Installation

Light is History Amsterdam [2016]

Amsterdam_SystemDiagram Light is History is now tentatively scheduled for 2016 in Amsterdam in cooperation with a local Museum, Power company and a local public school. The project will be designed and formatted during 2014 -15 in consultation with local partners.

Light is History @ NORDES Nordic Design Research Conference 2013 Copenhagen – Malmö

“Light is History” installation was exhibited at the NORDES Nordic Design Research Conference 2013 Copenhagen – Malmö, held between June 9 – 12.

http://nordes.org/nordes2013/; http://nordes.org

http://designresearch.aalto.fi/projects/lih/

http://lightishistory.tumblr.com

The Museum of Copenhagen beyond the "Wall" / Redefining the City Museum via Digital Technologies & Community Participation

According to Director Jette Sandahl, the Museum of Copenhagen is attempting to play a larger role in creating urban identity in Copenhagen, to help residents identify firstly as Copenhageners irrespective of origin and help maintain and promote a beautiful historical and artistic city. For her, the city museum, being the custodian of the city’s past heritage and a continuing cultural present, is in a perfect place to become the mediator and cultivator of the city’s cultural life and projects. Here, the role of the city museum in the urban fabric has become a place for contact and creating outreach among citizens and the Museum of Copenhagen is thereby positioning itself both as a co-creator and as co-custodian on behalf of all Copenhageners.

A night view of The Museum of Copenhagen’s “Wall” Photo by Casper Miskin, Museum of Copenhagen

The energy artifacts from the Light is History 2012 Installation has been collected and displayed online: http://lightishistory.tumblr.com . This is a preliminary attempt at creating an online repository of objects related to energy and contemporary nordic material culture. All the artefacts displayed here with their narratives were donated by the 16 participating families from Kallio neighbourhood of Helsinki, during the “Light is History” installation, November 24th – December 1st. 2012.

Light is History – Hakaniemi Market Square Helsinki 25.11 – 01.2012

The “Light is History” project in November 2012 involved a participatory Museum installation that served as a research object in a public square in the Nordic city of Helsinki. It investigated community participation, energy use, and new media approaches in the public display of energy artifacts from contemporary Nordic material culture. Participating families were requested to inform of their energy consumption and publish their daily energy use for one week onto the project web portal. This data was used to determine the brightness of the individual therapy lamps and to light the artifact displays of the installation for over one week. This research exercise demonstrated that community members were willing to anonymously display information of their personal artifacts and its use in the public place and share their energy use information for the common wellbeing. New media technologies and participatory action was able to bridge the private to the public spaces, the individual to the collective, and exhibit the community’s material culture and energy patterns. The project also established that a shared and collaborative installation space that mimics a museum can be created outside the museum walls that is open-sourced, sustainable, and participatory. The project received funding from Aalto Media Factory at Aalto University and was co-organized in the context of Pixelache / Pixelversity’s Talking (Trash) Lab Lecture Series.

The installation was on view at Hakaniementori from 25.1 to 1.12, from 17 to 19 daily.

See the process: http://designresearch.aalto.fi/projects/lih/

See the Artifacts: lightishistory.tumblr.com/

See Trashlab: http://www.pixelache.ac/pixelversity/trashlab/

(Briefly in Finnish)

Kuusitoista Kalliolaista perhettä on julkistanut päivittäisen energiakulutuksensa nettiportaalissa Light is History-installaatiota varten. Päivittäisen energiankulutuksen erot määrittävät installaatiossa olevien valojen kirkkautta. Kirkkaat valot toimivat kuten kirkasvalolamput, joten ne piristävät ohikulkijoita pimeänä vuodenaikana. Valot on tehty kierrätetyistä, uusiin vaihdetuista sähkömittareista. Osana installaatiota toimii kuvasarja, joka kuvaa teoksen osallistujien päivittäin käyttämiään sähkölaitteita. Yhteisöllinen energiateos Hakaniementorilla visualisoi energian kulutusta avoimessa tilassa. Se elää kaupunkilaisten arjen mukana, jonka olennainen osa energian käyttö on.

