This year, the Open Fields Conference, part of the RIXC Art Science Festival in Riga, addressed symbiotic senses and explored how each of us depends on interactions with lives and intelligences that are often radically different from ours. The keynotes and dozens of talks by researchers, artists, curators, media theorists, philosophers and scientists from different fields illustrated how these complex, albeit often invisible, connections challenge us to reassess the boundaries and essence of our human existence.

I discovered many intriguing ideas and artworks during the conference. Here’s a small selection of them:

Carolyn Kirschner, Rug in the Shape of the Shadow of a Polar Bear

REUTERS/Reuters TV, Arktika, 2017

Map of territorial claims over the Arctic seabed. Photo via No Pole

Designer and researcher Carolyn Kirschner‘s talk, titled Imaginaries of the Far North: Machine Senses and Digital Ecologies, was one of the most interesting i’ve heard in a long, long time.

She explained how the …