Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits, Atmospheric Forest, 2020
Dr. Rasa Smite is an artist and researcher, working on the edge of art, science and emerging media technologies. She is co-founder of RIXC Center for New Media Culture in Riga, co-curator of RIXC Art and Science festivals, and chief-editor of Acoustic Space journal and book series. She holds a PhD in sociology of media and culture; her thesis Creative Networks. In the Rear-View Mirror of Eastern European History (2011) has been published by the The Amsterdam Institute for Network Cultures. She lectures on topics of digital art and network cultures; sound and immersive arts; art, science and techno-ecologies; and artistic research methodologies in various universities: FHNW Academy of Art and Desig in Basel, Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG), Art and Technology Program (ACT) at MIT in Boston, and Liepaja University in Latvia where she also holds a position of a Professor in New Media Art.
In her artistic practice, Rasa Smite works together with Raitis Smits – from pioneering internet radio experiments, artistic investigations in electromagnetic spectrum and collaborations with radio astronomers, to more recent “techno-ecological” explorations. Their works have been shown at HeK, Ars Electronica, ZKM, Venice Architecture Biennale, Futurium Museum, Berlin, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, and other venues. They have been awarded by Ars Electronica in 1998, amongst others.
Completed research projects include: Ecodata–Ecomedia–Ecoaesthetics. The Role and Significance of New Media, Technologies and Technoscientific Methods in the Arts for the Perception and Awareness of the Ecological (2017–2021; SNSF, led by Yvonne Volkart), the outcome of which is Atmospheric Forest (2020) produced together with Raitis Smits, premiered in the exhibition Critical Zones (2020–2022) at ZKM, Karlsruhe, and awarded by Falling Walls – Art and Science (2021). Recent exhibitions include Beijing Art and Technology Biennale 2021, Earthbound – In Dialogue with Nature at Esch2022 in Esch-Belval and at HEK in Basel in 2022, and other.
rasa.smite@fhnw.ch
smitesmits.com
rixc.org
acousticspacejournal.com