LASER Talks in Ispra (JRC) Three Cultures: the potential for change when art, science and policy meet
A wealth of art + science projects are addressing topics of environmental importance. The cutting-edge ideas and experiments from the field hold great potential for transforming policy - but how does the message get across?
Moderated by: Ingeborg Reichle
EVENT INFO
When: 17/5/24 12h CET, Find your timezone here
Where: Online
Access Info: Join the meeting via Webex
A wealth of art + science projects are addressing topics of environmental importance. The cutting-edge ideas and experiments from the field hold great potential for transforming policy - but how does the message get across? How does art+science intersect with policy? This LASER session responds to the recent publication, "The Art + Science + Policy Nexus" by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge service. The publication's author, artist Kat Austen, will present an overview of current practice and discuss with a panel of experts how to foster exchange and transformation when policy and policymakers encounter art and science.
SPEAKERS BIO
Kat Austen is a person. In her artistic practice, she focusses on environmental issues. She melds disciplines and media, creating sculptural and new media installations, performances and participatory work. Austen’s practice is underpinned by extensive research and theory, and driven by a motivation to explore how to move towards a more socially and environmentally just future. Working from her studios in Seoul and Berlin, Austen is Artist in Residence at the Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences, University College London and Senior Teaching Fellow at UCL Arts and Sciences. With projects supported by Neustart Kultur, ZER01NE, Jeonju Millenium Hanji Museum and Creative Europe among others, she has held numerous residencies and fellowships including STARTS Residency Repairing the Present at Ars Electronica, EMAP / EMARE Artist in Residence at WRO Art Center 2020 and Artist Fellow at Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Austen has exhibited widley and her work is held internationally in public and private collections. She has performed around the globe, including at Opera North, UK; BALTIC, UK; Fusion Festival, Germany; Ars Electronica Festival, Austria and Headlands Center for the Arts, US. https://www.katausten.com/
Lucía Iglesias Blanco is a Forestry Engineer working at the Directorate-General for Environment. She has specialised in the management of protected areas and has been working at the Spanish National Parks Network for 15 years. In 2019 she moved to Brussels to work on the implementation of nature conservation policy (Habitats and Birds Directives). She is also involved in promoting the EU Natura 2000 network and its achievements through the Natura 2000 Award scheme, as well as the use of the Natura 2000 logo in goods and services. However, the challenges related to the implementation of the nature conservation directives at national level are occupying most of her daily work. When she is not working, she likes illustration and photography, and she enjoys dancing, playing and listening to music.
Philippe Kern is founder and managing director of KEA, a unique research centre and consultancy based in Brussels, specialising in advising territories and organisations on culture, and mediating between the cultural and creative sectors’ specificities and policy making. Kern initiates or manages high-profile European and international projects in research, peer review, strategic advice, association management, and consultancy on the creative, cultural, digital and sports economy. He is an expert adviser to the European Commission, the European Parliament, WIPO, the Council of Europe, the EIB/EIF, and numerous public and private organisations, from large multinationals to non-profit organisations.
He is a well-known guest speaker, writes blogs, and authored books documenting KEA’s activities. He teaches at the Kedge Business School (Paris) and the EPFL (Lausanne). Kern was the former Director of Public and Legal Affairs of PolyGram (now Universal) and head of the IFPI Brussels office. In 2000 Kern founded IMPALA - the association of independent music companies. Since 2019 he has been chairman of b.creative, an international association networking cultural and creative entrepreneurs worldwide. He graduated in law from Strasbourg and Paris universities and the College of Europe in Bruges.
Ingeborg Reichle, PhD, is a Berlin-based contemporary art historian and curator specialised in modern and contemporary art with a particular interest in art and science collaborations. In recent years she served as Full Professor in the Department of Media Theory at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, and as founding chair of the Department of Cross-disciplinary Strategies (CDS), designing an integrated BA study program on applied studies in art, science, philosophy, and global challenges. In 2022 she was a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, Germany, writing about art, science, sustainability and transformative studies. Before joining the faculty of the Department of Media Theory as full professor in 2016, she was FONTE professor at Humboldt University Berlin. Recent co-curatorial projects include the sci-art program NaturArchy at the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge service as well as the sci-art program NanoARTS by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. In 2022 she joined the Board of Trustees of the ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe and since 2023 she serves on the Board of Trustees of Fritz and Trude Fortmann Foundation for Building Culture and Materials based in Berlin.
Jutta Thielen-del Pozo is the advisor to the Strategy and Work Programme of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). She previously headed the JRC Scientific Development Unit that aims at developing programmes that close gaps for the organisation and incubate innovative ideas, such as the JRC SciArt project. Jutta holds a Master’s Degree in Meteorology from the University of Karlsruhe and a PhD in Environmental Physics from the University of Lancaster. She dedicated her scientific career to high impact weather and flood forecasting, joining the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in the year 2000.
SPONSORS
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) is the Commission’s science and knowledge service and provides independent scientific advice and support to EU policy, in order to tackle the interlinked and complex challenges faced by our society. Operating at the interface between science and policy, the JRC wants to strengthen its capacity to be a key partner in helping to identify solutions to such challenges.Its Science and Art project (SciArt) brings together scientists with artists and policymakers to discuss matters of concern, not only to the JRC and the European Commission but also more widely to society. It brokers, curates and communicates transdisciplinary exchanges and encounters around given topics of interest. It operates on a bi-annual cycle, Resonances, during which the topics are elaborated jointly by artists and scientists. https://resonances. jrc .ec.europa.eu/front
The Leonardo/ISAST LASERs are a program of international gatherings that bring artists, scientists, humanists and technologists together for informal presentations, performances and conversations with the wider public. The mission of the LASERs is to encourage contribution to the cultural environment of a region by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building to over 50 cities around the world. To learn more about how our LASER Hosts and to visit a LASER near you please visit our website. @lasertalks
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