology, geology, nano-technologies, climate changes, cell renewal, the culture of science, medicine, scientific collections, biodiversity and conservation, ecological art and art dealing with link between science and politics.
SIMPLE prepared the exhibition “Before the Crash” at Exeter between 15-20th October 2011 the exhibition presented the use of new technologies such as 3D imaging, image analysis, rapid prototyping, computer simulation/modeling as the artistic concepts as well as the tools. The art works span range of different forms such as drawing, prints, video, objects, installations, site specific art and new media.
ARSTIC developed exhibition ART AND SCIENCE, at the University of Zaragoza, 18 October-17 November 2011. T exhibition focuses on show casing new media technologies such as sonification, audio signal processing, image processing and motion capture analysis as well as the artistic inspiration by scientific measurements, calculations and theories. The scientific themes included DNA analysis and protenomics, investigation of polymers and liquid crystals, distributed biocomputing or non Euclidean geometry.
Task 4.5
This task covered realisation of audio –visual, photographic and textual documentation for dissemination activities by each of the WP4 responsible partners.
TESLA realized several short documentaries on the exhibitions and their accompanying events, including interviews with artists and scientists. The ISWA events were also captured by Czech state TV CT2 and broadcasted twice in the prime time. Textual, photographic and AV documentation have been turned into DVD containing comprehensive electronic catalogue and videos. The DVD is provided as a part of printed catalogue, which is showcasing selected artists/artworks together with their art&sci concepts as inspirational examples of various approaches and artistic techniques. The visual language of the catalogue was carefully designed to attract young people/students interest with its “fresh design” and comics like nature.
UNIVPM curator Camilla Boemio prepared (more in line with traditional art-historian approach) very comprehensive printed catalogue, which complements well the one by TESLA. Together with he catalogue UNIVPM developed a set of AV and photo documents for ISWA website.
SIMPLE and ARSTIC developed separate electronic catalogue respectively dossier of the participating artists/presented artworks. Both partners also provided AV documentation of their respective exhibitions and their accompanying events.
The material provided by all of the WP4 partners gives broad and complex overview on the variety of S&T themes, associated art-sci linking concepts, individual approaches and artistic techniques of the artists participating to WP4.
Task 4.6
91 participants registered on the project website and submit textual and visual presentation of their artworks. The 7 best artworks have been selected by the IEC.
The IEC for the Contemporrary Art category was composed by:
(1) Franco Rustichelli (Italy)
(2) Camilla Boemio (Italy)
(3) Philippe Young (Great Britain)
(4) Alexandr Prokop (Czech Republic)
Highlight clearly significant results:
Deliverable 4.1
- selection of available S&T basis for future artworks = broad range of complementary S&T themes as well as associated artistic techniques was selected.
Deliverable 4.2
- selection of professional artists to participate in the project and realization and/or selection of already existing artworks = 70 artists and more than 200 art pieces presented
Deliverable 4.3
- realization of 4 exhibitions and their accompanying events = 5 exhibitions were realized together with their accompanying events, including unique link with WP2 – Dance, Night in NanoPOLIS dance show at New Stage of the National theatre utilizing elements of visual art from WP4 as well as thematic, timely and spatial synergy with WP4 exhibition NanoPOLIS, and presentation of artists from WP5 - imaging and WP4 (Zaragoza exhibition) within the NanoPOLIS exhibition in Prague. Exhibition NanoSCOPE Redux (University of Pardubice) and elements of NanoPOLIS exhibiton (New Stage of National theatre Prague) will be publicly available till the fall 2012.
Deliverable 4.4
- realization of workshops and seminars on science and high-tech for artists and students participating in the project = range of workshops, seminars for artists as well as guided tours and workshops for students have been performed in each exhibition, the extension of the exhibitions Nanoscope Redux/NanoPOLIs allows to continue them until fall 2012.
Deliverable 4.5
- realization of video footage and accompanying dissemination materials covering the WP4 events:
photo, AV and textual material developed within WP4 provides broad and inspirational overview on the variety of S&T themes, associated art-sci linking concepts, individual approaches and artistic techniques, some of the materials (e.g. by TESLA) are specifically designed to give them attractive visual language appealing to the young generation.
Deliverable 4.6
As partner in charge of project dissemination (WP7), UNINA has spread the video concerning the
WP4 via the project website http://www.iswaproject.eu/. The seven videos have been published on the webpage devoted to the thematic area “Contemporary Art ”
The IEC for the Contemporrary Art category was composed by:
(1) Franco Rustichelli (Italy)
(2) Camilla Boemio (Italy)
(3) Philippe Young (Great Britain)
(4) Alexandr Prokop (Czech Republic)
The IEC had to evaluate 91 entries, coming from 11 countries: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Lithuania, Slovenia, Austria, UK, Greece.
