"The Art of Gathering Environmental Data: Best practice" Workshop, 5.-7.6 at Helsinki University Think Corner, Aleksanterinkatu 7.

In recent years artists, activists and laymen, have been starting to produce, publish and use realtime environmental sensor data. Artistic practices of sonification and data visualisation became popular ways of data interaction. Platforms like the physical computing environment Arduino, or the realtime data publishing network Cosm (prev. Pachube) have led to a wide distribution of amateur knowledge and skills. Variable terms have been assigned and are related to these practices like citizen science, open data movement, crowd sourcing, open hardware movement, smart city, smart environment or ubiquitous computing.

Scientists are typically collecting data to research particular questions about environmental change, for instance, while many artists’ experiments seem to focus more on the phenomenal or sensory aspects of data gathering, or are often focused on ‘visualizing’ or ‘sonifying’ already collected scientific data. The goal of the workshop is to work out best practice approaches to strengthen the data which are produced in a non scientific context practically and politically and so in return the resulting artworks and activist impact of the work carried out.

This workshop-seminar is organised as a collaboration between Finnish Society of Bioart and Pixelversity programme 2012.

 

Schedule

Tiistai/Tuesday 05.6. 1st day 10.00-17.00
10:00-11:00: Warm up with breakfast & introductions/motivations
11:00-12:30: Mapping out the workshop & proposal for focus on different themes (data gathering/publishing/application)
12:30-13:30: Lunch break
13:30-14:00: Public lecture by Erich Berger (Finnish Bioart Society)
13:30-16:00: Data gathering - Invited input by:
Janna Pietikäinen, HY - science methodology
Pertti Hyvönen, Pythagoras oy - engineering methodology
16:00-17:00: Data politics/ethics issues brought up in the day

Keskiviikko/Wednesday 06.6. 2nd day 10.00-17.00
10:00-11:00: Warm up with breakfast & reflections on previous day's discussions + prepare for current day
11:00-12:30: Collating materials from previous day
12:30-13:30: Lunch break
13:30-14:00: Public lecture by Andrew Paterson (Herbologies/Foraging Networks)
13:30-16:00: Data publishing - Invited input by:
Jose Cano Arias, ICAB - scientific statistical methods
Miikka Dal Maso HY, – data publishing at the institute of atmospheric science HY
16:00-17:00: Data politics/ethics issues brought up in the day

Torstai/Thursday 07.6. 3rd day 10.00-18.00
10:00-11:00: Warm up with breakfast & reflections on previous day's discussions + prepare for current day
11:00-12:30: Collating materials from previous day
12:30-13:30: Lunch break
13:30-14:00: Public lecture by Tapio Mäkelä (M.A.R.I.N.)
13:30-16:00: Data application - Invited input by: Olga Mashkina, SYKE - environmental policy
Participating practitioners
16:00-17:00: Data politics/ethics issues brought up in the day
17:00-18:00: Collating materials from current day