Science And Art Merge, Shanghai holds Science, Art and City Academic Festival
With the new round of global scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, art-technology integration has emerged as an integral element in promoting urban renewal and social progress globally. How can art integrate with technology for urban development purposes? From November 26th to 28th, Shanghai Science and Technology Art and City Academic Festival hosted an insightful discussion on this subject matter.
“Shanghai has made itself known globally as an outstanding creative city and Design Capital; as one of five positioning goals it has set the ‘Science and Technology Innovation Center’ among them. As the primary battleground of Shanghai’s Science and Technology Innovation Center, Shanghai Baoshan strives to foster deep integration between regional industry and education institutions; to deepen link mechanisms between industry and city; and to optimize emerging industry structures so as to promote transformational economic and social development and high quality development within its borders. At the opening ceremony, Jin Jiangbo, chief planner and vice president of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts at Shanghai University stated that this Shanghai Science and Technology Art and City Academic Festival was organized due to this specific background.
However, that does not make them less interesting to watch! They make for great conversations topics! Under the theme “Create and Share the Future”, this academic festival includes five major forums under its “2021 Create and Share the Future-Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation, Art and City” TED Thought Forum umbrella: AI Art and Urban Evolution Forum; Digital Interaction and Creative Life Forum; Aesthetic Education Action and Urban Creation Forum and “Art into the Future Forum.” Discussions will center around the current and upcoming trends of science and technology, culture, art and integrated development; promote urban transformation and upgrading; establish a new pattern of urban development; shape scientific approaches to urban planning; enhance urban soft power; and nurture young creative talents. At its heart lies an ideology platform for experts, scholars, and industry elites devoted to “Science and Technology Innovation and Art and City” renewal – where cutting-edge ideas and perspectives collide, offering invaluable advice and recommendations regarding construction of Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center as an elite battleground.
The event comprises five main sections, such as “Art Into the Future”, “AI Art and Urban Evolution”, etc.
“Faced with a new era, how can art education integrate with technology to strengthen urban development and enhance cities’ soft power? That is something I often ponder as an artist and educator.” Zeng Chenggang, Dean of Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts at Shanghai University commented, “With technology changing lives so rapidly and powerfully today, this academic festival serves as a perfect chance for art, tech and cities to collide to produce different sparks and wisdom!”
Jin Yaqiu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and president of the Shanghai Science and Art Society, believes that in modern times Shanghai has always served as China’s window to the outside world; new science and art has entered China through this city. Xu Guangqi pioneered modern mathematics education in China through the translation and publication of “Elements of Geometry”, marking its introduction as part of formal mathematics study programs. Yan Fu, as Principal of Fudan Public School in Shanghai, translated and published the groundbreaking scientific work ‘Evolution and Ethics’ which introduced ideas like cosmology, logic, and evolution. At this same time in Shanghai the “Chinese Science Society” appeared; while at the same time the “Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts” opened for business…
“People often misperceive science and art as being two distinct groups. Science involves scientists, engineers, and artists while art encompasses any creative forms which use innovative means to sort rules from chaotic phenomena.” Jin Yaqiu asserts that when science and art combine forces it will break traditions while spurring creative new possibilities that improve overall social environments – an undertaking worthy of serious consideration as an essential social task.”
“According to reports, Shanghai currently has over 200 key projects underway for 2021 – not including those conducted by various research institutes and units themselves – across science, art, popularization of science, entertainment and other aspects. Shanghai provides very favourable development conditions; I believe that its integration and development of science and art will enable it to serve as a ‘window for China’s opening up to the world and development base’ like before,” Jin Yaqiu stated.
Round table meeting.
Zhang Yiwu, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University, discussed the effects of epidemics on contemporary culture from a post-epidemic era perspective. For him, this period is not marked by its end but by normalization – meaning its continuation into daily life with far reaching consequences on culture.