The 7 winners of the Contemporary Art category have been chosen among the 91 artworks received, and are:
CA45: Kathrin Gusenbauer, “World Hostel”, Austria
CA18: Denisa Chmelarova, “see dropobox”, Czech Republic
CA76: Rolandas Putna, “Ferrum Life”, Lithuania
CA77: Simona Dlouhá, “see file on Dropbox”, Czech Republic
CA90: Zuzana Odvárková, “see file on Dropbox”, Czech Republic
CA27: Guoda Diržyte, “Otorinolaringofonija”, Lithuania
CA23: Eva Myskova, “see file on Dropbox”, Czech Republic
IMAGING
In WP5 a real wide database of video describing the European Synchrotron Radiation
Facility in Grenoble and the research that is developed is available using several communication strategies.
In the Work Package 5 the objectives were:
1.To design and produce a series of video sequences suitable to inspire the creation of original artwork by young people (Task 5.1.)
This task covers the content development and production management for video sequences with a scientific content, in a format suitable for online distribution possibly also by social networks. The content of these video sequences is developed at a creative workshop held on 20 April 2011 at Lyon which brought together scientists, artists and video production experts.
A main result of this workshop (D5.1) is the recognition of a need to involve young artists into this video production. By making young artists meet scientists who, at their work place, explained their scientific endeavours, it would become possible to choose the most inspirational topics for the video sequences. This is why the ESRF invited four young artists from Sweden, the Czech Republic and Portugal for a one-week residency, 1-8 July 2011, during which they met with ESRF scientists and produced four original works of art from these encounters. The actual creative process was recorded on video throughout the week, along with interviews of the artists and scientists on their personal interpretation of science, and the work of scientists.
The Deliverables, four documentary-type video sequences of some five minutes each, are very well suited to inspire young people to take part in the ISWA contest, in fact much better than simple visualisations of scientific results as was originally envisaged in Annex 1.
These videos are very rich in content but at the same time short enough for online distribution by social networks. Then, they relate to original works of art that can be physically shown at exhibitions and events. These works, along with the videos running in a loop on four screens, have been integrated into a compact travelling exhibition to be put on display at various landmark locations across Europe during the duration of the ISWA project. The first location was Berlin (Germany), where the Representative Office of the European Commission hosted the exhibition in its “Europa Punkt” from 7 February – 31 March 2012. It will also travel to Vienna, Grenoble, Pardubice, and afterwards possibly to Geneva and Gothenburg.
The 5.2 task covered the actual production of the video sequences which originally was envisaged as an activity to be partially outsourced. The development of the scenarii as described in Deliverable 5.1. led to a choice of producing these videos in-house, using ESRF staff and suitable video shooting and editing equipment.
This made possible to cover development and construction of the travelling exhibition described in Deliverable 5.2-2 with resources available under this work package. As the video sequences describe the creation of original works of art inspired by science, these works of art and the videos sequences form a unity best presented together. The exhibition provides an optimum solution to this requirement.
This deliverable has not been uploaded in NEF as it arrived after the delivery deadline and was not planned. It is attached with the dissemination documents.
The creative workshop help 20 April 2011 in Lyon had recommended that the video to be produced under work packages 5 should document the interaction between young artists and scientifics at the ESRF, leading to the creation of works of art.
In July 2011, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, hosted four students of art from the Czech Republic, Portugal and Sweden during one week. The interpretations of their encounters with scientists and their work led Jan Nalepa (CZ) to create a sculpture inspired by the concept of phonons; Nina Grùnova (CZ) used oil painting techniques for her interpretation of X-ray scans of fossils; Charlotte Winroth (SE) used a computer to create compositions of images from the scientist's daily life; Marco Paranhos (PT) captured the invisible spirit of science in animations made from real video footage.
The young artists were filmed during the whole week, and four video clips have been edited from this material. These video clips have been published on YouTube for public viewing.
The works of art and videos are currently being integrated into a traveling exhibition to be used throughout 2012 in the frame of the dissemination of the ISWA Project.
2. To disseminate the video sequences online, possibly using also social networks, to young people across Europe, along with information on their origin and content as well as inspirations for their creative transformation into artwork - Task 5.3.
As partner in charge of the dissemination work package (WP7), UNINA has undertaken several actions in order to spread activities carried out within the ISWA project and promote the ISWA competition (Deliverable 5.3).
These activities can be resumed in the following lines of action:
a. Spread of information and materials concerning the ISWA competition through the project website
b. Exploitation of social networks
c. Organizing events and meetings in museums, science centres, academies of art and schools involving students, teachers and artists.
The development of fewer but longer video sequences than described in Annex 1 is a result of a video content development process begun at the start of the project. The overall amount if video material produced is actually much longer than planned in Annex 1, and in addition to the video sequences, four original works of art were produced and are being displayed at events. At the same time, the content of work package 5 is now even better aligned with that of the other work packages. The deviations had no impact on available resources or planning
The need for subcontracting was reduced considerably following the decision to produce all videos sequences in-house and to subcontract only the development and construction of the travelling exhibition. The deviation had no impact on available resources or planning.
