Nova Iskra Nova Iskra Workspace Nova Iskra Studio
15 Sep 2020

Nova Iskra announces the third and final international conference within the “Connect for Creativity” project

 

Conference entitled “Creative Explorations: From Social Entities to Ubiquitous Systems“ will be focused on how we connect and relate to each other, especially when it comes to creative and artistic processes. It will be broadcasted online from Athens and other European cities on September 24th and 25th and will present, among others, eminent participants such as German sound artist Robert Henke, professors Jovan Čekić and Uroš Krčadinac, as well as the artistic duo TeYosh from Serbia. 

The third and final conference within the Connect for Creativity project – Creative Explorations: From Social Entities to Ubiquitous Systems – will bring together experts and decision-makers from across Europe to explore the impact of digital technologies on how we connect and relate to each other, especially focusing on creative processes and collaborations, as well as creator-audience relations and the impact of social media on creative and artistic fields.

Due to the current pandemic situation, the conference will be held online on September 24th and 25th, while the main location will be the creative hub Romantso in Athens, in charge of the final conference (the first one was organized in June 2019 by Nova Iskra in Belgrade). With participation of national and international actors from the digital technology communities as well as policy makers, Creative Explorations conference aims to enable exchange of information, opinions and experience, and to foster new collaborations amongst the participants from Greece, Serbia, Turkey, the UK and beyond, by means of workshops, group sessions and panel discussions. 

Some of the prominent lecturers and artists from Serbia will be taking part in the conference, including professors Jovan Čekić and Uroš Krčadinac from Faculty for Media and Communications, as well as the noted and successful Serbian-Dutch artistic/design duo TeYosh, whose work is closely related to the topics relating for the conference. 

Registrations are now open! The two-day conference is open to the public and free of charge. Registrations for the conference can be submitted through Connect for Creativity website (connectforcreativity.eu) until Sunday, September 20th.

Could design and technology impact the way we relate to each other? 

One of the main aspects of human nature is the need for contact, while the way we communicate has been evolving since our very existence. Today, we live in a culture that fosters hyperconnectivity, the pace of technological creation is faster than the pace of our understanding and the development of critical thinking. As computational creativity continues to emerge, cultural and creative sectors lean on technology to find new ways to make culture more cohesive, relatable and accessible. Social distancing has accelerated the use of technology and due to this, many new creators came into view. However, the way they communicate and relate to the world has also shifted. Technology and omnipresent systems are issues that raise many questions: Are we trying to escape reality? Develop a new social model? Do we create technology or is technology creating us?

The conference will focus on the convergence between the creative industries and digital technologies, and will explore its impact on how we connect with and relate to each other.

Since February 2019, when the project started, two international conferences were held in Serbia and Turkey, as well as several individual events and three parallel art and technology residencies in Belgrade, Athens and Istanbul, with 12 participating artists. After exhibitions in each of these cities, the final group exhibition was organized in London, in collaboration with one of the oldest independent new-media institutions in the UK – Furtherfield. On the top of that, the research dedicated to the role of intercultural dialogue in the creative hubs ecosystem was conducted and published (it is also available on the project website), while the representatives of the different institutions from Serbia, Greece and Turkey had the opportunity to visit London and Cardiff in March this year, and interact with some of the important British creative and technology hubs in these cities. 

Connect for Creativity project is led by the British Council, in collaboration with ATÖLYE and Abdullah Gül University in Turkey, bios in Greece and Nova Iskra in Serbia. The project is part of the Intercultural Dialogue Programme that is led by the Yunus Emre Institute and is co-funded by the European Union and the Republic of Turkey.