The year 2022 began with an upturn of the Covid pandemic and thus, uncertainty about cultural events and the schedule of the Festivals.
However, ESPRONCEDA – Institute of Art & Culture, has continued to develop the IMMENSIVA project to bring optimism and innovation in a changing ecosystem.
This year strongly followed all the digital creation related to the Metavers and the new economy that offers blockchain/ NFT tools to digital artists and to cultural content creation overall.
Likewise, we are living through times when cultural projects seek to have a social impact, ensuring inclusion and above all motivation to collaboration and cohesion. Importance of being a part of a common project is a mission, based on the values of the New European Bauhaus.
After the pandemic, digitization and the creation of immersive, interactive and ultimately participative, more co-creative and democratic contents/experiences are already an inescapable reality of all cultural institutions and in general of the cultural and creative industries.
IMMENSIVA Festival 2022 is an expanded event, this year goes from March to December 2022 with three key lines:
Organization of residences for artistic creation and digital innovation, with the application of different immersive and interactive technologies: VR, AR, 360° projections, 3D sound, real-time scanners, sensors, and other advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain. These residences include workshops open to all participants in person and online.
Exhibitions with relevant projects of digital creation and new media, where art, science, technology and society come together.
Collaboration with Festivals/ Cycles and international projects that bring internationally recognized digital projects to Barcelona/ Catalunya.
MARCH – APRIL 2022
IMMENSIVA international residence 2022/ Launch of NUBIA
Through a call open to all local, national and international artists from December 2021 to February 5, 2022.
There were 3 local (based in Barcelona) and 5 international selected artists.
The residence runs from March 7 to April 7, 2022.
During this period artists visit some of the most prestigious institutions of artistic creation and dissemination: Hangar and CCCB. Additionally, they have access to three series of workshops that are also open to the public (university and secondary students) and are the following:
8 of March, VISION AND CREATION of Metaversos by the renowned digital artist Solimán López and teachers Luis Fraguada and Joan Pons.
9 of March, workshop on creation of the NFTs, practical cases led by Marc Gálvez and Ovidiu Bojor.
14 of March, Creation and Artificial Intelligence lecture, hosted by Lissette Lemus (ARTIFICIA/ CSIC-IIIA).
24 and 25 March, workshop of the first projects in virtual reality. Coordinated by Michael Barngrover, expert in VR creation. Karma Lab/ Galaxy Network.
As the beginning of a new line of innovation:
8 of March: NUBIA, launch of the platform Metaverse/ NFT with the exhibition Petroglyphing Data of the artist Mohsen Hazrati. NUBIA (NFTs Universe in the Blockchain for International Artists) is a new platform launched by IMMENSIVA. The creation of Metaverses and the generation of new experiences are explored by guest artists. These proposals, between the physical and the digital, are connected to the blockchain economy, through the generation of NFTs associated with digital artistic works and physical works. The metaverses proposed by the artists have their own rules, they use gamification, immersion and interaction to invite collectors, visitors and experts to be part of the immensity of NUBIA and experiment, interact and socialize in new worlds inhabited by works of art, curatorially selected, and by fantastic avatars. https://nubia.world/
MAY 2022. Creative laboratories REAL IN / Open call NUBIA.
Within the synergy with the Creative Media project REAL IN, which seeks to create new immersive and interactive experiences that use cultural content from sectors such as visual arts, music festivals, performative arts and design/fashion, several events would be organized throughout May: on the 25th, there is an open creative workshop, and on the 26th, a professional convention for Music Festivals.
The creative laboratory REAL IN Crea Lab wants to offer professionals, artists and SME: a series of practical capsules on advanced technologies that allow creating immersive and interactive collective experiences based on cultural content.
This laboratory will be offered in person and online, leaving the training capsules recorded online to be consulted later.
The REAL IN convention will bring together local and regional professionals: artists, programmers, festival directors, cultural management experts who will discuss new interactive and immersive collective proposals facilitated by new technologies and which are interesting for music and/or digital festivals. It will feature the practical case made by the Verlatour group and the INLUMIN technical team.
On May 2, the call will be launched for artists and creatives from Catalonia to participate in a collective exhibition on Metaverso and NFTs that will be held during the first week of September 2022 in the ESPRONCEDA space. The call will be open until June 6 and the results will be communicated on June 27 to 10 finalists.
The artists selected by a professional jury will receive technical advice in order to create the NFTs in blockchain and will be invited to be a part of the NUBIA platform.
JUNE 2022. ISEA city 2022 / New European Bauhaus Festival, side event.
This year Barcelona is home to the prestigious ISEA event, the International Symposium of Electronic Art, which is led by UOC and, in cooperation with other institutions of the city, organizes three days of presentations of experts and institutions and also exhibitions curated by the organization itself in Ars Santa Monica, and by the other centers/ spaces of the city, including IMMENSIVA (ESPRONCEDA – Institute of Art & Culture).
IMMENSIVA organizes for ISEA City a large exhibition and workshops in association with prestigious institutions such as Aalto University, Leonardo ISAST, with European projects AI4Future and with the renowned digital artist Solimán López.
The exhibition Digital Awareness connects with two sub-themes of ISEA/ Possibles: the human-non-human relationship and the Future-artistic/cultural heritage. Likewise, this proposal will be presented as a side event of the New European Bauhaus Festival that offers European cities to be part of this international event.