Culture provides one solution to people responding to epidemic and historical circumstances in post-epidemic eras: culture is an invaluable solution, offering individuals hope, possibilities and creating identity through culture.” Zhang Yiwu noted that under such conditions there have been more articles and artistic creations addressing future of world and mankind with expressions such as art pieces that explore these matters: on one hand they reveal confusion while at other times showing hope, possibility and optimism for what lies ahead in future world.
“The slogan of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, ‘Together Towards the Future’, may seem simplistic but its power lies within its simplicity: sincere care for humanity. Together Towards the Future is plain yet has unprecedented appeal; similar to this conference title “Create and Share the Future”, which speaks about creating and sharing a better future – an expectation for tomorrow that has symbolic meaning for us today as we hope to create and share it together!”
Hu Jie, a Yangtze River Scholar for the Ministry of Education, explained that artificial intelligence typically falls into the category of science and technology; however, its name “ART” stands for art; meaning artificial intelligence has artistic roots. Artificial Intelligence has become increasingly common in art and design fields. With artificial intelligence’s help, thousands of transportation forms can be generated in two minutes with just a simple sentence from humans. “How can humans and artificial intelligence co-exist harmoniously?” One approach would be for humans to outline design requirements while artificial intelligence provides results and optional solutions based on those requirements – then humans select one as final solution before working in partnership on designing together on projects together with artificial intelligence.
Former Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism Xiang Zhaolun has long championed the protection of intangible cultural heritage. He believes that science-art integration is in many ways driven by “why”. Science can create artistic expression and beauty when properly combined materials, functions, and technologies. Protecting intangible cultural heritage places equal emphasis on understanding “why”. “To preserve intangible cultural heritage effectively and instil it with training programs, we must treat research on it with an approach of enquiry. Systematic research on intangible cultural heritage requires not only professional expertise in various intangible cultural heritage matters, but also involves folklore, anthropology, sociology, ethnology, religion, philosophy and ethics, psychology as well as other disciplines encompassing a wide variety of practices. Truth-seeking and academic research should adhere to common sense principles while respecting their logic, providing sound reasoning.
We should promote truthful academic inquiry that follows these standards while respecting common sense as much as possible and acting pragmatically. Respectful of knowledge, practice, and history is required in protecting intangible cultural heritage; scientific understanding should include understanding its characteristics as well as its laws of inheritance and evolution; scientific definition of connotations/extension/categorization should also be employed; finally we should further refine theory/knowledge systems associated with intangible cultural heritage protection theory/knowledge systems. As advocates of keeping one foot firmly planted in practice, conducting more extensive and in-depth field investigations, accurately understanding the real situation surrounding intangible cultural heritage projects’ survival and inheritance as well as grasping their inheritors’ living conditions and demands is of the utmost importance. “To appreciate intangible cultural heritage effectively, we should view it through appropriate concepts. Judging vivid practices based on wrong perception of intangible cultural heritage or specious viewpoints or inaccurate measurements would only lead to further misjudgments of its reality and interpretations of practice. Therefore, more historical, interdisciplinary, and international comparative research should be done into China’s outstanding traditional culture as part of human civilization development. ”
Gong Siyi, Vice President of Shanghai University and Deputy Secretary of its Party Committee, commented at this forum: “Through dialogues and exchanges here at this forum, we can better comprehend and analyze the value of science, technology, art, urban renewal and development – serving both society and urban construction more efficiently and improving public infrastructure projects more broadly.” He expressed hope that it can become an annual event that builds Shanghai’s urban soft power while stimulating its relentless drive and vibrant vitality as we advance further into a new era for development of this city.”
This academic festival is jointly overseen by the Ministry of Education’s National College Aesthetic Education Teaching Steering Committee and China Artists Association’s Art Education Committee, while being co-organized by Shanghai University, Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Baoshan District Culture and Tourism Bureau, China Democratic League Baoshan Committee District Committee Baoshan Committee Center Shanghai Public Art Collaborative Innovation Center Shanghai Creative Designers Associations Associations Artists Association Shanghai Society of Science and Art China College Students Creativity Festival Art and Design Magazine and Digital Design Magazine.