The IEC for the Imaging category was composed by:
(1) Franco Rustichelli (Italy)
(2) Claus Habfast (France)
(3) Fabrizio Fiori (Italy)
(4) Edlira Prenjasi (Albania)
The IEC had to evaluate 22 entries, coming from 6 countries: Italy, Bulgaria, Latvia, France, Czech Republic, Lithuania.
The 7 winners of the Imaging category have been chosen among the 23 artworks received, and are (Deliverable 5.4):
I18: Silvana Limni, “Back to the Origin”, Italy
I23: Alžbeta Píšová, “Schrödinger’s 3D cat”, Czech Republic
I16: Rachele Montoro, “Kìtos”, Italy
I11: Matej Tobiáš, “Ostracoda”, Czech Republic
I12: Matej Tobiáš, “A little bit left!”, Czech Republic
I20: Veronika Valaskova, “Crustacean Orconectes limosus”, Czech Republic
I13: Michal Dobíhal, “A cube in the park”, Czech Republic
LITERATURE
University of Šiauliai during project lifetime prepared scientific and financial reports for the project coordinator. WP6 leader UoS was doing it by day-by-day management with coordinator, ensured efficient and sufficient dissemination activities of WP6 tasks.
University of Šiauliai implemented following activities during RP1 and RP2:
On the 24-25th April, 2012 project Coordinator prof. F. Rustichelli came to University of Šiauliai. The aim of this visit was to present an ongoing science and various art forms (literature, theater, dance, etc.) unifying project and one of the project's activities - created seven short films that were inspired by it, and physical processes derivatives, such as relativity theory, nanotechnology, fractals, crystals, stem cells and other (movies presenting the summary information provided in attachment). During the visit three meetings were planned with prof. F. Rustichelli between community of University of Siauliai and two gymnasium communities. Project coordinator also visited Vytautas Magnus University and J. Grusas art school in Kaunas where he presented created seven short films as well.
As regards to WP6 tasks and major aims and outcomes of the ISWA Literature competition following work was done during the reporting period. The general idea of the competition was to observe how secondary school students produce (technically, technologically, scientifically and creatively) short imaginary stories (novels) (as their own science related stories), based on Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomicsm, even though after thorough analysis and evaluation of the novels none appeared to have been written based on Italo Calvino’s works. Bearing in mind that science, math’s and technology are amongst least popular and there are great differences in interest between boys and girls, we have provided a list of scientific issues/topics which can be considered inspirational (for example relativity, statistic mechanics, stem cells, etc.) and the novels had to include, as an annex, a scientific explanation for the novel. In order that the students’ reflection of interest would not be pure fantasy certain guidance by the teachers was provided and, in a certain sense, the creation process was constrained, by the rules of real science and real-life examples.
The objective of the competition was to use art to communicate emotions related to the understanding of nature and to stimulate students to create artistic initiatives demonstrating the ability to convey commonalities of artistic and scientific fascination. The objectives were pursued according to two strictly related aspects: 1) produce artistic works based on scientific phenomena at a professional level; 2) stimulate students of EU schools to produce their own works and to organize an international competition folowed by awarding the best ones.
The intention was to stimulate interest of science and get feedback (creative reflection) as creative writing pieces from the secondary schools of Europe. It corresponded to the main idea of the project ISWA.
Correlating to this the Announcement of official European call related to Literature stories the Competition commenced. National literature experts executed Literature Competition at a national level and performed the first evaluation by Evaluation procedure foreseen in ISWA project application (pg. 9). The first phase of the competition received a total of 52 candidates with their pieces for the competition. After the aforementioned Evaluation procedure only 15 participants remained. Project participant organizations with the advice and the first evaluation of National literature experts facilitated the submission of 3 best stories written in English (among the initial 52 participant novels some were in authors’ native languages) from their respect country students, ensuring equal gender representation of the authors. The novels were submitted to SU (WP6); the collected structured stories were considered for the competition and forwarded to the National Evaluation Committee for the topic of Literature. The Literature Committee selected seven stories considered to be the best which were able to transmit scientific and/or technological concepts, and produced on creative manner. The selected 7 novels were presented to the Internal Evaluation Committee and after the final phase of evaluation winners were selected which led to preparation awards prizes for nominations were arranged by WP6.
Candidates
15 out of 52 applicants submitted their works for the first phase of Evaluation executed at a national level. This phase was carried out by the selected National literature expert group:
- Prof. Irena Baliulė;
- PhD. student Monika Gruslytė;
- Gintautas Jazdauskas;
- Prof. Virginija Šidlauskienė.
These 15 novels were evaluated and 7 best novels were chosen for further evaluation by the Internal Evaluation Committee.
Before this evaluation processes workshops for teachers were organised. Teachers were announced at University of Siauliai web-site http://www.su.lt/component/content/article/7053. During workshops for teachers were presented terms and thematic of the competition. They tried to encourage their students’ to take part at this competition. The novels were collected and selected written in English or written in Lithuanian and translated.
