Damianisch’s presentation was titled “On the Development of
Milieus of Change via Institutions.” He introduced his ideas by talking meditation,
centering, and relaxation. By taking even a few seconds to gather one’s self,
you can find a new focus and center of thought on which to go about your day. By
separating from the kind of standard approaches to work, you can get into a
whole new mindset.
This opens up space for newfound detail and artistic
creativity. By combining “focus freedom” and “free focus,” a person can find a
place of artistic research and innovation that they would be unable to find without
relaxing the mind. He also talked about how this helps artists find “spaces
beyond contextual anticipations.”
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| Damianisch talking about focus and relaxation in art |
This all combines to his overarching theme, which is you
need freedom and focus to set the tone for milieus of change. In order to use
science to better society, you should be able to relax and renew your thoughts
and mental space to hone your artistic creativity to be innovative with science
and change.
Gabriel Harp followed him up to discuss “What is Arts
Research?” Harp, who is a part of Arts Research University (ARU) discussed how
language is an important communication device across various domains and
locations. This was relevant to the ARU survey asking “what do you understand
arts research to be” across a multitude of educational platforms.
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| Harp discussing arts research |
Some of the larger responses in this survey talked about “practice-led”
arts research (24% of responses) as well as “creating and disseminating new
culture” (19%). Harp mentioned how arts research is most successful as it
itself is a communication device between human beings across the globe. The way
a large portion of respondents understand art research involves working together
in human relationships, both from a ‘practice-led’ standpoint and mutually
creating new culture through art.
Lastly, Harp talked about how art research is impactful on
higher educational interdisciplinary practices. He mentioned how university
students are impacted in the classroom [directly and indirectly] by the effects
of art research.
Greg Lynn spoke about art based research in social and
academic settings of climate change. He talked about woven fiber constructions
that use energy from water and wind to
move at speeds of 35 miles per hour, not needing a motor. He talked about studies
testing sustainability by building houses with carbon fiber as opposed to wood
or brick.
The coolest part of his presentation, in my opinion, was
talking about microclimate by showing a chair he helped work on to keep athletes
warm for peak performance. NBA players and Olympians break down every detail of
their body from nutrition to compression clothing, and this chair helps keep
their bodies ready to excel.
This chair is an example of an environmentally friendly
machine yet helpful and innovative. Another innovation he discussed is related
to AI while still ecologically conscious. Lynn helped design GITA, an
intelligent device like an iPhone that carries stuff for you. It works
similarly to an autonomous-car and can navigate and weave through crowds on the
street because it can actually see and understands how people move, down to the
details of pivoting and following you back. This is also intended to keep
people active by walking more instead of driving, which helps the environment
as well.
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| Lynn talking about GITA |
Overall, I would recommend this event. The entire event, on
which I wrote about for all 3 of my event blogs, gave cool insights to the infusion
of art and science. I particularly liked this set of speakers because they were
very differently informative and innovative. I liked how Damianisch basically talked
about relaxation for creative purposes, Harp focused about the human-relation
elements of arts research, and Lynn discussed a multitude of environmentally
friendly inventions to improve society.
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| Me with Gerald Bast, the keynote speaker, on April 4th |
