An exhibition of digital art in Sant Pau and a large participatory installation by Refik Anadol and Maurice Benayoun are among the new additions to ISEA2022 Barcelona

ISEA2022 Barcelona, the 27th International Symposium on Electronic Art, completes its programme with the inclusion of the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau as an exhibition space, featuring an international display of digital art including works by Thierry Fournier, Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss and a mapping which will pay tribute to Quebec, the host of the previous edition of the symposium. The arrival in Barcelona of DïaloG, the large-scale participatory installation by Refik Anadol and Maurice Benayoun, completes an edition of the symposium in which the programme opens up to the public.

These links with the local community take the form of around fifty activities programmed in partnership with visual arts institutions, design schools, museums, art centres, secondary schools and scientific and technological institutions. And rounding things off, from 10:30 p.m. onwards on the night of 15 June, ISEA2022 Barcelona will be offering a drone show by Flock Drone Art Barcelona, open to the public at Barcelona's Somorrostro beach. Combining technology, lights and electronic music, a series of synchronized drones will provide an aerial show featuring unique shapes and figures for the first time in the city of Barcelona.

Organized by the UOC, in partnership with the CCCB, Santa Mònica, the MACBA, the New Art Foundation, the new art, science and technology hub Hac Te, Barcelona City Council (through Barcelona Science and Universities and the Institute of Culture), the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Catalonia, and the Institut Ramon Llull, ISEA2022 Barcelona combines research with artistic expression, and includes round table discussions, workshops, performances and exhibitions open to the public. The bulk of the programme will take place between 10 and 16 June, although some of the activities will continue afterwards.

ISEA is one of the longest-running annual international events, and acts as a meeting point for exploring the direct intersection between art, design, science, technology and society. After more than ten years away from Europe, this summer Barcelona is hosting a new edition, reinforcing the city's leadership in research, scientific production and artistic and cultural creativity.

The Symposium will bring together the community of experts in art, science and technology while making the projects accessible to the public

ISEA2022 Barcelona invites you to contribute to the growing debate on our world of "Possibles", the Symposium's central theme, in multiple formats including 140 presentations by experts, 45 institutional presentations, 40 talks by artists, 23 screenings, 18 posters and demos, 16 round table discussions, 13 workshops and 13 performances, all from the open call launched over a year ago, which received 1,100 proposals. In addition to these formats, more than 80 works are involved in the ISEA2022 Barcelona exhibition project. The CCCB and the MACBA will be the main focal points for an international community of experts in art, science and technology who will be addressing topical issues including the creative capacity of artificial intelligence, the possibilities of immersive experiences, the imaginary of biotechnology in the arts, the challenges surrounding climate change, and new ways of addressing education, as well as our cultural legacy.

The highlights of the programme open to the public include the appearance of DïaloG in CCCB, at Plaça de Joan Coromines, from 11 to 18 June. This large-scale interactive installation by Refik Anadol and Maurice Benayoun emerged from the European project MindSpaces by S+T+Arts, and is a performative exploration of the themes of otherness, strangeness and immigration. The work presents two pieces which are both works of art and alien, and have to face a new environment to which they do not belong. They must adapt their language, construct shared knowledge and integrate all the new mechanisms and natural phenomena that constitute their current environment, including the audience. DïaloG is a reflection on the difficulty involved in building a mutual understanding that goes beyond social and cultural differences. It endeavours to capture the emergence of the work of art as a subject which is not only able to learn from its environment, but also able to engage in a dialogue with its audience.

Expanding the program open to the public, the CCCB, the epicenter of the Symposium, will host four keynote speeches at its Theater by leading figures in their respective fields: Olga Goriunova, academic and curator in the fields of digital arts and cultures; Joan Fontcuberta, internationally renowned photographer and conceptual artist; Christl Baur, head of the prestigious Ars Electronica Festival; and Ricard Solé, expert in complex systems analysis and synthetic biology.

