IMAGINART

The IMAGINART project proposes to imagine and experiment with balanced artistic theories and practices to respond to the ecological crisis, which is at once environmental, social and mental. To do this, it mobilises two concepts that are able to cross these three ecological registers, (1) the degrowth in resources, thought of as a way to achieve a post-growth society and (2) the sustainability of technologies, i.e. the invention or use of more sustainable technologies. IMAGINART focuses on music / sound arts and digital visual arts, whose creative mediums are highly dependent on technological and energy resources. The project is interdisciplinary, bringing together researchers in the arts and researchers in post-growth. It adopts a methodology that combines fundamental research and research-creation. It is composed of 5 WPs that are interdependent while being dedicated to differentiated tasks: -WP 0 is dedicated to the management and coordination of the project; -WP 1 is designed as the foundation of the project, dedicated to fundamental research (and action research): its mission is to conceptualise and theorise post-growing artistic practices and sustainable artistic technologies, as well as to conduct a field survey to gain an overview of the state of the art, complementing the developments specific to the project; -WPs 2 and 3, dedicated to research-creation, are complementary. WP 2 consists of residencies for guest artists, conceived as places conducive to the emergence of balanced artistic solutions. Based on the ideas that emerge in WP 2, WP 3 focuses on the means of artistic production by developing and experimenting with post-growing and sustainable tools, then considering the artistic performances that will use these tools. These two WPs interact with WP 1 throughout the project; - WP 4 is responsible for the documentation and dissemination of the project. The project is coordinated by Makis Solomos (MUSIDANSE, 50% FTE), honorary member of the IUF, Professor of Musicology at the University of Paris 8, specialist in contemporary music and sound arts, in the music of Xenakis, and in the ecology of sound and music (his book Exploring the Ecologies of Music and Sound was recently published by Routledge). The other scientific responsibles are: Jean-François Jégo (AIAC/INREV, 25% FTE), artist-researcher, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Image Arts & Technologies at the University of Paris 8; João Fernandes (CEAC, 25% FTE), artist-researcher, Senior Lecturer in the Music Department at the University of Lille; Christine Esclapez (PRISM, 25% FTE), Professor of Musicology at AMU; Angelos Varvarousis (ICTA-UAB, 17% FTE), specialist in degrowth, Senior Researcher Fellow at the University of Barcelona. The laboratories involved are: MUSIDANSE (University of Paris 8), specialising in musical or sound creation; the INREV team of the AIAC laboratory (University of Paris 8), which experiments with and theorises research-creations on the relationships between digital visual arts and the performing arts; CEAC (University of Lille), which aims to explore contemporary creative processes and forms; PRISM (AMU), specialising in research-creation and epistemology of arts/sciences interactions; the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB, Spain), which includes world specialists in post-growth. The project has academic, artistic, educational, social and ecosophical (combining the three ecological registers) impacts.