Published: 30 June 2021

Announcing SÆT Summer Camp

by Artsformation

In cooperation with our partners from CATCH, we would like to invite you to our summer camp in August. The camp is a co-creation event, where we invite artists, art educators, museums, educational and cultural institutions, designers, tech professionals, researchers and practitioners to take part in building a new school of aesthetics and technology.

WHY A SUMMER CAMP?

We want to create an event for professionals where we can bring bright minds together and start the co-development of a new school – as in a school of thought. SÆT is founded with the aim of social and ecological inclusion. We want to overcome the digital divide and challenge the dominant commercial narrative of tech by exploring and rethinking new technologies for our society through aesthetic methods and theory.

– SÆT is a new collective and ecocritical approach to future technology
– SÆT puts art and the aesthetics at the center of the development
– wants to include a more diverse group of people in the often complex and exclusive conversation about new technology
– SÆT insists that solutions must not only apply to the few but needs to consider the planet as a whole

CODE + CLIMATE

We have chosen this as a theme for the summer camp, because there is a need to rethink our use of technology and what we develop in the light of the current climate crisis. We would like to develop our own SÆTs around this theme, but we invite you to challenge the format for creativity or simply because you have an idea for a SÆT that is not related. Just let us know.
Starting from artistic practice, we envisage each SÆT to include an aesthetic theory, a technology and a target group. For example, a SÆT could find inspiration in a socially engaged art practice/theory, exploring the creation and use of blockchain in relation to people and planet – focusing on factory workers in the supply chain who are part of this blockchain.

HOW WE DO IT

We have workshops in the morning from 10-12 where we co-develop new SÆTs – open source kits that can be used for educational purposes. We don’t have a fixed target group, you can develop your SÆT to whoever you think needs to be included in the development and rethinking of what technology is.
When you sign up we ask you to let us know if you already have ideas for a SÆT and if you already have friends/colleagues you would like to work with and if you need other competencies to develop the SÆT. We aim to create transdisciplinary activities, so use this summer camp as a possibility to get to know new people in different domains. We will try to find the competences that you need and match you up.
In the afternoon from 13-16 we test out the SÆTs and give feedback. In the evening we will arrange informal talks and discussions – and of course have some fun together.

PRACTICALITIES

The summer camp takes place August 16-19 from 10-17 every day at Catch in Elsinore. We ask you to book your own room/cabin at the hostel og camping site right next to the waterfront or whatever you prefer (www.danhostelhelsingor.dk). The price for participation is 300 DKK and covers basic materials coffee/tea/fruit during the day.
We only have room for 25 per day, so make sure you sign up soon, if you want to participate. Sign up here https://forms.gle/6zbrsrZkd9QaPd3E9

WHAT IS SÆT?
SÆT is a school of aesthetics and technology and a collaboration between Catch and Arken. Sæt is founded with the aim of social and ecological inclusion. We want to overcome the digital divide and challenge the dominant commercial narrative of tech by exploring and rethinking new technologies for our society through aesthetic methods and theory.
Read more about SÆT here: http://aestheticsandtechnology.org/

SÆT is developed in collaboration with Katrine Pedersen, Arken Art and Tech Lab; Mads Høbye, Associate professor at Roskilde University; Nicolas Padfield, Lab leader, FabLab RUC, Roskilde University; Kirsti Reitan Andersen, Artsformation, Copenhagen Business School & Jesper Balslev, Lektor. Ph.d