NAVET at Konstfack Research Week 2024

Konstfack Research Week 2024 - Closing Events
Friday 26 January, 09.00-12.00

The NAVET Session. We will first briefly introduce the NAVET centre and its activities. We will then open a dialogue with participants in the form of a panel and participatory interactive workshops for initiating a discussion about some of the research themes covered by the NAVET Thematic Working Groups: Exploring artistic and creative practice with and around interactive materials. Enabling accessibility to music practices: inclusion, digitalisation, and sustainability. Reflecting on the effects of human actions/interventions on light and sound inside and outside urban spaces affecting our sight and sense of hearing. See below for more details.

09.00 - 09.15
Location: Svarta Havet, Konstfack  

What is NAVET and how to get engaged

NAVET is a centre which started to be operative in June 2019, with the overarching goal of becoming a meeting place for research and projects in the intersection of art, technology and design. Its purpose is facilitating and cre-ating opportunities for exchange and research collaboration amongst artists, designers, engineers, humanists, natural and social scientists. NAVET is a collaboration between KTH Royal institute of technology, KMH Royal College of Music, SKH Stockholm University of the Arts, Konstfack, Tekniska—The Nation-al Museum of Science and Technology and Scenkonstmuseet—The Swedish Museum of Performing Arts. The centre partners joined in this effort with a vision: NAVET wants to take a leading role in positioning Sweden within the intersectional area “Art, Technology and Design”, with a practical and critical approach that stimulates research, innova- tion, creativity, and the development of a sustainable society.

09.15 - 10.00
Location: Svarta Havet, Konstfack  

Panel – Researching the Arts & Crafts of Technology

Panelists:

Caroline Yan Zheng, PhD from Royal College of Art, London
Joseph La Delfa, PhD from RMIT Australia/KTH
Charles Windlin: PhD from KTH Media Technolgy and Interaction Design
Anna Holmquist, PhD from Konstfack/KTH

Moderator:

Ylva Fernaeus, NAVET thematic working group of Arts & Crafts of Technology

The panel will circulate around the connection between artistic-designerly practice, technology, and materials, as a basis for academic research. All panelists are recent graduates with doctoral theses engaging with artistic or designerly practices as core aspects of their works, while also engaging closely with specific materials and technologies.

The panel will commence with 5 min quick presentation by each of the panelists, and then discussion around questions from the audience.For instance:

• What is the relationship between hands-on material practice, and the text-based focus of academic work (e.g. writing up a doctoral dissertation)?
• What do you see as the connection between crafting and technology, today and in the future? How are notions of crafting present in your work? 
• What is exciting about doing artistic research? Why not just doing “ordinary” art/design work outside of academia?
• If you would be supporting a new PhD student on a similar topic as yours, what would be your best advice?

Everyone welcome!

About the NAVET Thematic Working Group Arts & Crafts of Technology . Artistic and creative practice is an important driver for technical innovation, and this working group aims to specifically investigate such practices with and around interactive materials. The scope spans from popular culture and folk art, to how crafted interactivity takes form in public exhibitions and on the contemporary art scene. Specific focus is on aesthetic craftsmanship with cutting edge technology.

10.10 - 11.00
Location: Svarta Havet, Konstfack  

Workshop 1 – Aesthetic haptic experiences of musically inspired vibrotactile patterns

Leaders:

Kjetil Falkenberg, PhD, NAVET thematic working group Music for All & Associate professor at KTH.
Elsa Vaara, PhD, RISE, Design research in inclusive design
Cheryl Akner Koler, PhD, Sculptor & Professor in Theoretical and Applied aesthetics at Konstfack
Charles Windlin, PhD from KTH Media Technolgy and Interaction Design

We will present ongoing research on aesthetic haptic experiences of musically inspired vibrotactile patterns that are transmitted through actuators placed on different parts of the body. We have two vibrotactile kit that were crafted by Charles Windlin. The audience will have the opportunity to try two different approaches to developing sets of vibration patterns that we are working with. One set of patterns were selected to represent different experiences such as, cats purring and erratic rhythm. The other set was selected from a piano performance by Johan Fröst playing work by Claude Debussy. During this event, we will demonstrate how this Aesthetic-lab was set up and led, followed by a discussion of our findings, and our future plans for Music for All.

We will continue the discussion the questions presented in the previous event: Interactive material for the exploration of artistic and creative practice. 

• What is the relationship between hands-on material practice, and the text-based focus of academic work (e.g. writing up a doctoral dissertation)?
• What do you see as the connection between crafting and technology, today and in the future? 
• If you would be supporting a new PhD student on a similar topic as yours, what would be your best advice?

Come join us!

About the NAVET Thematic Working Group . This working gorup aims at giving research focus to three foundations for accessibility with respect to music practices: inclusion, digitalisation, and sustainability. Each of these aspects pose major challenges on our many publicly funded institutions that work with music in one way or another. Music for All targets access to all stages of music production and experiences, from composition, technology development, musical practices, performance, and distribution.

11.10 - 12.00
Location: Film Studio, Konstfack  

Workshop 2 – Experiencing Darkness and Brightness - Representation of Light Pollution through the Arts

Costanza Julia Bani, NAVET/SKH
Roberto Bresin, NAVET/KTH

NAVET and Fellonica Film AB are glad to invite you to a workshop around light pollution related to Costanza Julia Bani's artistic research and multimedia project at SKH: “Circadia, Too Loud and Too Bright”. This project seeks to restore historical records, capture current states of light and soundscapes, and envision future scenarios. Read more about Costanza Julia Banis artistic research project Circadia/Too Loud and Too Bright .

The intense rise in nighttime brightness isn’t solely due to population increase; cheaper technology has led to a huge surge in light pollution over the past two decades. The overuse of light at night not only diminishes the way we connect to the night sky but it also affects the environment, all other animals, plant pollination, and insect activity. 70% of all species are nocturnal, they are more active at nigh: light pollution is stealing the night habitats, impacting their survival, and we humans need these species for our own survival. In this workshop, you will experience, listen to – and reflect on the representation of light pollution through the arts.

What to expect

11:10 Visitors and participants will arrive at the workshop and be led into a complete dark room – there will be a short while to experience darkness. The room will slowly be illuminated by a pristine nocturnal sky, shown on a screen.
 
11:25 Costanza Julia Bani will introduce her artistic research and multimedia project, while Roberto Bresin will introduce how the project relates to NAVET, as one of its temporary thematic working groups
 
11:45 There will be 15 minutes to answer and discuss questions that can be found on the NAVET website. The paritipants wil be requested to fill in a questionnaire where they will briefly describe what they felt when sharpening their eyes in darkness and their degree of comfort or discomfort .

About the NAVET Thematic Working Group  Too Loud and Too Bright  . Aim of this working group is to investigate how human intervention on primordial landscapes and overexposure to human created sounds and lights have influenced our most used senses when it comes to fruition of night skies and eco-sounds: our eyes and our hearing. Light and sound research, including light and sound perception, lighting and sound design, and light and sound influence on health and environment are at the core of the research, both from scientific and artistic perspectives. Light and sound and their combination are crucial aspects of the unbuilt/natural and/or built environment. Both light and sound “(ab)use” are main factors defining anthropized areas.