Art Incorporated

Thursday, November 23 sees a specially curated program featuring Tokyo based ArtLab (J) and Art+Com from Berlin (D). Both organizations operate in the field of art and technology. On the one hand they are connected to a large company (ArtLab to Canon Inc.) or to several companies (Art+Com), on the other hand they operate as independent commercial companies, offering facilities to artists

In both cases artists and scientists and/or technicians have high-level interaction. The centers also display a vast diversity in interface development. Clear strategies have been planned and very different interests are at stake. They are hybrid places where complicated alliances provide access to expensive facilities and where people from different disciplines can cooperate. While each institute has found its own most beneficial form of organization, the projects that they realize are very diverse - sometimes entirely commissioned, and sometimes fully autonomous.

What does this intertwining of interests mean for the works of art that are being produced here, and how autonomous are the artists? And at the same time: what is the added value that the arts contribute? This presentation is part of the research being conducted by V2_ into the possibilities for establishing a workshop for art and media technology in Rotterdam, a place where people from different disciplines can work together.

In the program both institutes elucidate their organizational structures, and present some of the projects they have realized in co-operation with artists. The emphasis lies on the development of interfaces. The speakers are Yukiko Shikata, director of ArtLab, and Steffen Meschkat of Art+Com.

The program is chaired by Timothy Druckrey (US).