Dear colleagues,
The reference sent by Jennifer is interesting (Spain EuroLab) and could
be one of the tools I suggested we need to develop to enable a really
effective collaboration between science, engineering and art and design.
However, if we are looking forward to thinking of a posible model for
what Pau Alsina referred to as a "Society, Association, or else that
could have definitively helped to take White Paper [s...] to influence
cultural policies and strengthen the community as a whole" I suggest we
provoke a real change in the approach from the
"Discipline/faculty/field/expert -based network" (inherited from the
past) into a "transdisciplinary question-based", "transdisciplinary
problem-based network" (as I mentioned in the first email).
Once this is achieved, each one of these "transdisplinary question-based
networks" could again associate into more complex "clusters of
question-based networks", something similar to an "association of
question-based networks". The nodes of these "question-based
cluster-networks" would be each one of the prime networks based on one
root problem or question (deeply felt questions regarding the world's
situation at any level). This second level of association
("question-based cluster-networks") would have the role of interrelating
problems and questions and taking them into an even more complex and
open network that would enable unusual sparks.
If we shifted the focus from "disciplines" into "transdisciplinary
questions" as I am proposing here and did before, I would like to
highlight that the framing of this Yasmin discussion as "collaboration
between science, engineering, art and desing" could be re-thought.
Placing the objective as "collaboration" (for the safe of collaboration)
between disciplines or fields can difficult the dialog. I suggest we
frame the objective as to find news ways to deal with the big questions
and problems we face today at any level; problems and questions that are
all interrelated, globalised and really in need of a confluence of
expertises, visions, creativities, and expert filters to help find new
forms to deal with them.
In this framework, specialization is clearly necessary. What is bad is
specialization without a vision of the whole and without a way to dialog
and frame itself in the bigger picture. So, we still need to develop the
vision, tools and environments to engage with the whole, to dialog with
this interrelation that problems and question are claiming, and crying,
for. In each problem and question, the complexity of layers, the
interrelation of levels and the need for different expertises is always
present. In the situation we are now, no individualized discipline and
field has all the posibilities nor the monopoly to deal with these
complex questions on its own. It is in fact dangerous to leave problems
in the hands of partial visions, but we need each one of the partial
visions to understand more, and farther and further. Lastly,
disciplinary interconnecteness should not mean acritical "collaboration"
; it includes challenging and questioning the very role of each
discipline. As Mayakovsky /said, in relation to art,/ "art is not a
mirror to hold up to society, but a /hammer/ with which to shape it".
Art can hammer even itself, so "collaboration" should include the
deepest forms of critical thinking and assessment between the fields of
expertise, on equal basis, between art and science, and so on.
Hoping this is useful for reflection,
Cristina
El 07/07/12 1:10, cristina miranda escribió:
> Roger,
>
> Usually life problems always imply and require multidisciplinary
> approaches, levels and contributions to understand and to deal with
> them in a fully way: we take into consideration different needs,
> either pshycological, economical, sociological, scientific, etc. In
> the same way in any "scientific" result there appear millions of
> ressonances of all kinds from ethical to political and society, as a
> whole, is implied. There is no science disconnected to society, nor
> science disconnected to the scientist's
> cultural-institutional-political background as a person. Even in the
> choice of a subject there is already a personal implication of gender,
> social class and culture, not to talk about the political bias.
>
> Talking from the point of view of an architect, and urban planner,
> that is also an artist, and a researcher, a theorist and a teacher,
> and, a rooted-foreigner multicultural person, I would like to focus on
> architecture and invite us to think that architecture and urbanism are
> complex question-based or problem-based fields (the city, urban space,
> a building, etc) in which different expertises (in fact very
> specialized ones) and social layers dialog and contribute to the
> construction of an integrated work-space-experience.
>
> I wonder if this experience in architecture and urban planning, that
> is to say, this kind of collective collaboration around one complex
> "question" or "problem" whatever scale it is, could be useful to
> analyse and to think of how different expertises could collaborate
> and merge their specific and highly especialized knowledge fields into
> an integrated complex problem, or project or aim.
>
> So, what I am proposing is that experts should keep their
> specialization (without loosing sight of the whole) in order to fully
> contribute to a collective question/problem, but need to develop
> sensitive interacting languages, bridges and instruments for dialog.
> Each field should prepare students of any field to dialog with other
> fields. Something like giving people the "language" with which to
> communicate. However, this level of conversation requires to bring the
> discussion to a more abstract form than the one that is required to
> deal within each culture of practice, culture of sub-field of science,
> engineering, humanities or art.
