AIR for European Resilience, a project of the S+T+ARTS Regional Centres initiative, is an initiative led by the Media Solution Center BW that proposes, through the creation of a consortium of 8 partners from 5 different European countries, the creation of 4 S+T+ARTS Regional Centres in Germany, Spain, Italy and Slovenia. The novelty lies in making available, for the first time, the technology and knowledge of two of the most important supercomputing centres in Europe. These four regional centres will be established as hubs with not only local but also international dimension, bringing together artists, industry, citizens and policy stakeholders, among others. Through 10 residencies, collaborative experiments, and artistic exploration, the initiative aims to unlock the transformative potential of the cultural sector, foster critical thinking, and offer fresh perspectives on the future of our society in the face of technological advancements and environmental changes.
REGIONAL S+T+ARTS Centres | AIR
First collaborative workshop
The starting point of the project is a collaborative workshop carried out during May 2023 in which different representatives of each member of the consortium formed by MSC, PINA, SONY, IN4ART, RCR, ERSTE, and EPICA have participated. The aim of the meeting is to define new languages, the rules and the proper environment in which this horizontal collaboration between science, technology and the arts will take place, which is the general objective of the project.
These co-creation sessions, which have involved more than 20 people, have worked to define and create the programme of activities that will be developed in the 4 S+T+ARTS Regional hubs, as well as the challenges that will serve as a framework for the 10 art-driven innovation residencies that will form part of the project.
The AIR concept
Air extends beyond the invisible substance we breathe. It encompasses both visible and invisible elements, complementing our senses and connecting us to our surroundings. It acts as a warning system, heightening our perception of danger and evoking deep emotions through scent. Air allows sound to exist and has a tactile connection with our bodies, in particular our hair and skin.
Air has played a vital role in verbal communication, the development of language and logical thinking, laying the foundations for scientific and technological progress. This dynamic has allowed humans to translate intricate processes into symbolic representations, making the unseen visible. Through the integration of science, technology, and art, we aim to create challenges that bridge these realms of knowledge, fostering a deeper understanding of the diverse realities and concepts intertwined with the air.
We invite creative and artists to participate in the S+T+ARTS AIR Residencies, which deepen the multifaceted nature of AIR and its profound significance in our lives.
AIR Residencies: Open Call
The project makes available a residencies programme focused on two main themes: Resilient interspecies urban ecosystems and Human AI Ecosystems, presenting a unique opportunity for artists to collaborate at the intersection of art, science, and technology. AIR will support and host 10 artists through the residencies between December 2023 and October 2024, distributing a total amount of 400,000 eur.
For artists interested in joining AIR as a resident artist, the project consortium offers access to the technologies and know-how of two of Europe’s leading supercomputing centers (HLRS in Stuttgart and BSC in Barcelona), SONY Computer Science Laboratories in Rome, HEKA lab & KUBER in Koper, Slovenia, and the artistic expert organizations Fundación ÉPICA La Fura dels Baus from Badalona, Media Solutions Center (MSC) from Stuttgart, In4Art from Rotterdam and RCR Architects from Barcelona.
The S+T+ARTS AIR Residencies aim to have a lasting impact on the artistic community, as well as the broader public. Artists will be encouraged to actively participate in workshops, exhibitions, and public events, sharing their creative processes and engaging with diverse audiences.
Check the guide for applicants here, and the complete project information here.
The deadline for applications opened on 12 July and ended on 22 September.
AIR Residencies: The artists
After a matchmaking process conducted between October and November 2023, involving 20 preselected artists out of more than 90 proposals, only 10 were ultimately chosen to participate in the Residency program. Below are the details of the resident artists:
Antoine Bertin is an artist working at the intersection of science and sensory immersion, field recording and sound narration, data and musical composition. His creations take the form of auditory experiences, moments of immersion, and sound meditations that explore our relationships with the living world. The project Bertin proposes, “Making Invisible Conversation Visible,” investigates the informational, relational, and essential nature of air through bioacoustic research and artistic exploration. It approaches air as an acoustic medium of interspecies relations, using digital listening to give a voice to biodiversity, not just to humans. This project aims to harness digital acoustics—a crossroads between field recording and artificial intelligence (AI)—to deepen our understanding of urban environments, focusing on the interactions between non-human species, urban systems, and human inhabitants. Digital acoustics offers us the opportunity to dream of deciphering the conversations of other species.
Uncharted Limbo Collective is a team of creative coders and visual artists based in Athens and London who share a background in architecture but have expanded to develop creative projects using cutting-edge digital tools.
As part of this residency, the collective presents “Monolith,” a project that investigates communication between humans and digital beings in artistic and performative contexts. Beyond unidirectional reactivity, the collective proposes a machine capable of acting alongside humans on equal terms. To achieve this, the residency will explore a new type of performer, with an artificial mind and a decentralized body, that exhibits sensitive behavior: reflecting on its own actions and, most importantly, understanding, anticipating, and provoking the reactions of its human co-performers.
Filippo Nassetti is an artist and computational designer, architect, and researcher. Nassetti combines disciplines such as architecture, product design, and landscape architecture in his work, relating research on organic form, computational methods, new media, and advanced manufacturing technologies. Notable in Filippo’s career is his work at Zaha Hadid Architects and Zaha Hadid Design (ZHD). Nassetti proposes “Breathing Architecture”, a project that rethinks the internal structures of the body as artistic subjects, developing new visual languages and aesthetics, driven by advanced technology, and expanding beyond the strictly medical and functional perspectives with which they are often viewed. By selecting and structuring information, beauty becomes functional in allowing interpretation, memory, and connection.
