Smart Mistakes 2010

September 3, 2010 10:28 am

Every year, the Share Festival chooses a special topic to focus on, to help broaden our minds, sharpen our skills, and inspire creative expression. So don’t miss this year’s festival from 2nd-7th November, 2010 in Turin!

SMART MISTAKES: mistake, mutilation, failure, dysfunction, discrepancy, accident, unexpected change, chance discovery, the aesthetics of error, mass waste, project failure, abandon project, disaster, flaw, inconvenience, misappropriation, side-effect, slip-up, flop.

This year, the VI Piemonte Share Festival will be focusing on the artistic and cultural significance of error, in all its broader senses. The creative potential of analysing and looking into what lies behind an error is truly great, as it represents the uncovering of an issue. Which is of particular interest in this year of global emergencies. The issue uncovered then demands attention, which in turn elicits controversy, while it is controversy that generates solutions and innovation.
In the art and culture of our digital age, does error still play the role of instigating change and activating value?

Focusing attention on the role of error in the creative process means exploring the cultural importance of trial and error in action, where errata become an approach of clear artistic value. Just as a genetic error is an agent of mutation and hence of biodiversity, error in action is what guides the creative process – because perfection leaves no room for improvement.
In this way, the dualistic framework is turned on its head and error is appreciated in a different way: as an opportunity and not simply as a mistake.
In the sciences, error is seen as the difference between the desired result and the result obtained. Hence it is understood as a gap, a latency between reality and desire. Error is seen as that which is lacking for perfection. At this point, seeing that perfection cannot be achieved, error can be useful for understanding how much is lacking. The true measure is the error.

Now in its sixth year, the Share festival is changing to incorporate the progressive pervasiveness of the digital into the mainstream, without compromising its critical approach to technology. In the past, the digital arts were considered experimental, and not part of the commercial art industry. Today, media art is an important and accepted form of art, attracting an audience of growing proportions.

Today more than ever our aim is to question technology, not celebrate it, taking on projects with a critical eye or impulse. Our conception of the Festival as a platform for exploring projects that question the cultural influence of technology and how, for better or for worse, its use has come to pervade and change our lives, remains unchanged. This is why the Share Festival this year is changing its official scope of interest (and subtitle), focusing on art and culture in the digital age, shifting the adjective digital towards society, when before it was paired with art. This change of paradigm has been shaped by the growing pervasiveness of the digital in society – a process that has only just begun, but has already led to computers becoming an everyday object, on par with any other home appliance.
Until just two decades ago, creative approaches to technology could only be found in the artistic, academic and military spheres. From a niche interest, today all of society is under its spell. The task of the Share Festival is to shine a spotlight on these trends, outlining a scene in constant change.

If you have any projects or proposals in connection with the theme Smart Mistakes, feel free to write to us to discuss them: info@toshare.it

Share Festival 2010
2-7 November 2010,
Regional Museum Natural Science, Torino