On 11 and 12 June the CCCB and the CERC will be the venues for workshops in which the participants will use code and software to experiment with the synergies between natural phenomena, the body and technology, and create immersive experiences. On the evening of 13, 14 and 15 June, it will be the turn of performances at the CCCB, with musical and audiovisual projects involving live coding or coding based on artificial intelligence algorithms.

At the same time, on 10 and 11 June, the MACBA, as part of the Possible Archives project, will be hosting one of the most important events of ISEA2022 Barcelona – the Second Summit on New Media Art Archiving. This international summit will be an incubator for innovative ideas, production techniques and infrastructure development, and help connect people with like-minded ideas in an effort to create a unified approach to solving the complex problem of preserving the history of art of new media.

In addition, throughout the symposium, the exhibition hall of the Convent dels Àngels will host Transfers (Knowledge Networks and Public Activities), a space where work sessions and project presentations will take place, which is open to public initiatives including the Open Archives of Living Culture (Barcelona City Council) and features a number of historical memory projects (oral, audiovisual, etc.) related to the Raval neighbourhood. Within the framework of ISEA2022 Barcelona, it will also host more than thirty talks by international artists, an interactive workshop that invites those attending to play in a technological space, a performance in which household objects become musical instruments, and a round table discussion addressing innovative ways in which museums can become collaborative spaces.

This programme from the open call is joined by the Canòdrom, which will be hosting round table discussions on 16 June, featuring international experts who will be talking about issues including cryptocurrencies and the digital arts and the STEAM approach in higher education.

The Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau joins the ISEA2022 Barcelona exhibition series, which includes more than 80 digital works of art

ISEA2022 Barcelona brings together a marvellous and extensive display of pieces that are located at the convergence between art, science and technology, with more than 80 works including immersive installations, interactive and online works, sound art, animations, mapping and a drone show. This exhibition is a dialogue between works by international authors and around twenty Catalan artists, and pieces from the open call are interspersed with other digital art collections. In addition to the previously announced exhibitions at Santa Mònica, La Capella and Cal Massó, there will be a fourth display at the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau.

Modernisme is a cross-disciplinary movement with international echoes, which has accommodated all kinds of artists and crafts in order to make their ideas a reality, challenging the limits of the possible. Taking this interdisciplinary and experimental legacy and transporting it to the codes of the 21st century, digital art reflects this same spirit, bringing together artists, scientists and technologists to build new possible worlds.

Combining these two concepts, from 9 to 30 June Sant Pau will be the venue for the exhibition entitled Possibles, featuring five outstanding works from the ISEA2022 Barcelona call. These include Sightseeing, the CCTV camera by Thierry Fournier which reflects aloud on its own burnout; Liquid Views, a digital mirror created by the pioneers Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strausson, which will enable the audience to undergo a narcissistic experience surrounded by waves, and Quantum Chaos Set, an experimental piece by Paul Thomas which explores the creation of a visual and audible expression of quantum chaos. The exhibition will be completed by Particle, by Alex Posada (the winning project of one of the ISEA2022 Barcelona grants) and twenty digital works of art by the New Art Foundation, with new additions by leading international artists including Marnix de Nijs, Chico MacMurtrie-ARW, Weidi Zhang, and major works including M3X3 by Analivia Cordeiro, and The Endless Sandwich by Peter Weibel.

In addition to this exhibition, on 14, 15 and 16 June Sant Pau will host the mapping Cité Mémoire by the artists Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon in collaboration with Michel Marc Bouchard. This projection, with the suport of the Bureau du Québec à Barcelone, pays tribute to Quebec, the guest of honour at ISEA2022 Barcelona, as the previous edition, ISEA2020 Montreal, had to be held entirely online.

