\ Alta Tecnologia \ S+T+ARTS in the City: call now open for Area Science Park’s artist residency programme

Can the three intelligences – human (research, skills), natural (materials) and artificial – work together to solve one of the most complex challenges of the digital and green transformation?

This is the challenge that Area Science Park, in partnership with MEET Digital Culture Centre in Milan, is launching as part of the wider European project S+T+ARTS in the City. A new call has been launched to find an art project able to translate and interpret the paradox of “twin transformation”, i.e. the ever-increasing need for rare and critical materials and minerals for making microchips, batteries, and tools and tech for generating renewable energy (solar panels, photovoltaic installations, wind turbines, etc.).

We walk and live in cities rich in these materials which can be mined (“urban mining”), only the recycling or extraction processes can have a significant impact on the environment. How can we escape this vicious cycle? Finding new extraction techniques or recycling methods which have less of an impact, or researching and identifying new materials that are easier to extract and in larger quantities are three possible ways forward that are being explored.

The call represents an opportunity to reflect on the symbiotic processes between nature, artificial intelligence and human intelligence, as part of one greater form of “city intelligence”. It may give rise to a utopian scenario, in which human intelligence mediates and integrates the other two forms of intelligence (artificial and natural), or a dystopian one, whereby humans are sidelined by the other two forms of intelligence that operate autonomously.
The artistic prototype should emerge from creative speculation surrounding the concepts of sustainability, circularity and generative IA, aligning with the New European Bauhaus initiative.

The residency is organised in partnership with MEET Digital Culture Center, a partner in the European programme S+T+ARTS (Science + Technology + Arts), with Area Science Park Trieste acting as co-host. Area Science Park will provide the artist with access to open data, as well as technology resources and platforms focused around the materials, data and life sciences.  The artist will also receive invaluable scientific support and guidance from the Institution’s researchers and from researchers in the network it coordinates.

The deadline for submitting a project is 25 August 2023.

>> Apply now

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For more information about challenge no. 6, visit the webpage

For more information about S+T+ARTS in the City, visit the webpage