Family Days at Garage

The participants will carry out an exercise in trying to imagine an ideal city of the future—one that most suits the mutual existence of people and animals. How can urban planning, taking into account diverse biological species, influence the city’s appearance and change the life and habits of humans living in cities? A discussion of these and similar questions will be followed by a workshop where the group will create a model of a city using different materials, including everyday things, such as boxes, plastic bottles and caps.

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Garage’s young visitors will get acquainted with the notions of “landscape” and “scale”, learn where the elephant’s or ant’s horizon line is, and how artists identify it. Moving on to the practical part of the class, the participants will try to look at the garden’s world from the perspective of a tiny ant, as they will have to create an installation featuring an image of this fantastical garden and the figure of a character.

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The lecturers will explain whether people are really so different from animals, whether wild species have a culture, and if it is true that dolphins are capable of complex learning and elephants bury their dead. Recent studies conducted by scientists from the University of Chicago suggest that certain cetaceans have a culture, while according to researchers from the University of Melbourne, bees are able to “comprehend” the mathematical concept of zero. But how does it affect our interaction with the world of wild animals, as well as with each other? The audience will learn how much communication with animals impacts the development of empathy in humans, and what evolutionary biology, ethology, and the social sciences know about it today.

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The group will be introduced with the works of artists reflecting on the subject of human interaction with animals, including the installation and performance Together Again by New Zealand-born Hayden Fowler, a video piece by a Puerto Rican artist duo, an installation by Maurizio Cattelan, and the works of Mella Jaarsma. The guided tour will conclude with a discussion about credence, sympathy, respect, mutual understanding between people and animals, and people’s connection to wild nature.

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The Earth is inhabited by millions of organisms. Even when we think that we are all alone in the room, there are thousands of the tiniest creatures around us. They may be kind or evil, shy or bold, friendly and attached to each other or annoying the rest—exactly as it is with people! This workshop encourages participants to reflect on the complex topic of relationships using microorganisms as an example. With the help of educators, the participants will create a large comic depicting a world where creatures with diverse appearances, personal qualities, and habits live together. Children will learn how to use color and form to express the personality of a character and will develop dialogues and mise-en-scenes.

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The lecture will focus on living in an era where smart homes, vertical farms, and jelly-fish burgers represent the future of sustainable development, while drones, satellites, and virtual reality shape the present of environmental protection. Humans are the only animals who have radically transformed the planet. Are we doomed—or will new technologies be able to help us maintain a balance with nature? Professional environmental protection is one of the most technologically advanced fields of human activity today. The audience will learn how to use drones to fight against illegal logging, whether it is possible to watch in real time what happens to leopards released into wild nature, and how virtual reality can help us save the environment.

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Along with using computer graphics to make works look more spectacular, many contemporary artists employ modern technologies for the very execution of their works. Artificial intelligence, neural networks, and results of a complex scientific research can become the core of an art piece or film today. Bearing this in mind, artists and directors

are trying to find answers to the questions of how to build a relationship with a robot or complex digital system, who is the author of the work, and whether artificial intelligence is able to wish to become an independent creator and declare itself the artist. Participants will address these and other issues using the works on show at Garage as their examples.

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Every day, scientists invent new devices that help people to live more comfortably and even longer—from smart watch to artificial organs. In just a few dozen years, perhaps, we won’t be able to imagine a person without high-tech mechanisms implanted in their body.

During the workshop, participants and pedagogues will try to think how the changes in nature and culture will affect human appearance and distinctive qualities, what people will look like, what they will do, what kind of clothes they will wear, and what new skills they will acquire. During the practical part, the group will create an outfit of a human individual of the future.

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