The Santa Mònica arts centre will host the main exhibition of ISEA2022 Barcelona, which will open at 7 p.m. on 9 June, and will be open to the public until 21 August. Entitled The irruption, the exhibition will be curated by Marta Gracia, Jara Rocha and Enric Puig Punyet, and will feature 32 works of art – 23 pieces from the ISEA2022 Barcelona public call selected in conjunction with Santa Mònica, 2 pieces donated by the New Art Foundation and 7 works acting as itineraries for the exhibition. The irruption will present works by leading international and local artists including Robertina Šebjanič, Lauren Lee McCarthy, Eric Berger, Joan Soler-Adillon and Andy Gracie. This series of pieces and projects investigates the ecological, climate and social crisis that we are experiencing from various standpoints. Following Arts Santa Mònica's new approach, which encourages horizontal participation, discursive itineraries will emerge while the exhibition lasts through multi-level participation and the involvement of the centre's communities of resident artists.

La Capella will also be hosting an exhibition creating a dialogue between works by five local artists (Josep Manuel Berenguer, Anna Carreras, Mónica Rikic, Roc Parés and Yolanda Uriz), which were all submitted for the ISEA2022 call, and works by artists from Barcelona Producció (Anna Pascó, Ariadna Parreu, Mario Santamaría and Estampa). The exhibition is an intersection between content arising from the two centre's main themes. It brings together a number of leading artists working in emerging artistic currents while also fostering an intense generational exchange in the context of Barcelona. What Is Possible and What Is Not is also a challenge to the opportunities presented by technological breakthroughs.

The Santa Mònica and La Capella exhibitions will be presented in a joint press conference at 11 a.m. on 9 June, attended by the curators and artists.

In addition to these three exhibitions in Barcelona, the exhibition project will also travel to Reus as part of the extension of the programme to the entire country. The Beep Collection returns to its home town with a new exhibition curated by Roberta Bosco and Stefano Caldana, entitled Origins, which will be on display in the Centre d'Art Cal Massó. It features an ambitious selection of new projects and foundational works of international electronic art by leading artists including Joan Fontcuberta, Marcel·lí Antúnez and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. The exhibition, which is open to visitors until 23 July, includes RAIN BEATS by Josecarlos Flórez, a new production made possible by a grant from the Reddis Private Foundation in Reus, which will be on display for the first time.

After the opening of the exhibition (at 7 p.m. on 26 May), the artist Alba G. Corral will present a mapping on the facade of the Casa Navás Modernista building.

More than 50 activities involve the local community in the programme

This 27th edition of ISEA includes an unprecedented involvement by the local community in the programme, with the support of Barcelona City Council. To make this extension and consolidation possible, Barcelona's new Art, Science and Technology hub Hac Te has created connections between around fifty organizations in Barcelona and Catalonia by promoting synergies between institutions in various areas and aligning their programming with projects from the open call by ISEA2022 Barcelona.

The result is exhibitions, workshops, outdoor projects, guided tours, round table discussions and talks by artists and projects in schools, taking place in four areas: the artistic, museum and archival, scientific, and educational spheres, which will be happening all over Catalonia. With this project, Hac Te aims to gather the legacy from ISEA2022 Barcelona and to consolidate the links begun through the symposium, exploring common languages and structures and enhancing the project's cross-disciplinary spirit.

In the museum and archiving sphere, the participants include the MACBA, Hangar – the centre for artistic production and research, and Graner – the centre for the creation of dance and living arts, in the Second Summit on New Media Art Archiving, which will be sharing experiences, ideas and techniques about new archives with other international organizations and professionals. This area also includes the Library Network, with two travelling exhibitions on the ethics of machines and science fiction, and a series of lectures with experts via Instagram.

In the artistic field, there is the partnership with Sónar, which involves the presentation of a joint programme. Within this programme, ISEA2022 Barcelona is participating in SónarÀgora, the Sónar+D training and debate space for artists and professionals, while Sónar is co-presenting three series of screenings on topics including gender, the environment, human rights and human-machine relations. This partnership aims to reinforce the synergies between the academic and research-focused community and artists and their audiences.

This area also includes the programming with ESPRONCEDA – Institute of Art & Culture, which will be organizing an exhibition featuring digital art installations and workshops in collaboration with Spanish and international artists and institutions including Solimán López from 10 to 18 June. On 10 June, Casa Amèrica hosts Tortuous Drift, a performance by Karla Brunet which contains moving images and sounds recorded in selected places in the Mediterranean that recreate drifting on the sea.

