Introduction
On July 23 and 24, the results of “Survival vs Resilience” were presented, an art and science project started on July 11 and led by the Fundación Épica La Fura dels Baus in collaboration with ICN2, ICFO, BIST , UOC, HLRS and UB.
The initiative’s main objective is horizontal collaboration between science, art and technology, involving researchers, creatives and technologists in equal parts. The result, a great collective experiment based on the performing arts that contributes to research, fosters critical thinking in society and puts reflection on plausible futures on the table.
The workshop
“Survival vs Resilience” is the result of previous work: part of dialogues between the entity and multidisciplinary experts from around the world to detect and determine needs, challenges and a priori goals that are not achievable in a traditional laboratory environment. How to communicate and to disseminate scientific content?, or what are the ethical and moral implications of scientific advances?, are some of the questions that arose from the conversations with the BIST, ICFO and ICN2. On the other hand, computational philosophers from the HLRS, researchers from the TURBA-UOC and the UB-Neurociencia take advantage of the initiative by proposing social experiments that involve both creative people and the audience.
Once this first conceptual phase is finished, the intensive co-creation workshop is launched, in which, on the one hand, the aforementioned research groups have participated, and on the other, a total of 30 creatives. The latter, directed by Pep Gatell, president of the entity and artistic director of La Fura dels Baus, have been responsible for creating the ideal environment to carry out the challenges and experiments posed by the research groups, which have seen the light of day. on July 23 and 24 at the Antigua Fábrica CACI in Badalona.
The project has ended with a newly created piece made up of four actions that address the concepts raised by the participating experts: graphene, fake news, neuroscience and the ethics of technology.
The showing
The first scene takes place in an exhibition based on graphene that provides the audience with knowledge about the material and its thermal and electronic properties, turning attendees into electrons.
The second action puts on the table the problem of fake news and how it is capable of transforming, manipulating and guiding society. In this scene, Kalliópê plays a fundamental role, a mass communication tool developed by the Foundation and made available to creatives to generate second narratives and collect data by sending content to the audience’s phones. Through the tool, the audience receives information about two characters who are presented as criminals, offering the possibility of judging them through game dynamics. Showing that, regardless of their own will, fake news is capable of manipulating opinions: the characters will be judged guilty in any case.
The third scene reflects on the ethics and morality associated with new technologies: what implications can they have in society? How far are we willing to go with new technologies? To address these issues, the creatives present a new technology capable of changing the perceptions of those who suffer. As a demonstration, one person is invited to test the technology. Despite the fact that at first the experience is positive and allows unimaginable things to be done, it turns into a nightmare: from addiction to death.
Finally, the fourth action is inspired by neuroscience, personality and how it is built into the brain. Thus, the creatives propose a narrative based on memories, identities and roles.
The exhibition concluded with a meeting between the creatives, the researchers and the audience, a debate in which both the creative process itself and the much-needed link between art, science and technology were discussed to contribute to the challenges of the future of the society.