In Lithuania at national level the Literature Call disseminated though the British Council Lithuania www.britishcouncil.org/lithuania.htm English teachers’ Association in Lithuania (contact person: gen.I@vpu.lt) Lithuanian Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language www.lakma.vpu.lt/en Schools’ networks, Šiauliai University websites www.su.lt Gender Study and Research Centre website www.lsc.su.lt Nordic Council of Ministers Office in Lithuania www.norden.lt the Language and Communication Center www.mazaspasaulis.lt Tarptautine vaiku ir jaunimo literaturos asociacija, Lietuvos skyrius, List of Secondary Schools.
At European level Literature competition Call will be disseminate through:
• ISWA project website www.iswa.unina.it;
• ISWA Project partners emails
• ISWA project partners’ websites;
• FP7 Scientix Project: S-TEAM - Science-Teacher Education;
• European Schoolnet www.europeanschoolnet.org Advanced Methods: http://www.scientix.eu/;
• International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language www.iatefl.org;
• Personal contacts of ISWA Project partners’.
Having in mind the WP6 Task 6.2: Carry out Literature Competition: set up Competition Guidelines: how secondary school students will produce (technically, technologically, scientifically and creatively) short imaginary stories (novels) (as their own science related stories), based on Italo Calvino’s Cosmicomics, we drawn up explanatory texts: Mutual Relations of Science, Technology, Literature and the Arts and description of Creative writing competition About Italo Calvino and Cosmicomics which was uploaded on ISWA website: http://iswa.fisica.unina.it/index.php/literature.
The evaluation was based on the following criteria: Artistic quality; Capability to demonstrate the specificities and commonalities of the creative processes within arts and science; Capability to transmit the scientific and/or technological content on which the novel is based upon.
The majority of candidates (6) were from Italy; though this might be explained by the fact that project is facilitated in Italy. Poland had the second most candidates (4); Russia (3) and Lithuania (2) had the least candidates.
In regard to age differences, as far as the available information tells, were of 17~19 year old. This agrees to the Competition Guidelines and all candidates were viable for further consideration.
Even though some candidates failed to provide information of their gender, the majority of candidates were female, suggesting an interesting notion of technological approach to literature being of no barriers to female representatives. In general, the topicality of novels reflects gender distribution. After the first evaluation Literature expert group noticed that female candidates ten to stress relationships, feelings and communication between men and women, while male candidates stressed the scientific and technical parts more frequently.
Amongst these works several were in the native language of respect authors, which made the evaluation process quite difficult.
Winning Novels
The seven winning novels were thoroughly evaluated by the Internal Evaluation Committee:
Franco Rustichelli (Italy);
Irena Baliulė (Lithuania);
Vanessa Gravina (Italy);
Frantiska Dorcakova (Slovak Republic).
After the final phase of evaluation the selected 7 winning novels were ranked 1 to 7 and this decided the ones that will be awarded.
The majority of authors that were selected by the Internal Evaluation Committee were from Italy (4), Poland had two selected authors and Lithuania only one. In regard to gender, 5 out of 7 winning authors were female and 2 were male.
The IEC had to evaluate 11 entries, coming from 4 countries: Poland, Italy, Czech Republic, Lithuania.
The 7 winners of the ILiterature category have been chosen among the 11 artworks received, and are (Deliverable 5.4):
L11: Agne Semenaite, “My Universe”, Lithuania
L1: Anna Stawiarska, “Never stop, don't turn back. Let's make the bulb light!”, Poland
L6: Lorenzo Maria Putti, “Life and time”, Italy
L2: Chiara Natali, “Gust of time”, Italy
L3: Francesca Barbazza, “I had a dream, no one would ever believe”, Italy
L4: Giovanni Miceli, “Whose son are you?”, Italy
L8: Marta Czurylo, “A Disease?”, Italy
The 7 winning novels was awarded at the Final Event in Grenoble, France on February 22nd, 2013 disseminated by WP7 channels and spread out via several media sources: the Project and other websites, social networks, newspapers, reports, etc. The competition winner from Lithuania was announced Agnė Semėnaitė from Vilnius (Lithuania).
At the Final Event University of Siauliai was represented by prof. V. Sidlauskiene, I. Baliulė and M. Gruslytė. The winner of Literature competition Agnė Semėnaitė and SU gymnasium, which won a 3rd place in Dance competition received a technical and other support, equipment to create their performances.
All WP6 activities and tasks were implemented on time throughout the RP1 and RP2 and without any deviations according Annex I.
DISSEMINATION
A crucial aim of ISWA was to generate an essential input of high educational quality to its artistic/scientific activities proposing an unusual relationship between art and science. Work package WP7 – for which UNINA was responsible – included those aspects of ISWA concerning the dissemination of the project and the educational issues correlated with the relationship between art and science.
