THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Before his participation begins in this year’s edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB), one of the largest contemporary art extravaganzas in the country that starts from Monday, Austrian artist Christian Steiner is busy learning and teaching cutting edge technology in 3D printing at Kerala Technology Innovation Zone, Kalamassery.
Around 25 km away Latvian artist Voldemars Johansons, is installing sound producing electronic board which he designed, in city auto-rickshaws as part of an Art-o-Rickshaw project at Aspinwall House in Fort Kochi, the main venue for the event.
Instead of wasting time, both artists are giving shape to their creativity using technology. And this, the collaboration between creativity and technology to create unique work of art, is what will be seen primarily in the third edition of KMB. “I can see art from a ‘knowledge perspective’. Technology is a material for art in the times we live in,” said Voldemars.
His outreach project has already created a buzz in the Biennale city. He now plans to use it in the exhibitions in other countries where he participates.Christian is involved in a project called ‘prosthesis’. As the name suggests, it uses 3D printing of mechanical designs as a quick fix for broken parts.
Here, participating students attend a seven-day workshop where they learn how to use modern tools for their installations at Makers Outpost, which will come up at Mill Hall in Mattancherry. It is one of the projects associated in student’s Biennale category. To teach artist 3D printing, laser cutting and the like, Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), one of KMB’s technology partner, has deployed its resources including the state-of-the-art Fab labs and technicians.
“KMB will see the biggest promotion of design thinking. When assisted with the right technology, artists can produce fabulous products. Apple’s success is a telling example of how design thinking can make a difference. Not only commercial use, but such thinking can also extend to socially-relevant projects such as smart city, which can be designed better,” said KSUM manager Ashok Kurian Panjikaran.
Installations for the Biennale have come up in the form of sculptures, paintings, new media and others. The technical collaboration is mainly being done in new media category where electronic installations using light, sensors and projectors are used to create dark room, mechanical inversion and others.
Here, artist learn using Raspberry Pi, a miniature computer used for teaching basic computer science in educational institutions, to make videos with 15 m wide panoramic view.
“KSUM has given 50 Raspberry Pi to be converted as players for various video presentations in different venues of student’s Biennale,” said Daniel Jeevan, Technical Officer of KSUM. At Mill Hall there will be a makerCafe for conducting workshops on Fab Lab.