[ISEA2022] Paper: Maria José Martínez de Pisón & Anna Mateu — Past Futures ASTS in Valencia

Abstract

Extended Programme Presentation, Leonardo Laser Talk 
June 4,, Veles i Vents, La Marina de Valencia and Online

The interest in strengthening the relationship between art and science has its own history. The city of Valencia has witnessed this evolution, which already began in the 1960s. María José Martínez de Pisón, founder of the “Laboratorio de Luz” research group at the UPV, and Anna Mateu, editor-in-chief of the magazine Mètode and professor at the UV, will introduce us to the recent history of the relationship between art and science from these projects, imagining the futures we have built driven by the interaction of Art, Science, Technology and Society (ACTS) in Valencia. After the talk, there will be a live A/V sample of the UPV’s Master’s Degree in Visual and Multimedia Arts in collaboration with the Volumens Electronic Audiovisual Culture Festival.

Since 1960s, there has been an international effort in bringing together artistic and scientific disciplines. Valencia city has not been isolated to these international initiatives. During the same decade, local cultural movements such as “Antes del Arte” established connections between scientific and artistic perspectives when looking for new signs and materialities. In that cases, optical illusions served both as an analysis of our forms of human and machine perception, and as a motivation to look for alternative sources of artistic expression. Influenced by interdisciplinary experiences such as the one conducted in the Madrid Computing Center and artistic local trajectories like José María Yturralde work, in 1990 “Laboratorio de Luz” research group was founded at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, an art group focused on the research and aesthetic principles linked to the image and light. The artistic experience was understood not only as an element of a broader and interdisciplinary network, but also as a knowledge driver. Not much later, in 1992, the local journal Mètode was born, promoted and directed by the writer and science communicator Martí Domínguez. The journal is devoted to the research broad communication and its study, published by the University of Valencia. However, this project very soon opened its scope to the participation of artists, philosophers, sociologist, historians, journalists and literary author, to complete an interdisciplinary panorama to the broad understanding of the scientific research. In this LASER-Valencia we will present the motivations that arose to establish the links between art and science, reviewing some of the recent milestones of these Valencian projects: the research group “Laboratorio de Luz “and the journal “Mètode”. To this end, we invite Maria José Martínez de Pisón, researcher and professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Valencia and founder of the “Laboratorio de Luz”, and Anna Mateu, communicator, associate lecturer in the University of Valencia and editor-in-chief of Mètode. Through their experiences we will return to that past that started in the early 90s to come back to these imagined futures that were speaking about mixing and hybriding research relationships, which today is presented as a necessary reality to be able to address many of the most important challenges that we face as a society.
https://leonardo.info/laser-talks-in-valencia-past-futures-asts-in-valencia

Chaired by Salomé Cuesta (UPV), Moises Mañas (UPV) & Guillermo Muñoz Matutano (UV)

  • María José Martínez de Pisón (ES) is founder of the “Laboratorio de Luz” research group at the Universitat Politècnica de València.
  • Anna Mateu, editor-in-chief of the magazine Mètode and professor at the University of Valencia