In all phases of the project UNINA activities have been focused on two main issues: on the one side, a process of continuous reflection about the learning and teaching aspects of the artistic works produced within the project; on the other side, the constant effort in stimulating the collaboration and confrontation among all the actors (artists, scientists, students and teachers) involved, each with its own different role. Both this issue were dealt with having in mind two central ideas:
a) the artworks to be produced within ISWA do not have to reduce to teaching units aimed at making more effective understanding of scientific phenomena, but have on the contrary to stay focused especially on the commonalities shared by the processes of artistic and scientific production and to experiment these processes not only in their usual contexts (arts studios and research laboratories) but also in schools or museums, on the street or at home;
b) the activities of the project have to be based on experiencing (and reflecting on) the powerful opportunity offered by the involvement of intellectual and emotional processes, body and mind together, in fostering complex understanding of scientific concepts and, at the same time, in better living and in interpreting artistic works
These ideas were widely presented at ISWA month 4 in Deliverable D7.1 (Structure of educational materials and indications for artistic-scientific works ). Reflections, examples and criteria were shared within the consortium and have consistently allowed to frame the work of the second year according to the objectives of ISWA.
In order to achieve the objectives connected with the Task7.1 and Task7.2 the partnership has undertaken several actions under the coordination of UNINA. Artworks and tutorials were produced according to the indications contained in deliverable D7.1 and are intended to be used as the basis for the development of brand new educational resources exploiting the support of the indications contained in deliverable D7.7. Deliverable D7.5 (Educational materials for students and teachers for all artistic works) describes the main features of the educational materials inserted by UNINA on the ISWA website and presents the structure with which the material have been organized in order to make them easily accessible, especially for schools. The development and organisation of teaching materials on the ISWA website has been guided by two main objectives:
- providing for each of the five artistic areas a variety of forms of expression aimed at helping the users to grasp – in a non-pedantic way – the relationship between art and science;
- highlighting relevant issues in the artistic and scientific production in order to provide non-trivial ideas for the realization of original artworks in schools.
Keeping the directions outlined within the guidelines shared with all partners, the artworks have been intended as exemplary educational material for their very nature, giving the possibility of finding them in different paths and different styles for creatively express ideas, emotions and ways of involving the users. In order to facilitate the realization of original artworks by the students, the website also provided support materials to be used individually or in workshops organized by teachers in schools.
In order to exploit these artworks as educational materials, they have been widely presented on the project website (in the homepage sections devoted to the five artistic areas with the use multimedia resources (text, videos, interviews). For the promotion of future activities that will be inspired by the model of ISWA teachers and students can also refer to the guidelines, recommendations and models contained in ISWA deliverable D7.7.
Deliverable D7.1 was also devoted to describe in detail the features and potentialities of the EyesWeb platform, that was identified since the design phase of the ISWA project as one the main tools to be used in the development of the project educational activities. Videos, applets and tutorials have been published on the project website in order to allow teachers and students to use EyesWeb as an educational tool aimed at exploiting the scientific contents of their own artworks. During the promotion of the competitions the project website was used in order to disseminate the artworks and other educational tools (mainly those developed with the use of the EyesWeb platform) towards the ISWA community. The widest possible spreading of the educational materials has been pursued through the use of a number of communication tools and mainly by connecting the ISWA website with the main social networks worldwide. As described in another section of this report it was able to achieve with the materials produced, several thousand people.
In order to achieve the objectives connected with Task7.3 the partnership has undertaken several activities under the coordination of UNINA. The process and results for the assigned task are described in deliverables D7.6 and D7.7.
The Deliverable D7.6 (Analysis of scientific-artistic events and results of competitions) contains:
- the analysis of the works produced in different devoted phases of the project;
- the description of the activities related to European competition;
- the analysis of the questionnaire for students and educators;
- the list of dissemination activities carried out in the different countries involved.
The analysis concerns the works carried out with the involvement of artists, scientists and communicators in events open to students and the general public or resources published on the project website. In deliverable D7.6 UNINA describes only those works of art that are emblematic to highlight some aspects that allow the reader to reflect on the complex relationship between art and science. More specifically, the works of art have been analysed in order to establish a relationship between artistic and scientific production. This with the ambitious aim to highlight how these two modes of cultural production interfere in the production artwork. With the aim of emphasizing the impact of the artworks produced by some artists, two works of art created by students within the ISWA competition have also been analysed in detail in the deliverable. This last analysis enabled UNINA to highlight how students have reused the stimuli offered in the works already on the site.
In order to have some assessment of the events and online resources developed by the ISWA project, students and teacher-educators were administered questionnaires online. The questionnaires, one for students and one for teachers-communicators have been published on the project website:
(http://iswa.fisica.unina.it/index.php/if-you-are-a-student);
(http://iswa.fisica.unina.it/index.php/if-you-are-a-teacher).
