Workshop #22 – EPSN 2025

The European Performing Science Night (EPSN) is based on the combination of scientific excellence and performing arts as a common language. The event involves the Computer Vision Center (CVC), the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM), and the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). The aim of this initiative is to reduce the distance between science and society, bringing the public closer to researchers and their work, the benefits they bring to society and their impact on everyday life in an experiential and emotional way.

The Épica Foundation offers up to 30 scholarships to selected creatives to participate in the art-science workshop, which will take place from September 8 to 28, 2025, both dates included.
 
They are deciphering the ocean’s dna, will it have something to do with our dna? Can the AI find marine DNA so rare that it reveals that octopuses come from space? Can an AI find a sunken city and reconstruct its entire history, culture, language… just with data from the seabed? What if one day an AI gets so good at understanding marine sounds that it decides to talk back to a whale… and the whale talks back? Can the AI analyze the patterns of life in ocean trenches… and use them as a model to search for alien life on planets with subsurface oceans?  

What if we never truly left the water? What if we simply forgot how to listen to it? These are some of the questions we’ll explore during the workshop, all with the help of artificial intelligence.

This workshop will focus on exploring these complex dynamics, seeking strategies to foster a harmonious coexistence between natural and artificial ecosystems.

The workshop has two phases, the first online and the second face-to-face and intensive, as follows:

PHASE 1 (Online) – Knowledge transfer sessions. The CVC, ICM, and UOC-TURBA will hold online sessions to present their fields of work and specific challenges related to this workshop. This information will help participants develop essential ideas and concepts for Phase 2.

PHASE 2 (In-person and intensive) – Conceptualization, design, and public presentation. Over two weeks, participants will fully develop an experience to be presented to an invited audience, supported by the Épica Foundation team. This second phase will also include a program of masterclasses in areas such as lighting, production, and audience interaction.

– Location: Barcelona

– Slots available: up to 30 grants available.

– Price: This is a training activity with a scholarship (the training is valued at €3.500.00). The scholarship does not include diets, transportation and accommodation expenses, as well as management and registration expenses. The participant, only in case of being selected, must pay the entity when formalizing the registration the amount of €150, which will cover the expenses of management, registration and insurance.

– Profiles: The call is aimed at creative people: artists, scientists and technologists, especially those multidisciplinary and hybrid profiles that want to be part of a disruptive and innovative experience.