Abstract (long paper)

Keywords: Electronic arts, media arts, sound arts, humanitarian actions, climate change, environmental crisis.

The equilibrium between a healthy environment, the energy our society needs to maintain or improve this lifestyle and the interconnected economies could pass more quickly than expected from the current complex balance to a complete new reality where human beings would need to be as creative as never before to survive. Environmental problems, economic uncertainty and political complexity have been around for a long time. What was different before was the speed and depth of transformations compared with today’s sudden changes. The frequent occurrence and severity that certain weather and climate-related events are having around us is increasing, and the ability of human beings on modifying adjacent surroundings as well as distant places have turn into a power capable of altering the planet. Have electronic art a role in all this? Have electronic artists a responsibility in this context? Aiming to use electronic art as a catalyst with the intent of engendering a deeper awareness and creating lasting intellectual working partnerships in solving our global environmental crisis, three initiatives were launched: Balance-Unbalance, ‘art! ⋈ climate’ and EChO.

• Dr. Ricardo Dal Farra, Argentina/Canada, is professor of electroacoustic music and media arts at Concordia University, Canada, and director of the Electronic Arts Research Centre (CEIArtE) at the National University of Tres de Febrero, Argentina. He has been director of Hexagram, the Centre for Research-Creation in Media Arts and Technologies, Canada; researcher on electroacoustic music and media arts history for UNESCO, France; director of the Multimedia Communication national program at the Federal Ministry of Education, Argentina; coordinator of the Documentation and Conservation of the Media Arts Heritage – DOCAM international research alliance, Canada; and senior consultant of Amauta – Andean Media Arts Centre in Cusco, Peru. As an electroacoustic music composer and new media artist, his work has been presented in more than 40 countries and recordings of his pieces are published in +20 international editions (including Computer Music Journal and Leonardo Music Journal by MIT Press). Dr. Dal Farra has received prizes and commissions from the International Computer Music Association and the Sao Paulo International Arts Biennial of Brazil, among others. Funded by The Daniel Langlois Foundation he created the largest collection publicly available of Latin American Electroacoustic Music.  Dal Farra started the Balance-Unbalance conference series focusing on how the [media] arts could play an active role in helping to solve our environmental crisis. Jointly with the humanitarian organization Red Cross Climate Centre he developed the “art! ⋈ climate” worldwide project. He is an active member of several editorial boards: Leonardo/ISAST (MIT Press), Organised Sound (Cambridge Press), Media-N, and professional organizations: ISEA International, Electroacoustic Music Studies Network, and Earth-to-the-Earth, among others. He is also a member of the International Advisory Committee of ISEA International.  dalfarra.com.ar