>
> I suggest to develop question-based networks, problem-based networks,
> not discipline-centred networks or multi-discipline-centred networks.
> Question-based networks function like open nodes of dialogical
> collaboration between specialized contributors. So the model could be
> groups of experts that are deeply grounded in different fields but are
> not closed because they are prepared to open different channels in any
> required direction at any time. For instance: the problem of identity.
> Each field has a different approach towards identity, from the genetic
> code to art representations this is a question that travels many
> fields. So, identity could be a "question" to base a problem-based
> network to be developed in different fields, across faculties.
>
> So, if each faculty deals with a chain of coordinated "questions" or
> "problems" each expert can relate to other fields in an easier way
> because at least this means refering to a centre of concern that is
> multidisciplinarily shared. At educative institutional level this
> would imply a kind of familiarization of students with other fields
> during the formative process, a kind of "Erasmus" between disciplines
> to allow students to circulate more inside their own universities and
> be able to get first hand experience of this dialog. Another
> possibility of this problem-centred collaboration is to allow
> interdisciplinary collaboration around projects during the formative
> period (for instance, the last project of an engineer could be done
> together with an artist but each one keeps their expertise deeply
> rooted to their respective fields. What is multidisciplinar and hybrid
> is the result and the capacity of dialog of the experts in order to
> work together in collaboration around problems that lie in-between
> science, engineering, art and design.
>
> Which could be these questions that travel across disciplines and are
> able to articulated deep thinking and experimentation from each field
> creating resonances that can contribute to a more complex
> understanding of our condition? For instance, identity is one of these
> strong triggers around which question-based networks could form and
> develop.
>
> Thank you for this debate,
> Cristina
>
>
> El 06/07/12 13:27, roger malina escribió:
>> Pau
>>
>> thanks for your comment and in particular:
>>
>> But I have to say that in our case we didn't follow the track we
>> opened by
>>> creating, for example, a Society, Association, or else that could have
>>> definitively helped to take the White Paper beyond that moment and
>>> continue
>>> to influence cultural policies and strengthen the community as a
>>> whole. We
>>> still have this in the list of key things to do.
>> I guess its not clear to me how this SEAD community of practice should
>> organise itself as a collective of interested people= there are
>> dozens or
>> even hundreds of existing organisations and societies that do a great
>> job.
>>
>> I suspect we need to think differently for two obvious reasons:
>>
>> a) we need to re invent professional organisations in the networked
>> world= maybe we need networks of networks rather than new
>> organisations. Professional societies are an invention of the
>> nineteenth century ( taking over from guilds etc).What is a twenty
>> first century model of how emerging communities of practice can
>> link to each other and be mutually supportive.
>>
>> b) the science/engineering to arts/design/humanities covers a vast
>> territory= and in fact in many cases dont share the same "culture
>> of practice" ( we see the disintegration under way in new media arts
>> because new media is not a conceptually clear category)
>>
>> In the book by allen repko on interdisciplinary theory and practice
>> one of the things he does is discuss how different kinds of scientists
>> have different cultures
>> eg observational sciences like astronomy
>> vs experimental sciences like chemistry
>> vs field sciences like ecology
>> vs mathematical sciences like complex networks
>>
>> they are all sciences but in fact the scientists have different
>> practices.
>> does it make sense to combine them all or should we create
>> translation methods between culturs of practice ?
>>
>> in arts and humanities we also find similar variations on how
>> the discipline deals with information about the world
>> and intervening in the world= time based arts differ
>> from architecture etc
>>
>> Anway i know that the FECYT report and the process that led to
>> it was very useful in spain= as are other efforts internationally
>>
>> for instance in the USA the mellon foundation has just funded a major
>> project to promote integrating arts practice into the research
>> university
>>
>> http://artsengine.umich.edu/
>>
>> ArtsEngine National has been awarded a $500,000, 3.5 year grant from
>> the Andrew W. Mellon
>> Foundation to create the first comprehensive guide to best practices
>> in the integration of arts
>> practice in U.S. research universities. To be published in Fall 2015,
>> the guide is to identify models,
>> obstacles, implementation strategies, costs, and impact on students
>> and faculty as well as on
>> research, practice, and teaching in other knowledge areas.
>>
>> With this award, the Mellon Foundation has enabled the national
>> network to make major progress
>> toward our mission of integrating arts practice into the research
>> university.
>>
>> This activity of course is a heads on collision between the "studio
>> based" artists practice
>> versus the research model for the arts ( and all the debate on to PhD
>> or not to PhD )
>>
>> So my question to your statement:
>> "But I have to say that in our case we didn't follow the track we
>> opened by
>>> creating, for example, a Society, Association, or else that could have
>>> definitively helped to take the White Paper beyond that moment and
>>> continue
>>> to influence cultural policies and strengthen the community as a
>>> whole. We
>>> still have this in the list of key things to do."
