Ambience'11 Exhibition

Abstract

In art and design practices, materials and technology are means of expression as well as sources of inspiration. On the other hand, in technical development processes art and design provide meaning, direction and expressions of functionality. In some sense this duality of perspectives is what defines the loci where art, design and technology meet. Over the past ten years, the Swedish School of Textiles have taken part in the ongoing discussion on how practice-based research can further develop our understanding of the expressiveness inherent in new materials and new technology. In this context it is clear that art, design and technology meet in the lab and in the workshop. However, for discussions across borders between the perspectives of art, design and technology we need meeting places outside of the labs and the workshops as well. The Ambience exhibition is an exercise in building such a meeting place, but also an exercise in providing conference space for interaction between artistic practice and theory. As designers and artists working within a research setting, we often work in parallel with writing, presenting conference papers and exhibiting in different arenas. It is then only natural to include two ways of presenting results at a conference for artistic research; to let paper presentations and exhibition interact to create wider perspectives and deeper understanding. All exhibition contributions have been subject to a peer review process similar to the review process paper submissions are subjected to. And just as for paper submissions, reviews focus on originality and skills with respect to both results and presentation. This exhibition is the first in the series of Ambience conferences. The conference is organized by the University of Borås in cooperation with Tampere University of Technology and is a part of the Smart Textiles Initiative – www.smarttextiles.se In this catalogue you will find images, artist statements and/or project descriptions presenting the works displayed at the exhibition. Welcome to the Ambience´11 exhibition!