PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Fields/areas:
Digital culture, data and art, digital arts, cultural organisations interested in contemporary culture, social art, community engagement
Festivals, cultural organisations, contemporary culture, electronic music, digital arts, social science, social art, multimedia

How does the human body react to current social issues?

How can data from those reactions and feelings become source material for contemporary artistic production?

We are looking for project partners to join a small scale proposal to implement an interactive music and digital arts project.

This proposal concerns the production of an innovative electronic music & digital arts festival, where artworks presented are created by utilizing data collected from bodily and emotional reactions to social issues.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

“Transition to 8” is a project that connects contemporary artistic creation, societies and technology through an innovative and multimodal approach, aiming to foreground a community’s collective experience of a specific social issue, through art.

The pilot case of the project is currently being implemented in Eleusis by MENTOR (cultural production and management company), Athena Research Center, and the University of Athens (Department of Psychology), resulting in a methodology that connects pressing social issues with contemporary art, by using biometric data as source materials for artworks.

The project actively engages local communities through participatory activities, during which social issues are studied and discussed, data from bodily and emotional reactions to those issues are collected and constitute a digital ‘moodboard’ which is given to artists to produce artworks.

METHODOLOGY

Employing a methodology designed by sociopsychologists and computer researchers, community members participate in sociodrama sessions, where sensors register bodily and emotional reactions to specific social issues. The collected biometric data comprise a digital “moodboard” that includes text, audiovisual material, data, etc. which, in turn, becomes source material for the creation of artworks. A large-scale festival will give back to the community its (heart)beat expressed through artistic means.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES

·         Mapping local social issues

·         Community engagement activities

·         Artist mobilities -> art residencies to co-create, exchange good practices (e.g VJs / visual artists with music producers)

·         Capacity building / skills exchange

·         Showcases of produced artworks

ORGANISATION DESCRIPTION

MENTOR is a cultural management and production company, founded in Eleusis, Greece, in 2014. We invest in the development of synergies with public and private bodies and professionals in the cultural and creative sector, as well as with the academic and research community at national and international level.

We design, coordinate, implement and support contemporary culture initiatives and research projects that focus on sustainable development through contemporary artistic creation, re-use of public space, new technologies in culture, extroversion, community and audience participatory processes.

Our most recent projects include

• “Transition to 8: Bridging social issues, tech and contemporary art” (2020-2023) is an innovative research project, the pilot case of which is currently being implemented in Eleusis. Lead by MENTOR, with partners the Athena Research Center, and the University of Athens (Department of Psychology). The main objective of the project is to connect pressing social issues with contemporary art, by using biometric data as source materials for artworks. Co-funded by the EU (Regional Development Fund) and MENTOR
• HERITACT (2023): Horizon project
• Narrative Archaeology (2022): A 2-year project that foregrounds the theatricality of archaeological sites, through performing arts, implemented under 2023 Eleusis ECoC
• YouthLabs LaborArtory (2022): capacity building workshops on cultural management, targeting local youth, in collaboration with 2023 Eleusis ECoC

  Previous EU grants:

• myEleusis (2019-2022): use of technology (AR/VR, virtual museums, story telling) as a means to enhance the experience of the visitors in the Archaeological site and Museum of Eleusis, also co-funded by the EU (Regional Development Fund), implemented by Athena Research Center, “CITE” ITC Company, MENTOR, the Ephorate of Antiquities of West Attica.
• Pros-Eleusis (2018-2021): A digital ecomuseum for Eleusis, co-funded by the EU (Regional Development Fund), implemented by Athena Research Center, “CITE” ITC Company, and MENTOR

CONSORTIUM: Greece (leader) & France