Digital Art Weeks Singapore 2013: science and technology in cultural context

With its exhibitions, installations, workshops and symposia, the DAW and participating institutes contribute directly and significantly to society by transferring knowledge, best practices and sharing visions. The internationally roaming event showcases innovation in arts and science, as well as collaborations between them. It stands for a fruitful and multiplying example of “inter-disciplinarity in practice”. “A core value of the DAW is to illustrate resulting synergies: making artists aware of impulses in technology and scientists aware of possibilities of technology applications in the arts and of artistic ways of appraising scientific discoveries,” says Juerg Gutknecht, Professor at ETH’s Computer Systems Institute and one of the founders. In the last years, artists chose the festival as a sought-out venue to show and promote their work, and scientists from different areas of knowledge adopted it as a forum to discuss and excel research.

The program in 2013 evolves from the multicultural context and urban dynamics of Singapore. It is a city state where living cultural traditions meet modern cosmopolitan lifestyle. This year, the festival is co-hosted by the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC). “It is this creative collaboration between arts and sciences that encourages us to discover novel aspects, unforeseen relations between factors and maintain the critical spirit of inquiry while preserving the depth of both branches,” states Prof. Gerhard Schmitt, SEC’s Director.

The thematic emphasis this year lies on four pillars of “sustainability”:
1. Reconciliation of the environment
2. Establishing social equity
3. Regulating the economy
4. Nurturing a culture of sustainability.

“Our desire was to launch an innovative and powerful program which guides visitors to a better, more balanced understanding of sustainability and what roles do arts and sciences play in shaping cultural change and in sustaining communities,” details Arthur Clay, the DAW’s artistic director.

One of the festival’s highlights is the Sustainability Symposium in the ArtScience Museum at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands. The discussions with the high-profile experts and leaders from economy, environment, society and arts will focus on “culture and sustainability”. The following keynote speakers have already confirmed their participation:
Dirk Helbing, professor of sociology (modelling and simulation) at ETH Zurich,
Venka Purushothaman, vice president and provost of Lasalle College of the Arts,
Raymond Saner, professor of organisation and international management at Sciences Po in Paris and at the University of Basle, Switzerland, and
Ichi Ikeda, a widely known Japanese environmental artist.

A further highlight of the exhibition is the Innovation Forum where artists meet scientists. It is held at the SEC’s Future Cities Laboratory and will offer the opportunity to experience science with fancy and art with facts. The exhibitors from around the world showcase and pitch their hands-on projects by using cutting-edge technologies such as the “Speech 2 Singing” synthesis project from Infocomm Research, A*STAR or the Genome Scroller, a bioinformatics project that algorithmically creates a large-scale, dynamic, visualisation of the information surrounding the human genome. And last but not least: the Value Lab Asia, a digitally augmented collaborative environment, equipped with multiple touch surfaces and a very high-resolution video wall, which will used to present a slew of performative events employing new avenues of motion tracking and data visualisations giving concrete form to abstract theories. In addition, the DAW International in partnership with ETH's Future Cities Laboratory will be holding two half-day workshops at the Value Lab Asia on May 10 2013.

Overall, the Digital Art Weeks represents Switzerland also as an outward-looking country with a diverse wealth of knowledge and talent, high-tech capabilities and innovation. “The interdisciplinary approach of DAW opens a new avenue to promote the Swiss art and science landscape. By bringing together stakeholders from various fields during its multifaceted program, the event fosters cultural and scientific exchange on a global level,” Suzanne Hraba-Renevey, the executive director of swissnex Singapore, has expressed her enthusiasm about the festival coming to the “Lion City”.