Summit

The third edition of the Bright Collisions Summit takes place from Wednesday 24 to Saturday 27 September, as part of the tenth edition of the TodaysArt Festival.


Bright Collisions is TodaysArt’s international Summit dedicated to creativity and society, a meeting point with a cross sector focus aimed to promote transdisciplinary talent, ideas and opportunities.

Bright Collisions refers to a specific moment in time in which people from usually disconnected backgrounds come together out of either necessity or curiosity. The main idea of the Summit lies in its paradoxical title. These collisions, either directed especially for this Summit or displayed, can contribute to developing a greater understanding of, or initiating alternate perspectives on, a range of contemporary and urgent topics in society.

Some of the world’s leading thinkers and practitioners meet, discuss current developments and urgent issues, present challenging ideas and foster holistic approaches in several programs. The Summit features several programs staged in collaboration with many partners and networks, including ‘Sensory Experience’, ‘Ubiquitous Art and Sound’, ‘Failed Architecture’, ‘Tools for an Unknown Future’, ‘Moon-Mars Exploration through Arts, Science and Innovation’ (organized by the European Space Agency), ‘Expulsions’ and ‘TodaysArt Network’.

Creative experts, policy makers, technologists, entrepreneurs, artists, companies and researchers from various backgrounds will look at what creative solutions can contribute to society in a time when the forms, values and relations of technology, media and social structures are changing, intertwining and exerting forces on each other. Available knowledge is reconfigured to facilitate our interaction with the world of today and tomorrow. In order to create a cohesive view on these developments, the topics are approached from various scientific, social, historical, futuristic and artistic perspectives on both a practical as well as a theoretical level.



Ubiquitous Art and Sound - 24 September

The intangible aspects, qualities and possibilities of art and sound in public and private spaces are getting more powerful and are increasingly present in contemporary urban life.

By inviting practitioners to elaborate and demonstrate transdisciplinary projects dedicated to this theme and to address current developments, we aim to articulate the ways in which our living environment can be designed and how it is currently being influenced. The participants will elaborate their practice ranging from light design and sound design, interventions, installations, mappings and visualizations of urban frequencies, site specific performances, while at the same time focusing on the theoretical discourse. Herein we look at the cultural and environmental relevance and the wider societal impact implied by this move to increasing ubiquity.

24 September
Zuiderstrandtheater – Foyer 1st Floor
14:00 - 16:00

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Sensory Experience - 24 September

In ‘Sensory Experience’, a variety of academics, scientists and artists active in the field of sensory experience will discuss the experience of sensory-based actions that intermingle our sense of smell, taste, sight, sound and touch.

The increasing development and deployment of sensors and hand-held electronics in recent years are allowing artists, scientists and other practitioners to design new ways of interaction that were practically impossible in the past. We as humans are using, understanding and even extending our senses in ways never done before. We start to understand previously unknown processes in our bodies, we discover that plants are communicating, we can experience new tastes and so on. The participants in this module are exploring new ways to experience and manipulate various internal efforts and sensations. Immersive audiovisual environments are playing with the senses and materializing the immaterial, for example by mapping the heart waves or brain synchronizations, reflecting the activities within our bodies. With this program we aim to give insight into different approaches in the developments of new sensory experiences.

24 September
Zuiderstrandtheater – Foyer 1st Floor
11:00 - 13:00

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Failed Architecture - 24 September

Failed Architecture hosts the debate 'Scheveningen's Seaside Architecture' in which experts and stakeholders explore the defamed architecture and tourist infrastructure of Scheveningen, taking into account international and historical perspectives.

Already for decades, Dutch seaside resorts are coping with high vacancy rates and reputation issues. The recent bankruptcy of Scheveningen's pier and redevelopment plans for its harbour are just one example of the ways in which recent and less recent economic developments are affecting seaside towns. With the advent of cheaper foreign travel in the 1970s, the demand for traditional 'bucket and spade' holidays decreased.

