“SOUP”—Critical Craft Collective—BEK Symposium

 
Date: 16.—19.11.2023
Time: (See below)
Host: BEK & Critical Craft Collective



“SOUP”—Critical Craft Collective—BEK Symposium

- 16. Nov, 19:00 – Opening of SUPPE studio
- 17.-19. Nov, 12:00-16:00 – Opening hours
- 19 Nov, 13:00 – Collective meal in the SOUP studio (register here)

Bergen Assembly, Halfdan Kjerulfs gate 4

Based on their interests in data visualization, translation of knowledge between different systems for encoding, as well as questions about accessibility and participation in digital cultures - Critical Craft Collective (CCC) invites you to the project SUPPE. The project is initiated and presented in collaboration with Tenthaus and is centered around the concept of comfort, embodied by soup.

Recognizing food as a love language in many cultures, the SOUP project expands the idea of food as a tangible material, a vehicle for human relationships, and a medium for care and repair. The project will materialize through a series of activities in the open studio held by CCC at Bergen Assembly's office premises throughout the symposium: with workshops, installations, talks and activities open for the public to stop by and participate.

From nail soup narratives and soup recipes to aromatic elements and ingredients, and to artwork derived from computer visualization, the SOUP project involves an active process of deconstructing the multifaceted meanings of "soup". Project participants will unearth the conventions of this humble dish, the stories and heritage it carries, the pots and containers in which it is made, as well as how "soup" can be read as a verb, referring to notions of enhancing or gathering something.

Following CCC's ethos of collaborative practices and lateral ways of working, SUPPE recognizes the contributions of the diverse communities across different countries, ethnicities and socio-economic backgrounds. SUPPE is an investigation into alternative forms of art practice and production, into new anchoring strategies and tactics for the accessibility and participation of the extended communities in digital domains.

CRITICAL CRAFT COLLECTIVE

Adeline Kueh and Hazel Lim, founders and curator-artist duo of Critical Craft Collective (CCC), are dedicated to exploring craft at the intersection of contemporary art, design and technology. CCC is interested in the historical trajectories of these communal practices embedded in craft and care politics. Through collaborative processes of creation, they want to explore how storytelling can be powerful tools for decentering existing power structures in art practice. Together with partners Joanne Lim, Jonathan Liu and Victoria Hertel, they will present the SUPPE project in Bergen.

Click here for the full symposium programme.

Image: Critical Craft Collective

---

BEK SYMPOSIUM



What do we learn about the world while learning to live with AI? BEK explores this question through the concepts of hallucination, calculation and collapse in this year's edition of the symposium "The Only Lasting Truth is Change".

Among the contributors are: Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, N. Katherine Hayles, Jennifer Gabrys, Haig Aivazian, Jenna Sutela, Damien Roach, patten, Ibiye Camp, Ramon Amaro, Tung-Hui Hu, Suzanne Kite, Bahar Noorizadeh, Nora Al-Badri, Lesia Vasylchenko, Magnhild Øen Nordahl and Critical Craft Collective .

The symposium takes place in Bergen 16–19. November 2023, with satellite workshops and reading circles during the autumn.

***

We take as a starting point varied interpretations of the term "hallucination" - from the technical designation of errors in larger language models, to clashes between Western and indigenous epistemologies. We will look for different points of intersection between the artificial and the real - between large-scale statistics and local knowledge. Can complex communities or more-than-human entities turn into datasets? How do forests perform computational functions? Together with artists, researchers and the public, we will explore how data can be decolonised, how algorithmic systems can be overcome and how to stand against standardizing forces. Through conversations, workshops, performances and screenings - with a critical look at material architecture, environmental contexts and the politics behind artificial intelligence - we want to learn whose hallucination we are in. www.bek.no 18 October 2023.

"The Only Lasting Truth is Change" borrows its title from seminal science fiction author Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (1993). The symposium is organized by BEK with support from the Norwegian Cultural Council, Fritt Ord, Bergen municipality, KORO, Bergesenstiftelsen and in collaboration with Ekko, Østre, Bergen Assembly, Tenthaus and the State Administrator in Vestland. It is part of New Perspectives for Action – a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-financed by the EU. Graphic design by Vera Gomes.

---