João Melo: Art + Technology x Cosmos =

On May 14 at 6:30 PM, School of the Arts will host artist João Melo for a lecture titled Along the Vein.

Along the Vein maps the cosmic body. The lecture begins with the sculpture series Adapted Creatures—organic and electronic traces that emerge and ferment in the sea foam. It then focuses on “Undercurrents,” an installation created in collaboration with Diogo Martins that traces data extraction as a material continuation of mineral extraction. Based on the observation and documentation of abandoned tungsten mines in central Portugal, the work imagines the miner as an evolving, coded being.

Data mining is dark and tangled, like the hidden mechanisms of a mine—a metabolism that renews ruins and ways of life. Along the Vein accompanies the mine-body through internal coordinates and shifting scales. Myth shapes reality as a double-edged ancestral force: a ritual of enchantment and control, but also a space of liberation.

Art + Tech x Cosmos =

The program brings together artists, creative technologists, curators, writers, and thinkers whose contributions span a range of thematic constellations: from the spiritual and the mythical, to socio-technological infrastructures and (de)colonial logics, to speculative futures. Through these contributions, the program explores the potential to reshape how we think about human and non-human creativity, how we experience the convergence of art and technology, and how their imaginative possibilities can inspire new cultural practices and worlds. Curated by Joasia Krysa, Nuno Crespo, Daniel Ribas, and José Alberto Gomes.

More information about the guest here.