The Digital Awareness exhibition consists of:
Solimán López’s proposal, INTRONS creation of three dimensional digital entities that represent the genome of humans and plants, as well as their research environment in the Metaverso. The project aims to extend the concept of representation in new digital environments. This is the time to develop a deeper understanding of the world of matter and nature.
AI4Future, Art, artificial intelligence and activism. The works of the artists selected in Barcelona, Rotterdam, Milan and Sardinia, who collaborate with various activist groups ranging from the digital barrier in cities to the gender perspective, are on display. The use of artificial intelligence creatively will be a tool that works in favor of those social goals. The Barcelona project has been developed with Canodrom. http://ai4future.eu/artists-in-residence
Aalto University, the prestigious Finnish university, will show the project ‘Cultural heritage as a source of knowledge in art and design education’. The exhibition aims to use a combination of media to create an experience by sharing with visitors the processes and results of their co-design methodologies. Attempting to display a selection of various aspects of work at different time points, including key group work sessions, conceptual design presentations and individual sessions/interviews.
Finally, Leonardo ISAST (International society for Art, Science and Technology) proposes to the public of Barcelona a show around the game and sustainable objectives. GAMES for a better world. Visitors will be able to participate throughout the day in a complete selection of board games, with games directed and designed by artists around themes such as regeneration, urban planning, communication between species and sustainable design. Examples of these games with digital basis: https://regenerate.games/ , https://landartgenerator.org
SEPTEMBER 2022. EXHIBITION NFTs. NUBIA.
NUBIA: unknown territories. From 14 to 30 September.
The artists selected in the NUBIA call are part of this exhibition curated around the unknown, immersive and participatory territories offered by the new Metaverses. All digital works on display will have an associated NFT (Non fungible token).
NUBIA (NFTs Universe in the Blockchain for International Artists) is the name of the territories of ancient upper Egypt known for its ancient and enigmatic culture, and for the fantastic constructions hidden in its desert sands.
DECEMBER 2022. Exhibition of works VR / Galaxy Network.
From 12 to 22 December IMMENSIVA Festival offers the second edition of Galaxy Network Show where a curated selection of the best international creations in virtual reality will be offered.
Galaxy Network is a community of art institutions united by the common goal of showcasing and promoting high-quality virtual reality content to wider audiences in their national markets. In 2021, samples were made at: ESPRONCEDA – Institute of Art & Culture, Barcelona; Diversion cinema, Paris; MEET Digital Culture Center, Milan; VR Future Müze Gazhane, Istanbul; Laboratorio Aperto, Ferrara; VRNRG at Mac-LAVS, Mataro; INVR, Berlin.
Credits from IMMENSIVA Festival 2022:
International and national partners:
Helsinki XR Center, Aalto University, Karma Lab, University for the Creative Arts (UCA), UPC, UB, Harddisk Museum, V2 Rotterdam, MEET Digital Culture Center, Galaxy Network, Forum des Images/ New Images, Lumen Prize, Fundació Catalunya Cultura, KPMG, ATLNFT.Art, Artificia, LAVS, Leonardo ISAST, Ars Electronica, OLEA, CSIC-IIIA, Fundació Epica.
Sponsors:
Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte, ICEC Generalitat de Catalunya, Ajuntament de Barcelona, Institut Ramon Llull, FACC/BBVA.
Head of IMMENSIVA Festival 2022:
Alejandro Martín
International Commissioners and Advisers:
Camille Baker, Liz Rosenthal, Santeri Souminen, Maria Grazia Mattei, Rosanna di Nuzzo, Dr. Holger Sprengel, Solimán López, Lily Diaz-Kommonen, Michael Barngrover, Xavier Satorra, Lissette Lemus, Boris Debackere, Paola Palumbo, Kris Pilcher, Fabien Siouffi, Ulrich Schrauch.
International jury of the projects:
Pep Gatell, Camille Baker, Maria Grazia Mattei, Rosanna di Nuzzo, Santeri Souminen, Elie Levasseur, Ulrich Schrauch, Fabien Siouffi.
NUBIA platform:
Marc Gálvez, Mohsen Hazrati, Solimán López, Dr. Holger Sprengel, Alejandro Martín.
Espronceda management and team:
Dr. Holger Sprengel, Dr. Henrik Sprengel, Savina Tarsitano, Alejandro Martín, María Mantzakou, Alessia Gervassone, Marc Gálvez.
ESPRONCEDA/ IMMENSIVA
ESPRONCEDA – Institute for Art & Culture
was founded in 2013 in Barcelona as an innovative center and international platform for contemporary art, education and cultural dissemination.
Its mission is to provide a multidisciplinary environment and a platform for creation that promotes international dialogue among artists, curators, critics, gallery owners, collectors, cultural institutions and lovers of art and culture. Believing also in the importance of synergies of art, science and technology, the IMMENSIVA project was created in 2019, which is essentially a platform for the creation and innovation of projects that explore immersion, interaction and gamification involving interdisciplinary, art-driven teams working with advanced technologies (VR, XR, AI, 3D sound, real-time scanners, sensors, robotics and many others). The projects are very experimental and socially committed because IMMENSIVA wants to generate impact in the community and innovation value. The network and the partnership with international institutions are strengthening the platform to attract talent and generate opportunities for the creation of new companies and the international promotion of the projects developed, which is a platform of Art and Advanced Technologies: www.immensiva.com
Contact for the press:
Renata Procopio: renata@espronceda.net
Alejandro Martín: Alejandro@espronceda.net
Updated program on the web:
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