SAMIR BHOWMIK

Artist / Architect / Research

LIGHT IS HISTORY (2012)

ARTIST BIO

Samir Bhowmik is an artist, architect and researcher. His multi-disciplinary art practice deals with contemporary issues in New Media, Cultural Memory and the Environment. His research at Aalto Media Lab and the Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin examines the architectural, infrastructural and energetic entanglements of Cultural Memory. Samir graduated as a Doctor of Arts in New Media from Aalto University, Finland, and holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Maryland, United States. Licensed in the Sate of Maryland, he is also an Architect member of the American Institute of Architects. Samir's current artistic research project "IMAGINARY NATURES: Extractive Media & the Cultural Memory of Environmental Change" is funded by the Kone Foundation (2019-22). His latest infrastructural performance art project ‘Memory Machines’ opened at the Helsinki Central Library in January 2019, as part of the Library’s Other Intelligences project organized by the Finnish Cultural Institute of New York.

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PUBLICATION – INFRASTRUCTURING DIGITIZATION [2016]

Infrastructuring Digitization of Ephemeral Cultural Heritage [2016, Samir Bhowmik, James Reilly, Lily Diaz & Agusti Pellicer]

Ephemeral heritage collections are valuable to preserve by digitization, but not always deemed valuable enough for investments in digital infrastructure. Archival digitization infrastructure that traditionally has been located in the back office of museums, archives and cultural institutions has not necessarily been aimed at digitizing small-sized printed ephemera. Digitization devices, components and operations have been tied up with proprietary hardware, software and a plethora of formats. Thus, digitization infrastructure is often seen as an expensive undertaking with investments in multiple software licenses, a perpetual upgrading of digital infrastructure and training of personnel. Especially, digitization of ephemera requires not only similar infrastructure in place as for traditional archival heritage but also corresponding human resources and budgets to maintain and propagate ephemeral collections over a long period of time. This study presents an alternative approach to infrastructuring digitization in cultural heritage museums directed towards ephemeral heritage. The infrastructure we present here was customized and built from open-source hardware and software and sustained by community participation to digitize ephemeral heritage.

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INVITED TALKS [2011-2019]

-Aalto ARTS Building Design Studio, 12 February 2019: Invited Lecture: From Architecture to Infrastructure: The Design of the New Museum.
-Aalto HELDIG (Helsinki Centre for Digital Humanities) Seminar, 6 February 2019: Invited Talk: Grooves to Bits: The Energetic Materialities of Sound Archives.
-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 [2013-2019]

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 (Forthcoming, 2019).
7. Bhowmik, Samir. "Thermocultures of Memory." Culture Machine. Vol. 17 (2018). (Under review).
8. Bhowmik, Samir. "Hybridity & Co-Presence: A Brief History of Museums as Media." Museum History Journal. (under review).
9. Bhowmik, Samir. "The Infrastructure of Digital Memory." Museum Management and Curatorship Journal. (under review).

NEXT MUSEUM LAB [2015] Helsinki / An Agency for Critical Culture

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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