In its first part, Deliverable D7.7 (Guidelines, recommendations and models to create art-science activities) describes the process that led - under the guidance of UNINA - to the definition of a model of intervention based on a few guidelines and recommendations resulting from what the consortium has learned during the two years of the project. In order to develop Task 7.3 the consortium implemented a structured process that started from the production and selection of artworks, went on through the production of works of art produced by students through the stimuli offered by the formers, and ended with an analysis of the process itself (and related products) with the aim to develop guidelines for the design of activities devoted to the exploration of the possible relationships between art and science. UNINA coordinated this process and promoted a continuous interaction between partners and stakeholders. In addition, each partner involved schools, museums, art institutions, as well as artists, scientists, teachers and local policy makers. The following step has been the definition of the rules and features of the call for the competition: the involved schools were invited to let groups of students to produce works having the same character of the artwork proposed as stimuli (i.e. joining art and science). At the end of a process in which all partners have offered feedback on the work done in the interaction with both the artists and schools (students and teachers), indications were collected concerning both specific and artistic contexts explored in the five thematic areas ISWA. The guidelines and recommendations contained in the deliverable want to offer elements of reflection to organise, both at national and at European level, future activities and projects on the relationship between art and science.
FINAL EVENT
The ISWA Final event has been held in Grenoble (France), in the occasion of the inauguration of the exhibition “Pixel Palette” at the Centre de Culture Scientifique, Technologique et Industrielle (CCSTI www.ccsti-grenoble.org/) the 21 February 2013.
This exhibition was opened on February 21 and run until April 21: it presented the 5 art works-winners of European sciences and art competition ISWA.
The 5 winners have been invited to Grenoble and presented their own artworks to the public during the inauguration. The winners of the Modern Dance category declined the invitation. They were represented by Alexandr Prokop
Imaging:
Silvana Limni, Rachele Moschetta, Greta Fiorio, Martina Lutterotti (Italy)
Cinema:
Johannes Ålander, Robert Crona (Sweden)
Literature:
Agné Semenaite (Litjuania)
Contemporary Art:
Kathrin Gusenbauer (Austria)
Plunged into an immersive and participatory scenery, the visitor will find a photographic work about light, a live amazing experience on nanotechnology and emotion, a video questioning of black holes and a poetic composition about feelings and the history of physics.
At the entrance, a giant pixel welcomes visitors. On its faces a multitude of images succeed in a slow rhythm at first, increasing rapidly. These images provide a non-exhaustive summary of the history of science, technology and arts. It raises the question of common ground between these disciplines.
The staging of the exhibition plays on a Science symbolized by a digital module, the pixel, which meets Art, traditionally associated with the color palette.
In the space of La Casemate between the stone walls, the palette rasterizes itself, widespreading printed colored pixels on human-silhouettes-totems. This visual theme underlines the uniqueness of the human species that, by the development of its thought, conceptualized tools and works transmitted from generation to generation in constant evolution.
In order to renewing its productions and its sight on the world, human being must innovate and innovating means being creative.
The ISWA winners’ artistic productions are revealing of a creativity in the service of explaining scientific phenomena.
The aim of the exhibition is to awaken the consciousness of each-one own creativity: a complex concept related to the act of conception, a gift of life. Here, we wish to give the power back to the imagination, showing by the image of young Europeans that every user can be creative.
For evidence, quotes from scientists, designers, architects, philosophers, & invite visitors to enjoy imagine.
"Nobody is obliged to be a genius, but everyone must participate," Philippe Starck (designer born in 1949)
"Imagination is not, as suggested by the etymology, the faculty of forming images of reality, it is the faculty of forming images which go beyond reality, which sing reality" Gastond Bachelard, Essay on imagination of matter, 1942
Finally, the visitor is led to take part in this discussion. A white wall on which is printed a brain prompted to leave a word, a picture of his representations of creativity.
Video shooting made by Antoine Ciceron and the pictures taken during the Event from Ilan Ginzburg http://www.ccsti-grenoble.org/02_programme.php?code_ana=PIXEL
Photos are avalaible here for download:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ccstigrenoble/sets/72157632851180301/
Credit Ilan Ginzburg
Videos: http://youtu.be/MBKQNcxCwpU
Before the opening of the exhibitions, the winners have been awarded by the ISWA coordinator at the “Café des Arts”, closed to the CCSTI.
Photos award ceremony:
https://picasaweb.google.com/ESRFPHOTOS/ISWAFinalEventGrenoble21Fevrier2013?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCI_Yy6uw5KDEcA&feat=directlink
Credit Chantal Argoud
All these links have been published in the ISWA website
The day was closed by an informal dinner with all participants to the event.
Potential Impact:
Some of the expected final results were already produced during the first year, as it was foreseen in the project. In fact, as it was recognized by the Independent Evaluation Committee, consisting of two scientists and two artists, the ISWA project engaged a large number of practitioners in a very high number of cultural events. This proves that the consortium has been well established, managed and has properly followed a plan of action. The first year of the project impressively fulfilled the promise of the proposal. A wide range of events was accomplished in the four artistic disciplines of the project, Modern Dance, Cinema, Contemporary Art and Imaging. These artworks were produced, as foreseen, by professional artists, scientists and persons with both these competences, under the coordination and sometime the direct involvement at creative level of the different partners of the project.
All the works produced in the first year had an impact both on the high school students and the general public, during the dissemination process performed in the second year when an overall number of few thousands persons, was experiencing the works itself. Moreover, all the works are on the website and as a consequence they will extend further their impact.