Projektia on tukenut Aalto Media Factory ja Aalto Yliopisto. Installaatio on nähtävillä 1.12. asti 17-19 välillä päivittäin.
Lue lisää: http://designresearch.aalto.fi/projects/lih/ ; lightishistory.tumblr.com/

Light is History – WärkFest 2012 – Cable Factory Helsinki

Our Energy Art Community Installation ” Light is History” was on demo exhibition at the Helsinki’s first ever D.I.Y. festival: Wärkfest 2012, 20 – 21.10 in Cable Factory Helsinki. The first modular unit, consisting of a therapy lamp and a display case (recycled out of trash electrical meters discarded by the metering company Mitox) was installed on a mannequin borrowed from the Fashion Department for a temporary installation in the exhibition hall. There were a considerable amount of visitors and people from the DIY community visiting our temporary installation and provided us a lot of interesting feedback. Information about the installation, participation forms and recycled electrical meters were on display at our desk. Kids were especially interested in all the inside workings and parts of the electrical meters, one even(pictured above) took home a few pieces, and came back next morning to show his own gadget that he had created overnight. We were also able to sign up participants and distribute information to prospective communities. Most people that signed up were interested in the participatory aspect of donating energy for light therapy in public and also about the community interaction it could generate at the site of the installation. Among others were also visitors who cared about saving energy and reducing their carbon footprint. I also presented the project on the main stage of the festival on Saturday 17.45 using slides of our presentation and the demo modular unit. Now, we have almost reached the upper limit of participants, however still looking for a few more dedicated participants from the Kallio area. We had applied earlier for an art installation permit in Hakaniemi Square (Hakaniementori) which is a central public and community location in Kallio, and today 22.10 we have received permission to put up the installation there! We have also already agreed with Helsingin Energia to provide us with support with this project. The tentative dates of the installation are: 24.11 – 01.12.2012 Hakaniementori, Helsinki.

Join us in our effort to initiate a public discussion of energy consumption and community well being at: http://designresearch.aalto.fi/projects/lih/

Light is History [2012] – An Energy Art Installation

The final preparations for our Energy-artifact-light installation “Light is History” has begun. We are currently looking for artists and residents of Kallio to participate in our installation.

SPORA BOREALIS Art Installation Helsinki [2012]

A GPS based video animation installation that charts the tram movements of Helsinki in real time and generates color patterns using heat signatures in the surrounding air, a process similar to the aurora borealis seen in the north of Finland. spore4

P-WALL Installation – Ateneum Art Museum Helsinki [2011]

My public art installation was on view for 2 hours at the Ateneum Art Museum as part of the 120 MUSE/UM Exhibition

Text Abstract of Installation /

Public urination, politics and political manipulation are the vices of our urban society. While politicians manipulate, the people urinate. Politics allows control over people, governance and the future our world, while public urination allows the desecration of our urban environment. Both, at some level permit the manipulation of our surroundings. The P-Wall brings together these two disparate phenomena in an effort to initiate a discussion about our civil society.

Exhibition Design for the Finnish Pavilion at the World Expo held in Shanghai 2010

This is an architectural and exhibition entry to a National competition call in 2008 for the design of a national pavilion for Finland in the World Expo 2010 at Shanghai.

Our design presented the pavilion as the bark of a Koivu (Birch) tree, rough on the exterior, smooth and sophisticated in the interior, somewhat representing the Finnish personality. It is reflected in the culture, the lifestyle and the architecture where truth, simplicity and beauty are held supreme. A self-contained world wherein self-realization and self-exploration create a new philosophy. The architecture of the Finnish pavilion represents this concept.

In the glitter and brightness of the world’s expo, the Finnish pavillion is a building turned outside in. Introverted in approach, it creates a separate and protected world in a foreign land. At a place where other pavilions are competing and clamouring for attention, the Finnish pavillion subtly attracts people who are willing and interested to delve and discover the finnish culture and traditions.

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.

LINK TO ARTICLE

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