Western European seaside towns that had flourished since the late nineteenth century found themselves losing their economic purpose, with holidayers preferring the more reliable weather and cheap prices in Mediterranean, and, more recently, Asiatic surroundings. In the Dutch context, policy makers and developers responded by redeveloping the coastlines into entertainment and holiday residencies for the masses, making them more weather proof. Cheap architecture led to an equally cheap reputation, as might be exemplified by the recent Dutch television series 'Bijlmer aan zee'. Nowadays, policy makers are trying to turn the tide again by making grandiose plans, in which post-war architecture is usually used as a scapegoat.

24 September
Zuiderstrandtheater – Foyer 1st Floor
16:30 - 18:30

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Moon-Mars Exploration through Arts, Science and Innovation - 25 September

The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe's gateway to space. Together with a strong team of scientists and artists, ESA triggers our imagination by revealing the newest discoveries about Moon-Mars Exploration.

At TodaysArt, the European Space Agency aims to create a unique moment where artists meet with scientists and young researchers in their quest for space exploration. The fruitful collision between these often distant and conflicted professions is resulting in wonderful alternative insights into reality. The transdisciplinary meetup consists of keynotes and showcases diving into different visions and experiences of science, technical and artistic exploration projects. Presenters will address lunar exploration, space and environmental awareness, human - robot collaboration (MOONWALK), crowdsourcing games for exploration and disaster relief, habitats in extreme conditions (EXOHAB), etc. After the program of keynotes and presentations, two hands-on Moon-Mars exploration workshops will gather artists, scientists, designers, technologists and innovators.

The first workshop will be dedicated to "The Habitats on the Moon and Mars" and addresses human and social aspects of space exploration. Participants will brainstorm, try hands-on tools and develop concepts towards habitat design and terrestrial demo of a minimum international Moon-Mars base.

The second workshop will be focused on "Discoveries, Technologies and Tools for Moon-Mars Exploration", addressing new discoveries, science, robotics and technical aspects of space exploration. Participants will be mining Moon-Mars and space data. They will experience hands-on demonstration of lander instruments and telescopes to be operated remotely or by “terrestrial” astronauts as it will be in a lunar robotic village.

25 September

Zuiderstrandtheater – Foyer 1st Floor
09:00 - 12:00 - Moon-Mars Exploration through Arts, Science and Innovation

Zuiderstrandtheater – Lounge 1st Floor
13:00 - 15:00 - Workshop - Discoveries, Technologies and Tools for Moon-Mars Exploration

Zuiderstrandtheater – Studio Ground Floor
13:00 - 15:00 - Workshop - The Habitats on Moon and Mars
15:00 - 16:00 - Panel discussion + showcases of Workshop results

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Tools for an Unknown Future - 25 September

The ‘Tools for an Unknown Future’ module features keynotes, talks and a panel by world leading practitioners and thinkers from the fields of art, digital culture, design, urban planning, media, and innovation.

The program has been shaped together with three organisations - the European Cities of Advanced Sound and related arts (ECAS) network, Cimatics and FutureEverything with the aim of setting up a transnational symposium. Earlier symposiums dedicated to the theme of 'Tools for an Unknown Future' were organized by ICAS partners MUTEK and FutureEverything and formed the basis of what we aim to continue on.

Following FutureEverything 2014's focus on the theme, we are delighted to have Tom Higham (Executive Director of FutureEverything) chairing this panel. FutureEverything debated our fascination with tools as the most natural path towards social change, and open up new ways to question, imagine and make the strange, troubled thing called the future.

Diverse fields such as arts, design, economics, politics, technology, culture and science have never been isolated constructions and are increasingly intertwining, mainly due to current technological acceleration, systems in crises, humanitarian questions and urbanistic developments. However, in order to define our world and make our modern life easier and more understandable, we tend to categorize, separate and exclude. In some ways this is inevitable and logical, but it does not necessarily mean that it is the best way to move forward.