1) Modern Dance
a) In the discipline of Modern Dance several choreographies were produced in Czech Republic namely.H2CL2 AFM, Electrospinning, Enro-PI-cture and dance performance NANOPICTURE. The lattermost is an adaptation of set of choreographies depicting a fiction story of nanoscientist from a previous project of DEKKADANCERS and Tatabojs band. The ideation and selection of particular S&T topics was carried out hand in hand through series of creative workshops between dancers, choreographers and selected scientists from Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Chemical Technology, Technical University of Liberec and University of Pardubice. The final selection covered the following themes: chemoluminiscence, flurescence, photochemical reactions, atomic force microscopy, bionanotechnology, electrospinning of nanofibres, phenomenon of entropy, nanoscience and society.
b) Development of experimental science-art framework combining differed disciplines, media and activities to accompany the ballet choreographies with documentaries on execution of the ballet choreographies of Night in NanoPOLIS and interviews with participating scientists.
In order to develop complex dramaturgy and scenario of the show Night in NanoPOLIS professional dramaturgist, scenographer, light designer, musicians and visual artists were invited to the series of creative workshops. The ISWA exhibition Nanopolis at New Stage was designed in such a way that it helped to attract public attention to the show and allowed for organising accompanying synergistic events such as guided tours and seminars.
The choice of the Laterna Magica at New Stage was due to its international prominence as a dance scene with long tradition of experimental approaches combining dance, with projections/screening and light design.
In addition to presenting the choreography in the Czech Republic, a workshop and a dance performance was organized also in Vienna, together with the partner Vienna University of Technology.
c) A ballet "On the Way to immortality" inspired by the proliferation and differentiation of stem cells has been created by Prof. Rustichelli (UNIVPM) with the collaboration of the dance school DOCK11 (DOCK).
“On the way to immortality” is inspired by the movements of atoms, the vibrations of the molecules, the creation of life through cells, the proliferation and differentiation of stem cells, linking these phenomena to cognitive growth and, social and emotional development.
The Première took place on the 3-4 of June 2011 in Berlin with a short introduction by Franco Rustichelli, then the choreography has been presented in several other European cities.
Moreover, one of our ISWA partners, CBRAS, who hosted the performance in Moscow “offered” a choreography, performed by Anna Abalikhina in Moscow and Ancona.
/Asymmetrique Answer/ is first of all a union of creative artists fused by the wish to create. It`s a high-tech inter-junction project involving design, fashion, choreography, media arts, experimental programming.
2. Cinema
Realization of 7 short movies based upon scientific phenomena. The 7 short movies have been conceived and realized by UNIVPM. The general title is "Let's save the Professor". Each movie is based on a scientific topic, explained with examples related to everyday life. The texts of the movies have been written by Mario Stefanon and Franco Rustichelli, they have been directed by Italo Moscati, costumes have been realized by Giancarlo Colis, and CapitalVideo cared about production, montage and audio. The Italian actress Vanessa Gravina plays together with Franco Rustichelli.
In the beginning of second year the coordinator Franco Rustichelli spread the 7 movies together with the presentation of the project and of the competition for students in several schools through all Europe from Portugal to Russia, from Sweden to Malta (see below for details). In most of the town presentations of the movies were organized also for general audience.
Sometimes the presentations were repeated for different schools after the visit of the coordinator.
3. Contemporary Arts:
Tesla Union has organized 2 contemporary art exhibitions with the aim to present diverse approaches to the phenomenon of art and science and to showcase some of their contemporary forms using mix of traditional and new media. The locations for the exhibitions NanoSCOPE Redux and NanoPOLIS have been chosen to exemplify the duality of art & science and the links between the two. NanoSCOPE Redux took place at Art gallery GAMA established directly within heart of S&T environs oft the Faculty of Chemical Technology of the University of Pardubice, which is the largest art gallery of this kind in Czech Republic. NanoPOLIS was located at the New Stage of the National Theatre. Moreover audio –visual, photographic and textual documentation for dissemination activities were organized.
The SIMPLE partner organised the ‘Before the Crash’ exhibition at the Exeter Castle, Exeter, UK. The exhibition presented the use of new technologies such as 3D imaging, image analysis, rapid prototyping, computer simulation/modelling as artistic concepts as well as tools.
The exhibition "After the Crash" at Orto Botanico was organized in Rome by UNIVPM to show a large mosaic of science, encompassing Bio tech art, astronomy, meteorology, geology, nanotechnologies, climate changes, cell renewal, the culture of science, medicine, scientific collections, biodiversity and conservations as interpreted by international artists who have been studying its changes and transformations processes.
The ARSTIC partner has selected the authors for the exhibition ART AND SCEINCE, at the Auditorium of the University of Zaragoza.
4. Imaging:
ESRF took care of a production management for video sequences with a scientific content, in a format suitable for online distribution possibly also by social networks. The content of these video sequences was developed at a creative workshop at Lyon, which brought together scientists, artists and video production experts.
