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Po-Hao Chi, Plantfluencer Gazing (2021)
Po-Hao Chi, Plantfluencer Gazing (2021)

September 10, 2021, 6:00 pm7:00 pm

Friday, September 10
6-7pm EDT
Free, open to the public
RSVP required

In-person, Bartos Theatre (e15-070), MIT

Event website

Artists: Pohao Chi (TW), Kwan Q Li (HK), Weihan Jiang (CN), Weilu Ge (CN) and Kelon Cen (CN), Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits (LV)

Curator: Rasa Smite (LV)

With more recent enhancements of immersive and sensing technologies, our ‘sensoriums’ have intensified and become more mediated than ever before. Art and concepts (our “strange tools” – coined by contemporary philosopher Alva Noë (2015)) are perfect instruments to stimulate our perception. By drawing upon prior experience, cultural shifts and technological advancements, art becomes a medium that creates new and transformative experiences so crucial for reorganizing ourselves. As contemporary art historian, curator and author Caroline A Jones has put it, “what we want art to reorganize us into, also changes” (2016). 

This one-hour screening program premieres new VR and sound-based video works by four ACT students/duos of Methodologies and Sound Classes in spring 2021, interrogating novel sensing and artistic tools. Following this exclusive in-person screening, the program will be available in the online platform of the Ars Electronica Festival 2021 – RIXC Garden, ‘POSTSENSORIUM’, till September 12 (ticket link).

This screening program is curated by Rasa Smite (RIXC/LV) Artists and artworks include: Pohao Chi (TW/US). Plantfluencer Gazing (2021) / Kwan Q Li (HK/US). Insomniac/Amnesiac (2021) / Weihan Jiang (CN/US). Vacuum (2021) / Weilu Ge (CN/US) and Kelon Cen (CN/US), Feed (2021), with a special feature of Falling Walls 2021 Art and Science winning and Purvītis Prize 2021 nominated Atmospheric Forest by Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits (LV).

**PLEASE NOTE** In accordance with COVID-19 contact tracing guidelines, contact information for all event attendees, including name and cell phone number or email address will be collected via the RSVP form. All attendees are required to wear a face covering indoors. 

About Ars Electronica RIXC Garden Riga-Boston-Karlsrhue

RIXC Garden Riga – Boston – Karlsruhe with the title “POSTSENSORIUM” is organized by RIXC Center for New Media Culture (Riga, LV) in collaboration with The Art, Culture and Technology (ACT) Program at MIT (Boston, US). RIXC Garden programme is curated by Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits. It is also a satellite event of RIXC Art Science Festival 2021, which will take place on September 23-25, 2021 in Riga and online.

POSTSENSORIUM garden program consists of three parts: a young artist screening program “Stranger Senses”, a web-based VR program and a Greenhouse Concert “Hearing Noises”.

About Ars Electronica Festival 2021: New Digital Deal

Ars Electronica 2021, the festival for art, technology and society, will take place from September 8 to 12. For the second time since 1979, it will be a hybrid event that includes exhibitions, concerts, talks, conferences, workshops and guided tours in Linz, Austria, and more than 80 other locations around the globe. In 2021, the Ars Electronica Festival will once again become a worldwide anchor point and will take place physically not only in Linz but all over the world – dozens of partner institutions around the globe will open their Ars Electronica Gardens with their content, which can also be experienced via the Internet as the hybrid Ars Electronica from September 8-12, 2021.