>> is what is really missing in the organisational landscape ? how do
>> we network networks ? what are the roadblocks to implementing the
>> FECYT report recommendations ?
>>
>> roger
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 at 4:47 PM, Pau Alsina <palsinag@uoc.edu> wrote:
>>> Dear Roger and Roc,
>>>
>>> I find truly valuable the creation and sharing of White Papers in
>>> AST, or
>>> better, SEAD as you named it.
>>>
>>> In the case of Spain I can say that it contributed to influence
>>> (slowly,
>>> and in some aspects) the cultural policies of some cities like
>>> Barcelona,
>>> Madrid or other places. The creation of a collectively organised
>>> discourse
>>> and a set of practical actions to do I believe has proved to be highly
>>> strategically relevant.
>>>
>>> But I have to say that in our case we didn't follow the track we
>>> opened by
>>> creating, for example, a Society, Association, or else that could have
>>> definitively helped to take the White Paper beyond that moment and
>>> continue
>>> to influence cultural policies and strengthen the community as a
>>> whole. We
>>> still have this in the list of key things to do.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>>
>>> Pau Alsina
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 2012/7/4 Roc Parés i Burguès <roc.pares@upf.edu>
>>>
>>>> Dear Roger and Dear Yasminers,
>>>>
>>>> Allow me to contribute to your SEAD project with this reference on a
>>>> similar initiative, leaded by José Luis Brea (1957-2010), in which
>>>> I had
>>>> the honour of participating, in 2007.
>>>>
>>>> "White Paper on the Interrelation of Art, Science and Technology in
>>>> Spain"
>>>> http://www.fecyt.es/fecyt/docs/tmp/115539236.pdf
>>>>
>>>> Published by:
>>>> FECYT (Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology)
>>>> National Book Catalogue Number: M-9179-2007
>>>> ISBN: 978-84-690-3520-7
>>>>
>>>> This document is a bilingual edition in Spanish and in English and has
>>>> these four different chapters:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> 1. Training: Salomé Cuesta and Bárbaro Miyares (Polytechnic
>>>> University
>>>> of Valencia)
>>>> 2. Research: Juan Martín Prada (University of Cádiz)
>>>> 3. Production: Roc Parés (Pompeu Fabra University)
>>>> 4. Dissemination: Remedios Zafra (University of Seville)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Pau Alsina (Open University of Catalonia) was the relator of the
>>>> book and
>>>> can provide more details on the whole process of preparation,
>>>> discussion
>>>> and final elaboration of the conclusions, actions and
>>>> recommendations to
>>>> Policy Makers gathered in this book.
>>>>
>>>> I hope you all find it useful.
>>>>
>>>> Warm regards,
>>>>
>>>> Roc Parés
>>>>
>>>> 2012/7/4 roger malina <rmalina@alum.mit.edu>
>>>>
>>>>> Dear YASMINERS
>>>>>
>>>>> I am proposing that on YASMIN DISCUSSION LIST we have some
>>>>> discussions
>>>>> on the problems that we face when we try to establish collaboration
>>>> between
>>>>> science/engineering with arts/design/humanities= with
>>>>> recommendations on
>>>>> how
>>>>> to overcome these problems. But also how to take advantage of the new
>>>>> opportunities.
>>>>>
>>>>> This is part of a project that a network of us have been developing ,
>>>>> SEAD, and will result in a report next summer 2013. Many reports have
>>>>> already been
>>>>> written and we will also be doing a meta-analysis of previous
>>>>> reports.
>>>>> We are working
>>>>> on a compilation of previous reports which you will find on our
>>>>> web site.
>>>>>
>>>>> http://sead.viz.tamu.edu/projects/white_papers.html
>>>>>
>>>>> Beyond the discussion on YASMIN, we would be delighted if any
>>>>> YASMINERS
>>>>> would like to develop what we are calling a white paper- this is a
>>>>> document (or
>>>>> can be a video) which identifies problems and opportunities with
>>>>> specific
>>>>> recommendations on how to enable the solutions. I provide more
>>>>> details
>>>>> below
>>>>> but you can find our inititial web site at:
>>>>>
>>>>> http://sead.viz.tamu.edu/projects/white_papers.html
>>>>>
>>>>> If you are not already on the YASMIN DISCUSSION list you need to
>>>> subscribe
>>>>> at
>>>>>
>>>>> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>>>>>
>>>>> Here follows additional details
>>>>>
>>>>> Roger Malina
>>>>> YASMIN co moderator
>>>>>
>>>>> All of us encounter many roadblocks to develop
>>>>> the new opportunities that link science/engineering to
>>>>> arts/design/humanities
>>>>>
>>>>> In this international initiative we are calling for 'white
>>>>> papers' or
>>>>> short texts that identify problems
>>>>> and opportunities when one tries to have science/engineering
>>>> professionals
>>>>> collaborate with those in arts/humanities/design.