Remaining in the scientific sphere, there is an emphasis on dialogues between artists and scientists and people with a hybrid profile, while research processes involving citizen science projects are established. An example is the series of talks, workshops and presentations that will take place in the Gardens of the Muñoz Ramonet Foundation, where a dialogue on quantum and art will also take place in collaboration with the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO). The programming of the summer dialogues will also bring together the performing artists involved in the ZIP festival at the National Theatre of Catalonia and professionals working in scientific research and outreach.

Another unusual activity is the concert entitled Sons en causa by the Orquestra del Caos taking place in the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), which can be heard on 15 June. This project records the sound heritage of some Latin American cultural environments in pieces chosen by artificial intelligence and these provide the basis for a multi-focal installation with eight loudspeakers. An outreach session for schools will be available with visits to the installation. Other highlights include the participation of the BIST (Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology) with two of the works exhibited in Sant Pau by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC).

Finally, in the educational sphere, on 10 June EINA joins the programme with a workshop from the ISEA2022 Barcelona open call entitled Texture Beyond Type by Giorgia Scavo and Angelo Stitz, which invites the participants to use a text editor as a tool to create visual textures using typographic symbols. It will also host the installation Birding the Future, by Krista Caballero and Frank Ekeberg, in which birdsong will warn viewers of environmental change. EINA joins the Barcelona design schools that are collaborating with ISEA2022 Barcelona: La Llotja, IED and ESDi.

These confirmations are in addition to those announced in early April, and include collaborations with institutions such as CosmoCaixa, Sala Beckett, Mercat de les Flors and FAD (Foment de les Arts i el Disseny).

New ideas across Catalonia

With projects promoted or co-organized by the Catalan Ministry of Culture, ISEA2022 Barcelona aims to roll out the event across Catalonia in order to provide access to digital art and culture all over the country. In specific terms, in addition to the activities previously announced in Bòlit (Girona) and El Mèdol (Tarragona) and the exhibition in Cal Massó (Reus), there are new projects taking place in six towns in Catalonia. The first event will take place on 31 May at ACVic (Vic), where the digital artist Anna Carreras will give a talk on generative and interactive art and the work processes involved in these disciplines.

Highlights of this extension of the programme include performances by Spanish and international artists. On 4 June, Lo Pati (Terres de l'Ebre) will be presenting Orbit #3, by Núria Nis & Citlali Hernández, the result of a mixture of languages of the live arts, live cinema and livestreaming tools. On 10 June, M|A|C Mataró Art Contemporani (Mataró) will be hosting The Pregnancy Sense. Concert by a Cyborg Family, by Moon Ribas and Quim Girón, in which the audience will be able to hear the embryo's heartbeat through the bodies of the artists. And on 11 June it will be the turn of KONVENT (Berga), with We Move Together or Not At All by Sasha Kleinplatz, a choreographed installation in the form of a greenhouse full of plants with a dancer moving in the centre that will create performance scores designed to increase the temperature, humidity, smells and bacteria.

At the same time, on 11 and 12 June, PLANTA (Balaguer) will be hosting the installation entitled CALL OUT by Abel Korinsky and Orhan Kavrakogl, which was recently awarded the ISEA2022 Barcelona grant by the Sorigué Foundation, and invites us to reflect on efforts to reclaim space as private property. In Mid-June, the Sala Tecla (L'Hospitalet de Llobregat) will host a four-handed guided tour of the exhibition The Middays of Afeli, in which the artist will present the exhibition accompanied by a scientist.

In October, La Panera (Lleida) will host a collective exploration with Internet Tour by Mario Santamaría, inviting the visitor to discover the physical infrastructure of the internet, while visiting the places through which our emails, likes and comments travel.

The complete programme of ISEA2022 Barcelona is available at: https://isea2022.isea-international.org.
To register for the paid activities of the Symposium, visit the following link: https://isea2022.isea-international.org/registration.