UTESLA took part in creative workshop at Lyon and subsequently visited ESRF. UTESLA contribute to (i) the development of the concept for utilization of young scientists as role models, (ii) concept of one-week residency of the artists at ESRF linked with development of documentary, (iii) selection of young artists (Nina Grunova and Jan Nalepa).
UTESLA presented the outcomes of the WP5 workshop/residency at ESRF including the artworks during the exhibition NanoPOLIS. UTESLA also supported the development of 2 artifacts coming from the ESRF residency by Jan Nalepa.
ESRF performed the production of the video sequences which originally was envisaged as an activity to be partially outsourced. The development of the scenarii lead to a choice of producing these videos in-house, using ESRF staff and suitable video shooting and editing equipment.
5. Literature:
The partner of the international ISWA project consortium – SU - Šiauliai University (Lithuania) – announced the call for the International Literature Competition.
A book Cosmicomics (first published in 1965 in Italian, since 1968 published in English, too) consisting of 12 stories by an Italian writer journalist, author of short stories and novels Italo Calvino (1923–1985) is the example of cognition of the truths of science through fiction; it resourcefully tells about evolution of the universe, playfully and acceptably opens the world of complex scientific ideas, concepts, phenomena.
On the basis of the reactions of the different audiences it is possible to conclude that the goal of communicating aesthetic and artistic emotions related to the understanding of several scientific phenomena was reached by using sometimes new expression languages as it was the case of the movies. However, a much extended and deeper impact at the level of the students was obtained when the competition was concluded and a large number of students through Europe did immerge for a more or less long time period in the science worlds, trying to produce works of artistic value.
It is clear that, in addition to the competing students, more or less directly or indirectly, not only several European teachers were involved in this cultural game, but also relatives and friends of the competing students themselves.
Moreover, the final event at Grenoble, near the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility where the winners of the competition received the prizes and the best works produced were exhibited, did constitute an occasion to further extend the impact of the project. The exhibition of these ISWA products will remain open during two months.
On the basis of previous considerations it is expected that the project will contribute to induce a better appreciation and interest for the science not only in the high school students but also in several sectors of the European society.
Concerning the evaluation of the socio-economic impact of the project one must start by recalling some concepts already considered above.
Actually science and the arts are nowadays generally developed in separate environments, in spite of the fact that the scientific discoveries always originate from creative and emotional processes similar to those underlying artistic productions.
There are in fact, only very few cases in which an artist has knowledge and experience in science, or a scientist is active in artistic fields (during the Renaissance, LEONARDO DA VINCI, for example).
This situation has contributed on one side to the progressive decline of the interest in science shown by young people all over Europe and on the other side led to the erroneous perception by adults of the importance of science in solving the problems of modern society, which has in turn led to unjustified fears and the replacement with alternative suggestions (sometimes also based in magic or the para-normal).
These facts are obviously detrimental for the future of EUROPE and in particular for the achievements of the goals of HORIZON 2020. It appears that the financial support of research alone may be insufficient to reach high-quality scientific and technological goals: it also appears necessary to stimulate the interest of most talented young people in scientific disciplines and also to generate confidence in science and scientists by the general public. We believed that one can attain this goal by showing that science is not a common job: it can be promoted by strong emotional components and personal ideals, just as what happens in artistic production.
To bridge the gap between SCIENCE and ART will thus contribute to improve the situation, because feelings and fascination stimulated by the arts are perceived with growing interest both by young students and by the public at large.
In fact he global dimension acquired by productive and financial actions is going to produce significant changes in European economy. Large part of the production has been delocalized to countries with lower labour cost and to preserve good life standard it is clear that Europe must increase its action in high technology and scientific discoveries.
It is obvious that it is true in general, but especially in this period of economic crisis, that the global market competition requires a big effort in innovation, especially for countries, like several European ones, which are lacking raw materials.
In other parts of the world young people that are aware to be talented in mathematics are strongly motivated to devote themselves to physics, engineering or informatics, as a possible way to escape low life conditions. In EU this motivation fails and most talented young people are induced to look for faster ways to achieve economic benefits: the impact of EU scientific and technologic production to world economy is than going to decay. The greatest incentive to the European scientific and technological development must be sought in the enthusiasm of the most talented high school students for science and technology.
The expected impact of the Project was exactly to reach this goal, as it is the fundamental way to improve the quality of our society.
What has been done up to now to disseminate the project products is clearly a small, first step only, but some of the produced works (as, for instance the seven movies on science) can become a new potential tool in the hands of motivated teachers. Ideas spread rapidly: they can grow, as a tree grows from its seed.
Another output of the project was the creation of a network of scientists and artists from different background and disciplines, who did exchange ideas for bridging the gap between the science and art and interacted with school teachers and students, by producing artworks appreciated through all Europe. Some of them prepared a proposal for other EU projects. There is no doubt that the creation of this network will have a positive impact for the future also by improving the creativity of scientists and by increasing the cultural level of the artists and by enlarging the choice of the subjects of the artworks, including modern scientific topics.
List of Websites:
www.iswaproject.eu
