xm:lab - Experimental Media Lab

xm:lab is a research-based media lab of the Media Art & Design degree program at the Academy of Fine Arts Saar. Started in 2010, it is part of the academy (founded in 1989) and is run by academy staff. The academy is a public institution directly funded by the state, project funds are acquired from a variety of third-party sources on a regular basis. xm:lab has a series of emphasis areas and co-develops cultural education and research projects in cooperation with international partners. From reportage to complex information visualization - if code is king and data rules, documentary practices are shifting to new terrain. Under the conceptual umbrella of documentary aeshetics,xm:lab explores experimental approaches to actuality. The exploration of transcultural flows calls attention to the way culture/nature dichotomies are renegotiated. Under the conceptual umbrella of 'network ecologies', xm:lab focuses on the way the materiality of media implicates its design, use, production, and disposal in broader ecological processes, including the (antagonistic) practices of (collaborative) creation that constitute, frame, and transform them. In cooperation with the Centre for e-Learning Technology (CeLTech), xm:lab maintains a lab on educational technologies, with an emphasis on documentary/serious/persuasive games research and immersive envionments. Researchers also collaborative in cross-border initiatives on interactive/visual media, with a particular emphasis on transcultural visual literacy initiatives. The globalized production, circulation, and (more or less reflexive) consumption of (moving) images calls for a revisiting of media literacy approaches developed in the context of national public spheres and corresponding curricula. Questions of the border, of translation, and of incommensurability - of the limits of correspondence - are central to such efforts. Under the conceptual umbrella of 'technologies of play', xm:lab investigates the role of digital media in shifting concepts and practices of creativity, with a particular focus on the role of play in education, research, and the establishment of new institutional forms. In cooperation with Saarland University and the German Center for Artificial Intelligence, xm:lab takes projects beyond the design stage and explore technical questions of developing, implementing, and testing platforms and tools. The media gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts Saar offers artists and researchers a unique opportunity to explore the cultural constitution of (public) space. Designed as a projection screen as well as an interactive audio-visual environment, the screen serves as an experimental site of projection as well as reflection, an instrument both to design and conceptually explore new forms of aesthetic communication. On a regular basis, artists and researchers are invited to create their own iteration of the general curatorial perspective. Partners include cultural organizations in various countries (including Goethe Institutes in Cameroon, China, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan) as well as local and international research organizations (including universities across Europe as well as Asia and Australia).