Wednesday, September 20, 2023
Opening Programme
19.00 Festival Exhibition Opening
The National Library of Latvia, Exhibition Hall (ground floor)
Admission free. The exhibition is on view until November 11, 2023.
The exhibition features 13 artworks created by artists from the European Media Art Platform EMAP, as well as Latvian artists and other internationally renowned artists:
Memo Akten (TR/US), Nico Angiuli (IT) & Katerina El Raheb (GR), Emanuel Gollob (AT), Nicolas Gourault (FR), Carolin Liebl & Nikolas Schmid-Pfähler (DE), Rosa Menkman (NL), Joana Moll (ES), Paula Nishijima (BR/NL), Jurģis Peters (LV), Anna Ridler (UK/US), Līga Vēliņa (LV), Ieva Vīksne (LV), Zane Zelmene (LV).
Curators: Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits (RIXC / LV).
RIXC Art Science Festival Exhibition: Crypto, Art and Climate takes place at the National Library of Latvia, Mūkusalas iela 3 at the Exhibition Hall (ground floor) from September 20 to November 11, 2023 during the library opening hours.
Take a look at the exhibition photo albums:
The Exhibition Opening on Sept 20. Photos by Juris Rozenbergs. PHOTO ALBUM —>
The Festival Press Conference and Guided Tour at the Exhibition on Sept 20. Photos by Juris Rozenbergs. PHOTO ALBUM —>
The exhibition will address the questions: How does crypto art relate to climate change? Can artificial intelligence offer solutions to environmental problems that human intelligence has so far failed to do? Furthermore, will the persistent ignorance of our natural environment ultimately compel us to transition to a metaverse—a virtual world providing an idealized digital simulation of our real world?
Paula Nishijima. Plug-in Habitat, 2022-ongoing. Photo: Juris Rozenbergs
With this year’s theme Crypto, Art and Climate, the RIXC Festival Exhibition will discuss how the landscape of art and culture is currently changing, influenced on the one hand by the development of artificial intelligence, blockchains and immersive technologies, and on the other by another challenge of contemporary society – environmental issues and climate change.
Today, not only the RIXC Festival and the digital arts, but society as a whole is focusing on a range of new technologies – blockchain networks, Web 3.0 and NFT, artificial intelligence and machine learning, virtual and augmented reality and the vision of the metaverse – that are changing the landscape of art and culture, and raising new environmental issues.
Zane Zelmene. Synthetic visions, 2023. Photo: Juris Rozenbergs
Digital media artists are among the first to explore, exploit and critically reflect on the possibilities offered by the latest technologies to create new forms, aesthetics or experiences. But digital artists are no less interested in the environmental impact of these dominant technologies and whether there are meaningful solutions to mitigate climate change.
What does crypto have to do with climate change? At first glance, it seems impossible to connect it to environmental issues, as crypto-art uses blockchain technologies that consume large amounts of resources. However, blockchains also have the potential to address environmental issues due to their transparency and decentralized network technology.
Joana Moll. The Hidden Life of an Amazon User, 2019. Photo: Juris Rozenbergs
Similarly, the use of artificial intelligence requires enormous energy resources, the cost of which is mostly borne by users – as Joan Moll (Spain), the festival exhibition artist, reveals in The Hidden Life of an Amazon User artwork, every time a user searches or places an order, an unimaginably long and complex code is run, which would take thousands of pages to print out.
Even more resources will be needed to develop the new Web 3.0 network, based on decentralised blockchain technologies, enabling the metaverse – an exciting vision of a 3D digital world in virtual and augmented reality, connected by a single World Wide Web… So more critical artists looking for the most environmentally friendly ways to make art on blockchain networks often don’t find them.
Memo Akten. Distributed Consciousness, 2021. Photo: Juris Rozenbergs
There are also artists – such as crypto pioneer Memo Akten from Turkey, based in the US – who have explored these networks in depth and have found ways to use more environmentally friendly technologies. Distributed Consciousness artwork by Memo Akten, featured at the festival exhibition began as an NFT collection of 256 unique cephalopod-like “Tentacular Critters” (octopus-like creatures), covering themes such as biological and artificial intelligence, distributed computing and cephalopods, and is a meditation on consciousness, free will, life, death, art, technology, ritual, ecology, economics and sustainability, co-created by man and machine.
The festival exhibition will be on view at Exhibition Hall (ground floor) at the National Library of Latvia until November 11. Admission free.
Follow the changes in the opening hours on the website of the National Library of Latvia: