Samir Bhowmik

Artist / Architect / Research

LIGHT IS HISTORY (2012)

ARTIST BIO

I am an artist, architect and researcher. I am currently engaged in artistic works in Helsinki and Berlin along with post-doctoral research at the Institute for Musicology and Media Studies, Humboldt University-Berlin. My research is funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation since 2017. I have a Doctor of Arts degree (2016) from the Media Lab of the Aalto University. A Finnish Citizen, I was born in India, lived and worked in Washington DC and New York after receiving my Master of Architecture at the University of Maryland in 2003. My artistic practice is focused on the past and the future materialities of media, digital memory and media infrastructure. My work is concerned with how these materialities affect and shape material resources and environmental responsibility. I am interested in disruptive strategies, media archaeology and participative projects related to energy, natural resources and cultural heritage. Since 2015, my research in Media Lab was funded by the Kone Foundation of Finland. I have also taught Digital Strategies for museums and media for Master of Arts students and have mentored and provided guidance for master’s theses. I have published in international journals regarding media and museums and delivered talks and presentations in international forums and museum conferences. As a continuing member of Pixelache, an experimental arts organization based in Helsinki, I engage with colleagues in experiments with community, emerging media and the environment.
CONTACT ME

INVITED TALKS/PRESENTATIONS/WORKSHOPS

-University of the Arts Helsinki, 25 April, 2018: Invited Talk: 'The Battery is the Message.'
-Swedish Historical Society (Mickwitz Seminar), Finland, 9 February, 2017: Invited Talk - ‘The Materiality of Digital Heritage.’
-Turku Museum Center (Turunmuseokeskus) Finland, 24 November 2015: Invited Talk about Media Strategies for Cultural Heritage.
-National Board of Antiquities (Museovirasto) Finland, Teemapäivät 2014, 11 -12 September 2014 : Invited talk and Presentation of ‘Haloo Akseli’ project at Gallen-Kallela Museum.
-MuseumNext Conference 2014 Newcastle-Gateshead, UK 18 -20 June, 2014: Invited talk and presentation about 'Light is History' Project in Helsinki.
-NODEM (Nordic Digital Excellence in Museums) Conference 1 - 3 Dec, 2013 Stockholm Sweden. Invited Talk & Presentation: 'Building Sustainable Practices for Museums'
-Digital Heritage International Congress 2013, 28 Oct - 1 Nov. 2013 Marseille, France. Presented ‘The Parametric Museum: : Integrating a Museum’s Building Information Model with its Digital Collections.’
-Inclusive Museum Conference 2013, 22 - 24 April. 2013 Copenhagen, Denmark: Paper presentation: 'Light is History: A Community Participated Museum Installation in Helsinki Finland'
-Modern Identities Conference: Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland 2012 12 October. Presented: 'The Post-Oil Museum: Building a Sustainable Framework for Heritage Institutions and their User Communities'
-Ecomuseums Conference 2012 19 – 21 September, Seixal, Portugal: Presented 'Museums by Communities: Exploration of a New Digital and Spatial Framework for Intangible Cultural Heritage'
-Trans-disciplinary Arts, Ethnography and Cultural Heritage Workshop 24 - 26 May 2012, Aizpute, Latvia: Organized a 2 hour community participated museum (Museum_2) for a local weavers association.
-Talking Trash(lab) Workshop + Lecture Series(Supported by Aalto Media Factory): Organizer in collaboration with Pixelache / Pixelversity Helsinki and Karthikeya Acharya ( Department of Design). Topics related to recycling and reusing digital and technological trash and transforming them into art.
-ESF-LiU Conference: Re-Visiting The Contact Zone: Museums, Theory, Practice, 17 - 21 July 2011. Linköping, Sweden: Presented 'Post-Oil Museum: Imagining Museums Beyond Oil'

PUBLICATIONS

1. Bhowmik, Samir. “The Parametric Museum: Integrating a Museum’s Building Information Model with its Digital Collections. Journal of National Institute of Building Sciences, Vol. 3, No. 3 (June 2015): 12-16.
2. Bhowmik, Samir, Karthikeya Acharya and Lily Diaz. “Light is History: A Community Participated Museum Installation in Helsinki.” The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum 6, no. 1 (2013): 145 -157.
3. Bhowmik, Samir and Lily Diaz. "Hot Stones and Cool Digitals: A Sustainable Contact Zone for Intangible Cultural Heritage in Finland." International Journal of Intangible Cultural Heritage vol.11. 2016: 162-171.
4. Bhowmik, Samir, James Reilly, Lily Diaz and Agusti Pellicer. “Infrastructuring Digitization for Ephemeral Heritage” Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage, Volume 11 (2017). Resubmitted. 10.2016.
5. Acharya, Karthikeya, Samir Bhowmik, and Jussi Mikkonen. “Light is History.” In the Proceedings of the Fifth Nordic Design Research Conference. Nordes 2013: Experiments in Design Research. Copenhagen, Denmark. June 9-12. http://www.nordes.org/nordes2013/pictures/ Nordes2013Proceedings.pdf (accessed May 4, 2014).
6. Bhowmik, Samir. "The Battery is the Message." Communication + 1 Journal Vol. 7 (2018). (Under review).
7. Bhowmik, Samir. "Thermocultures of Memory." Culture Machine. Vol. 17 (2018). (Under review).

NEXT MUSEUM LAB Helsinki / An Agency for Critical Culture (2015)

The goal of Next Museum Lab is to foster a ‘Critical Culture’, to become its agent and through its agency represent the multicultural Finnish arts movement. Its role is to define and unpack the idea of agonism in Finnish visual culture—the frictive rub in between antagonism and consensus in context of Finland and thread it through Finnish artistic practices. Thus, Next Museum Lab seeks parallels, overlaps, linkages and even experimental clashes with Finnish museums and contemporary artistic practices. Not only does it pursue collaborations that lie on the border between activist, artistic and architectural activities (where they are subject to criticism, introspection, and analyses) but also encourages participative research-led initiatives and trans-disciplinary experimental projects that could lead to enriching cultural exchange. Next Museum Lab’s aim as an agency for ‘Critical Culture’ is to help ‘initiate a set of histories which then informs the development of a new collection of critical vocabularies for understanding artistic behavior’. This emphasizes and demands new modes of curating, management and funding strategies. Through tackling such critical histories, vocabularies and modes, Next Museum Lab intends to chart and share the age of Finnish artistic disruption with world audiences.

MANIFESTO: An Agency for Critical Culture

Samir Bhowmik

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