You are invited to join us for this year’s Open Window series—a series of online public talks aimed at giving the outside world a moment to connect with the institute’s internal, topic-based intensive sessions.
A Digital Community Memory About the Societal Impact of Climate Change: The Case of Aquagranda with Carlo Romano Marcello Alessandro Santagiustina, Costanza Sartoris, And Giulia Saya
Understanding socio-natural events requires a multidisciplinary approach that captures the intricate relationships between human societies and natural phenomena. The AquaGranda project, launched in 2020, exemplifies this by integrating science, art, and community engagement to document the impact of climate change, particularly rising sea levels, on Venice and its lagoon. The case of AquaGranda will demonstrate how digital memory can be a powerful tool for understanding and addressing the societal challenges of our time caused by climate change and rising sea levels, promoting a constructive dialogue on the future of Venice and other coastal areas.
One and More Than Three Chairs: On Image-Based AI and Invisual Literact with Geoff Cox
How has visual literacy been transformed by developments in image-based AI? How are dominant worldviews reinforced differently through visual culture today, and what kind of literacy applies, if at all? To what extent are the relations between words and images transformed by computational processes and prompts, and what are the implications for artistic and critical practices? Through Kosuth’s conceptual artwork One and Three Chairs from 1965 as point of departure Geoff’s talk explores these questions in relation to widely available commercial releases of generative AI tools, such as text-to-image models that use deep learning methodologies to generate digital images from natural language description.
With a background in photography, Geoff’s interests have evolved into image politics more broadly, and particularly concerning developments in image-based and generative AI. This includes engaging with new ways of seeing and the wider considerations of infrastructures through which images are produced and circulated, how the networked image can be understood as a relational assemblage to address wider ecologies. Furthermore, he is interested in publishing as an artistic medium, and experimental approaches that exploit the creative and political potential of computation. Geoff Cox is Professor of Art and Computational Culture at London South Bank University (UK), where he is co-Director of Centre for the Study of the Networked Image (CSNI).
Fleeting Space with Gyungju Chyon
Humans regulate indoor environments—such as heat, humidity, and light—to enhance comfort and safety. Some spaces must maintain consistent conditions year-round to protect valuable contents, despite external weather variations. However, indoor environments are not entirely isolated from external fluctuations; airflow and light can vary. Sometimes, we notice these changes, while other times, they are so subtle that they go unnoticed. The Fleeting Space focuses on shifting, fleeting atmospheric phenomena such as light reflection, refraction, shadow, air movement, heat, sound, and smell.
Gyungju Chyon’s work focuses on relationships between designed things and environments through engaging natural phenomena and exploring materialities. She is interested in delving beyond technological performance, seeking deeper and meaningful connections between things, environment and people for our health, well-being, and ecological living. Through her design studio Little Wonder, partnered with Dr. John Sadar, she interpolates between art, installations and product design. Little Wonder has collaborated with international companies such as Rosenthal (Germany), Interface (USA), Duravit (Germany), Emotis (France), and Lucifer Lighting (USA). Her work has been globally exhibited in venues in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, and has been published both in design magazines such as I.D, Metropolis and Domus, and academic publications through conferences, journals and books. Gyungju is a professor of Spatial Design at Monash in Melbourne.
Alternative Reality Gardening with Maggie Buxton
In this presentation, Dr Maggie Buxton offers a critical analysis of Alternative Reality Gardening—a project facilitated by her company, AwhiWorld in Whangārei, New Zealand. The initiative explored the intersections between digital arts, ecological sustainability, and social innovation. Dr. Buxton will discuss the methodologies and outcomes of merging traditional and emerging technologies in creative practices through a retrospective examination. This analysis will include a review of the diverse contributions from local and international artists, scientists, space researchers, farmers, psychotherapists, and others who collaborated. Highlighting the project’s role as a catalyst for social ínnovation and transdisciplinary practice, the talk will also examine the broader implications of such innovative approaches for academic research and artistic production. Attendees will learn how transdisciplinary strategies can challenge conventional perspectives and foster novel solutions to contemporary global issues.
Dr. Maggie Buxton is a transdisciplinary practitioner, creative entrepreneur, and social innovator with over thirty years of experience at the intersection of social change, technology, and creative practice. Holding a PhD from AUT-Colab focusing on augmented and geo-locative mobile technologies, Maggie is committed to fostering resilience and innovation across global communities.
About Transart
Since 2004 Transart Institute for Creative Research has been the foremost developer of low-residency, interdisciplinary, international creative research programs. Designed and run entirely by artists, the Institute offers a practice-based PhD, generating space for creativity, experimentation and radical thinking in every form. We champion self-directed, curious, flexible and socially engaged creative researchers working independently or collectively.
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