Reviewer biography

Current Reviews

Review Articles

Book Reviews Archive

Disonancias: Joint Research Project between International Artists and R&D&I Units Located in the Basque Country

by Grupo XABIDE, Víctor Iriarte, Editors
Actar D, Barcelona , Spain, 2007
226 pp.  Paper, 19.99 (Spain)
ISBN: 978-84-935693-1-0.

Reviewed by José-Carlos Mariátegui
Alta Tecnología Andina (Lima, Peru) and London School of Economics and Political Science (London, UK)
 
jcm@ata.org.pe

There are many ways in which organizations, mainly from the private sector are trying to innovate by the use of artists or other ‘external’ people (or consultants) that might come with a new perspective towards a problem and generate, through means of interaction, some innovation.  But when we talk about an innovation, it should be taken into consideration that it might not only be a product, but also a way of inquiry or a process that helps or promotes new ideas.

Disonancias has been running since 2005 (priory know as “Divergentes”) as a project of interaction between artists and industries from the Basque country in Spain.  In the context of this project, there is a question that wants to be answered: How companies may innovate in new ways, promoting what is usually defined in business terms as a ‘competitive advantage’.  At the same time, the different products emerging from the knowledge economy are predominantly cultural formations, for which there is a need of new creative approaches.  The concept is that acting as an agent provocateur could stimulate new chances and ideas that even anticipates future requirements.  The idea is to build up new sceneries that are associated with dynamic opportunities that emerge today within some competitive areas, particularly in knowledge-intensive industries.  There is, however, something particular about this exercise to promote innovation: there is an understanding that it is an experiment and that something may fail; therefore, the outcome is not measured in what the company gets as a product, but what does both the company and the artist get as an overall experience in terms of process.  The book itself is the documentation of the projects as well as some texts that discuss about artists-enterprises collaborations.  Cecilia Anderson, in one of these texts, asserts when she mentions that certain aspects of the collaboration are imposed and therefore an agreement that may be defined as the point of departure for a particular cooperation.

The artists selected come from all over the world, which again is an extra point towards diversity that usually promotes innovation.  The artists selected were: David Cuartielles, Björn Wahlström (Multi-sensorial building evacuation), Alejandra Pérez, Yves Degoyon (Multimedia integration at a newspaper), Saoirse Higgins (data transfer to mobile devices), Kadambari Baxi, Maureen Connor (Applications for laminate), Birzikla (applications for recycled plastic), Stéphanie Davidson (new concepts in street furniture), Federica Matelli (presentation of food products), Olga Kisseleva (safe environments for the disabled), Paulo Correa da Silva (Multiemdai content for augmented reality) and Itxaso Díaz (documentary formats).

The book may be considered as overly designed, distracting the reader from both the articles and the works; in comparison the DVD that complements the publication is extremely clear and well edited.  It makes evident not only the initial expectations of both artists and the companies were completely different but also explains in a very simple way the process and the premier intentions and how they drifted to unforeseen consequences, many of them frustrating for both parties.  Overall, the result seems inspiring and worth the try.