Maria da Graça Carvalho participated in this event bringing artists together with researchers in Information Technologies hosted by the European Parliament, European Commission's Directorate General for Information Society and Media -INFSO. The event took place at the European Parliament and IMAL.
Information and Communication Technologies - ICT - are changing our habits and are altering the perception we have of ourselves and the world around us. But, this is also exactly what art does. ICT creates accurate representations of the world, but an artwork can provide unexpected or even imaginary representations and thereby new insights into the way we order and understand the world.
ICT can enhance our capacity to sense the world around us but an artwork can reach audiences on intrinsic emotional levels and give a new meaning to the world around us. Artists excel at lateral thinking and art as a creative act will inspire novel solutions to problems of modern technology and to the challenges our society faces. A conscious dialogue between art and ICT will stimulate novel ways of artistic expression and a new conceptual base to discuss and argue about technology and will lead to exciting synergies between artworks and technological artifacts.
The event intended to elucidate possibilities at the frontier between art and ICT: How could new ICT functionalities profit from emotional and cognitive responses that art can trigger? How could narratives from artworks together with tools from new media and ICT help trigger societal change and enhance social cohesion? How could art help civil society to better engage with a technological discourse and ease the adoption of new technology? How could art help immersing more gracefully new ICT artifacts into our society?
Maria da Graça Carvalho made an intervention after the introduction by Robert Madelin, Director General INFSO.
During the meeting scientists and artists from across Europe talked about their work and their expectations from such interactions.