res-Qualia

Info

Objectives of Res-Qualia
Why “Qualia”
Scientific Controversies
Interests
Activities
Key themes
How Res-Qualia works
Participants
Especial thanks

1.- Objectives of Res-Qualia:

Res-Qualia.net is part of a global project that aims to contribute to the world dilemmas from the perspective of the art-science relationship. Our intention is to establish links between different disciplines in order to promote holistic approaches in building hybrid projects between art and science that are directly related to the evolution of consciousness. Res-Qualia aims to set up a relationship between consciousness, living organisms and artificial systems of intelligence and perception.

We are interested in looking at artistic projects and texts that explore the experience of new Qualia, practices with new perceptions and possibilities of awareness. We are interested in examining the way we could approach the enigma to disclose it, from the subjective experience to the objective experiment. It is a search that aims to improve the possibilities of our consciousness in order to produce a qualitative leap in the human being.

There is an interest from Res-Qualia to research and communicate, involving the different collectives and individuals in order to stimulate their own research around the key themes

2.- Why “Qualia”

According to the definition of Wikipedia, “Qualia (singular: "quale", pronounced KWAHL-ay) are most simply defined as the properties of sensory experiences by virtue of which there is something it is like to have them. These properties are, by definition, epistemically unknowable in the absence of direct experience of them; as a result, they are also incommunicable. The existence or lack of these properties is a hotly debated topic in contemporary philosophy of mind.

Qualia have played a major role in contemporary philosophy of mind, largely because they are often seen as being a de facto refutation of physicalism. There is some debate over the precise definition of qualia, as various philosophers emphasize or deny the existence of certain properties”.

The work of the well known neuroscientist Nobel prizewinner Edelman proposes ‘qualia’ as key theme to investigate because, in Schopenhauer’s words, it constitutes the world’s knot to be solved in order to understand the mind. For us this property, the “qualia”, is intrinsic to art.

From another perspective, qualia have been for a long time the subject of an intense debate in philosophy, because it is more suitable for debate than for scientific assessment.

3.-Scientific Controversies

From Res-Qualia we believe that the artistic work should find its position to give an answer to the human evolution. The utilization of science and technology in arts should not be used just for achieving its own purposes, but to offer a parallel view point and, in the best of the cases, to think that art could help in the development of the science.

We would like to discuss the differences between Consciousness vs matter; mind vs computers; creationism vs evolutionism, limits of the life, genetic manipulation.. Natural vs intentional

4.- Interests:

To promote creation in the area of art and science related to the development of the consciousness.
To encourage the development of new perspectives to design research strategies in order to raise debate between art and science.
To encourage multidisciplinary participation. We are inviting participation from artists, theorists? Philosophers, scientists, psychologists, neuroscientists, etc.
To stimulate current creators and thinkers in the development of Internet communities where projects, experiences and theoretical contributions can be shared.
To inspire new users to participate in these disciplines.

5.- Activities:

Res-Qualia is considered as a meeting point of an international community of users, although our objective is to expand the project in various formats and events.

6.- Key themes:

Topics to be covered will include, but not to be limited to, the following list:

Digital-art-science-consciousness
Philosophy of consciousness
Cognitive psychology
Linguistics
Neuroscience
Qualia
Awareness/ Perception
Synaesthesia
Levels of consciousness
Spirituality
Meditation
Evolutionary systems
Emergent behaviors
Adaptive systems
Complexity
Artificial life
Artificial Intelligence
Natural phenomena
Genetics
Transgenic
Life Sciences
Astronomy
GPS technology
Robotics
Virtual Reality
Augmented Reality

7.- How Res-Qualia works:

To participate you need to be a user. There are two different ways of being a user:

User:

Allow you to add projects, texts, links or experiences. These will always need to go through a validation process

Administrator user:

Anyone who requests it can become an administrator user, if his or her profile is appropriate to administrate the web contents.

The administrator should be able to check the projects received. So this commits him or her to have some sort of permanence on the web.

The administrator can add projects, texts, links or experiences that won’t need to go through the validation process.

Participation can last for a period decided by the administrator, being able to sign off at any time.

Being an administrator helps in the revision and diffusion of the project.

If you are an administrator you will find all the projects pending validation in emails you receive and in the submit area of the website.

The projects appear in the same language that have been sent. Only the menu of the interface is translated.

8.- Participants

Project Direction:
Raquel Paricio

Curatorial Projects:
Mónica Bello

Technical Team:
Albert Marimon
Fundació Aplicació

Design:
Artemis

Communication:
Artemis
Fundació Aplicació

9.- Especial thanks:

We would like to thank Ramón Font, Albert Marimón, Mónica Valverde, Juan Manuel Moreno Aróstegui, Karla Brunet, Raúl Woolands, Araceli Costales and Alessandro Vila for their collaboration and for making this project possible.

Especial thanks to Fundació Aplicació and the Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya for supporting this project.