Filippo Gregoretti is a multidisciplinary artist, architect, and software engineer, as well as a university professor of Transmedia Design. His artistic exploration has largely focused on the creative and spiritual relationship between artificial and human consciousness. The project Gregoretti is undertaking during this residency, “Togetherness – Samāsana,” investigates the relationships between humans and artificial entities, as well as among humans, focusing on unconscious and emotional levels. The core of the research is related to visual arts and music as a means of expression to foster emotional connections with algorithms, artificial intelligence, and the infosphere. The desired outcome is to find further answers to some of the underlying questions driving Gregoretti’s artistic research: Is it possible to find an emotionally comfortable and close sense with artificial beings? Can artistic expression, co-creation, and performance be the keys to perceiving algorithms as benign entities?
Jonathan Chaim Reus is a musician and transdisciplinary artist known for his use of experimental technologies in his performances. He has developed an exceptionally intimate electronic sound practice that combines improvisational approaches with traditional folkloric elements and futuristic trends. Reus proposes the project “DADAsets,” conceived as a response to the cultural and economic ecosystem of voice AI and voice data that is rapidly transforming the meaning and function of voice. The project investigates the development of open digital musical tools and customized voice datasets that challenge popular narratives and agendas surrounding voice AI, which focus on the spectacle and fears around technological outcomes, such as digital clones that perfectly reproduce the voice of a famous narrator or pop singer.
Maria Arnal Dimas is an artist, composer, and performer based in Barcelona. Her work is grounded in historical exploration and collaborative vocal expression, which she combines with AI methods, resulting in a harmonious fusion of art and activism. Her exploration of collective singing and choral elements, intertwining them with technology and AI-generated sound datasets, fosters a powerful connection between humans and non-humans. The recurring theme of collective creativity, empathy, and community bonds as crucial responses to social challenges is a constant element in her artistic portfolio and in her art and science projects. “An Artistic Research on Modeling Voices” is the project Arnal is developing during this residency. Beyond exploring voice synthesis and timbre transfer, the project aims to create a model of models, a customizable digital voice that can serve as both a musical and digital instrument capable of reproducing all the possibilities of a human voice, with applications as limitless as a synthetic voice.
Michail Rybakov, visual artist and researcher, explores movement in everyday life. He questions its logic, how it conditions us, and how to understand the choreography of movement. He has studied new media art and industrial design at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, Germany. “The Body and The City” is the name of the project Rybakov is undertaking during this residency. The project focuses on exploring personal space in cities. How much personal space is available to city dwellers? Where can people go, and where do they go? What is personal space, and how do people negotiate personal space in crowded places where there isn’t enough room? The project explores the concept of personal space and the situations that affect it in urban environments, and how to make these experiences visible, showing among other things how certain places and/or situations affect personal space.
With a solid background in music, contemporary dance, and real-time graphics, Natan Sinigaglia creates canvases where languages lose their boundaries and share forms and meanings. The results of his artistic practice encompass live audiovisual performances, digital artworks, and interactive, immersive multisensory installations. His career is deeply influenced by the search for organic meaning within the digital medium, aiming to perfectly integrate technology into traditional forms of expression. “Symbody,” his project during this residency, explores the complex connections between human body movement and sound synthesis to unravel the multifaceted aspects of human movement. The project aspires to extend its influence beyond the boundaries of art, venturing into significant realms of scientific research and social progress. “Symbody” aims to reveal the dynamic interaction between bodily movements and sound through the creation of a customizable and adjustable toolkit.
The artist Richard Vijgen translates the invisible and often abstract technological dimensions of reality into aesthetic and poetic experiences. Through the artistic visualization of data (scientific), he seeks to expand our perception of the environment to include technological and communicative layers. His goal is to create a dialogue between the human perspective and the incorporeal world of digital networks, algorithms, and wireless communication, and to see how they originate and transform space. “Electric Atmospheres” explores the invisible dimensions of wireless communication in an urban context. Electromagnetic waves are a spatial medium that inhabits places like cities, buildings, and our bodies. They are three-dimensional and interact with their surroundings. As we move through a city with our mobile phones, we carry an electromagnetic “aura” that moves through buildings and changes shape in response to their physical and electrical properties. What if we could see this dimension? What does the world look like when you visualize the interaction between architecture and information?
Hiền Hoang is a Vietnamese multimedia artist based in Germany. She holds a master’s degree in photography and design from HAW Hamburg. Her artistic repertoire includes photography, installation, performance, film, VR, and object art. Hoang’s work explores social values, material transformation, and the complex interaction of identity through self-intervention. The project “Garden of Entanglement” delves into the vibration and resonance of urban trees under human movement, blurring the boundaries between art, science, and environmental awareness. Using seismic and high-sensitivity accelerometers along with 3D scanning and software such as Unreal Engine, Covise, Matlab, and Max/msp, her goal is to understand how trees resonate with different frequency lengths. The artist aims to create immersive experiences that intimately connect audiences with the dynamic resonance of trees.
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