By staging the ‘Tools for an Unknown Future’ theme in the context of the Bright Collisions Summit, we aim to reflect on tools as main factors in adapting to developments in order to prepare for future scenarios. Herein participants do not look forward to predict these future scenarios, but look at current practices, developments, labs and other formats which propose tools to analyze, improve and adapt to our world.

After The Hague on Thursday 25 September, The ‘Tools for an Unknown Future’ program continues in Brussels on Saturday 27 September. More details can be found on the BOZAR website.

25 September
Zuiderstrandtheater – Foyer 1st Floor
13:00 - 16:00 - Tools for an Unknown Future

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Expulsions - 27 September

In 'Expulsions' Saskia Sassen will give a keynote lecture in the framework of her latest publication 'Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy'. The keynote will be followed by a panel discussion with Pedro Gadanho (MoMA) and others.

Saskia Sassen is internationally known for analyzing social, economic and political dimensions of globalization and urban sociology, her most famous scientific contribution was the concept of the “Global City”.

This year, TodaysArt Festival leaves the culturally unbalanced city centre of the Hague and swaps the inner city urban context for the major natural and logistical elements of the Scheveningen coast and harbour. Here, a number of stories and developments intertwine: the festival, a global network of participants, artists and partners, a broad and varied audience, the identity of the city and the stakeholders of the area. At the same time the festival and summit address various local socio-political issues and historical and political tensions such as vacancy and the decline of seaside resorts, etc. In this context, Saskia Sassen will focus more closely on the topic of cities as new "frontier spaces".

The keynote will be followed by a panel discussion related to the urban policies and contemporary architecture with Saskia Sassen, Pedro Gadanho (Curator for Contemporary Architecture at the Department of Architecture and Design at MoMA, in New York) and others. In addition, the panel will try to elaborate the impact of an international festival such as TodaysArt and the practice of involved artists and other participants on the urban tissue.

27 September
Zuiderstrandtheater – Foyer 1st Floor
11:00 - 14:00

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TodaysArt Network - 27 September

In the TodaysArt Network program we invite the people behind the TodaysArt platforms in Japan, Russia, Mexico and India, as well as close partners from the broader network involved in a variety of collaborative projects, to talk about their vision behind these initiatives.

Besides international festival satellites and activities, TodaysArt is a co-founding member of the International Cities of Advanced Sound and related arts (ICAS) and European Cities of Advanced Sound and related arts (ECAS) networks. TodaysArt is currently involved in several other new European and international collaboration projects.

27 September
Zuiderstrandtheater – Studio Ground Floor
09:00 - 12:30

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Bright Collisions

Bright Collisions is a specific moment in time in which people from usually disconnected backgrounds come together out of either necessity or curiosity. The main idea of the Summit lies in its paradoxical title. These collisions, either directed especially for this Summit or displayed, can contribute to a greater understanding of, or initiating alternate perspectives on, a range of contemporary and urgent topics in society.

Fields such as arts, design, economics, politics, technology, culture and science have never been isolated constructions and are increasingly intertwining, mainly due to current technological acceleration, systems in crises, humanitarian questions and urbanistic developments. However, in order to define our world and make our modern life easier and more understandable, we tend to categorize, separate and exclude. In some ways this is inevitable and logical, but it does not necessarily mean that it is the best way to move forward.

The most common use of the word “collision” refers to accidents, which is exactly indicating the border of what we aim to do. We are not providing answers to questions or fixed solutions to problems and are not directing any of these collisions. With the Summit we hope to provide the framework in which collisions could happen.

In order to create a cohesive view on these developments, the subjects will be approached from various scientific, social, historical and artistic perspectives, on both a practical as well as a theoretical level. With the symposium we touch upon a series of topics which forms, values and relations are constantly being reinterpreted and give us space for discussion and information exchange.

In this Summit we aim to stage challenging ideas and holistic approaches in which some of the world’s leading thinkers and practitioners meet and exert forces to bring together generally opposed ideas.