>>>>>
>>>>> These reports can be very short- one page with one recommendation, or
>>>>> even utube videos- or longer, They can be written by one person or
>>>>> many.
>>>>>
>>>>> We are also compiling all the reports written on these issues in
>>>>> the last
>>>>> twenty years and will be doing a meta-analysis of the previous
>>>>> recommendations.
>>>>>
>>>>> We would be delighted if anyone on YASMIN would like to submit a
>>>>> short or
>>>>> longer white paper with recommendations. Please contact me at rmalina
>>>>> ( AT) alum.mit.edu
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> More details below
>>>>> Roger Malina
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> SEAD Network for Sciences, Engineering, Arts and Design announces a
>>>>> call for White Papers on issues facing the international community
>>>>> seeking to enhance transdisciplinary collaboration
>>>>>
>>>>> We are seeking to survey concerns, roadblocks and opportunities, and
>>>>> solicit recommendations for enhancing collaboration between sciences
>>>>> and engineering with practioners in arts and design. These position
>>>>> papers will be submitted as part of a report to US National Science
>>>>> Foundation and the community
>>>>> from the SEAD network in the summer of 2013. With grateful
>>>>> appreciation for US funding, we recognize that activity connecting
>>>>> the
>>>>> sciences, engineering, to arts, and design is international and,
>>>>> furthermore, that global involvements are essential in today's
>>>>> economy. Therefore we are interested both in what US collaborators
>>>>> can
>>>>> learn from experiences in other countries, and vice versa,
>>>>> institution
>>>>> or region specific issues, and also in how to foster collaborations
>>>>> that bridge beyond regions . Cultural cross-fertilization
>>>>> via the SEAD network – whether from disciplinary, organizational or
>>>>> ethnic perspectives – is a vital component of our purpose and goals.
>>>>>
>>>>> Chair, Roger Malina, Leonardo/ISAST Chair Emeritus, Leonardo
>>>>> Governing
>>>>> Board Member. Distinguished Professor of Art and Technology at the
>>>>> University of Texas, Dallas
>>>>>
>>>>> Co-Chair, Carol Strohecker, Director, Center for Design Innovation,
>>>>> University of North Carolina system; Professor, Winston-Salem State
>>>>> University; Chief Research Officer & Instructor, UNC School of the
>>>>> Arts; SEAD Co-PI
>>>>>
>>>>> For more information:
>>>>>
>>>>> http://sead.viz.tamu.edu/projects/white_papers.html
>>>>>
>>>>> This material is based upon work supported by the National Science
>>>>> Foundation under Grant No.1142510 , IS, Human Centered Computing,
>>>>> "Collaborative Research: EAGER: Network for Science, Engineering,
>>>>> Arts
>>>>> and Design (NSEAD)
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
>>>>> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
>>>>> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>>>>>
>>>>> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>>>>>
>>>>> HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to
>>>>> subscribe to.
>>>>> In the page that will appear ("info page"), enter e-mail address,
>>>>> name,
>>>> and
>>>>> password in the fields found further down the page.
>>>>> HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: on the info page, scroll all the way down and
>>>>> enter
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>>>>> "Set
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Yasmin_discussions mailing list
>>>> Yasmin_discussions@estia.media.uoa.gr
>>>> http://estia.media.uoa.gr/mailman/listinfo/yasmin_discussions
>>>>
>>>> Yasmin URL: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin
>>>>
>>>> HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: click on the link to the list you wish to
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>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Pau Alsina González
>>> Professor dels Estudis d'Arts i Humanitats
>>> Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
>>>
>>> Web Estudis: http://arts-humanitats.uoc.edu
>>> Blog Postgrau: http://laboralcentrodearte.uoc.edu/
>>> Revista Artnodes: http://artnodes.uoc.edu
>>>
>>> (+34) 93 254 (2176) | palsinag@uoc.edu
>>> Av. Tibidabo 39-43. Barcelona 08035
>>> Blog: http://paualsina.wordpress.com
>>> Twitter: @paualsina <http://twitter.com/#%21/paualsina>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>
>
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