December 7, 2021, Brussels, Belgium / Online
LASER Talks Brussels
December 7, 2021, 7 pm CET
iMAL, Brussels, 30 Quai des Charbonnages, Koolmijnenkaai, 1080 Brussels
This is the 4rd talk in the series, discussing notions of out-of-control ness in a social and technical context that are at the core of the work of the three panelists: Prof. Dr. Frances BRAZIER who is a full professor in Engineering Systems Foundations at the Delft University of Technology and visual artists Joost REKVELD and Frank THEYS.
Brazier approaches the subject through her research into social systems and connects out-of-control-ness with the notion of emergence and new possibilities, the empowerment of people in change management. For Rekveld the notion of out-of-control-ness is related to his research into analog computing, its history and culture, pushing the limits of its affordance. For Theys it’s related to the current state of affairs of the world and global warming which is the subject of his latest interactive multimedia installation ‘Chronicle of an Extinction Foretold’.
PANELISTS
Frances BRAZIER is a full professor in Engineering Systems Foundations at the Delft University of Technology, as of September 2009, before which she chaired the Intelligent Interactive Distributed Systems Group for 10 years within the Department of Computer Science at the VU University Amsterdam. She holds a MSc in Mathematics and a doctorate in Cognitive Ergonomics from the VU Amsterdam. Parallel to her academic career she co-founded the first ISP in the Netherlands: NLnet and later NLnet Labs. She is currently a board member of the NLnetLabs Foundation. With a strong background in the design of human computer interaction, multi-agents systems, and distributed systems, current research focuses on the design of socio-technical ecological systems that enable and support participation in today’s networked society: participatory systems! The leading design principles include design for trust, design for empowerment and design for engagement. Areas of study and exploration include distributed energy management, crisis management, dynamic supply chain management, real-time safety management.
Joost REKVELD is an artist motivated by the question of what we can learn from a dialogue with machines. In his work, he explores the sensory consequences of systems of his own design, often inspired by forgotten corners in the history of science and technology. His films, installations and performances are composed documentaries of the worlds opened by such systems. His abstract films have been shown world-wide in a wide range of festivals and venues for experimental film, animation or other kinds of moving image. He has realized several installations and was involved in many collaborative projects involving composers, music ensembles, theatre companies, dance companies and artist’s labs. Since February 2017, he’s affiliated to the School of Arts, University College Ghent as an artistic researcher.
Frank THEYS is a visual artist, theatre and film maker. His audiovisual work varies from video and interactive installations to documentary, experimental film and theatre performance. He received several international awards such as the first award at the film and video festivals of Locarno, Montbéliard and Novi Sad. Frank Theys was cofounder of Argos, Centre for Arts and Media (Brussels) and of Dziga, the Belgian guild of media artists. He has taught audiovisual arts at LUCA Brussels and Ghent, performaing arts at DasArts, Masters in the Performing Arts at the Amsterdam School for the Arts (AHK) and art philosophy at the KABK ArtScience Interfaculty in The Hague. He has been a visiting teacher and lecturer at more than 30 universities, film and art schools worldwide.
MODERATOR
CHAIR