“care, dare and share” - International Conference on Artistic Research

This will be the first time that, the prestigious SAR Conference takes place virtually, with some 40 topical contributions from international participants, thematically oriented around three central “attractors”: "care, dare and share". The conference will showcase works, methods, discoveries, knowledge-interventions, findings, forms of understanding, and efforts to support the exchange of experience in ways that may be simple or complex, conventional or unconventional, fragile or robust.

For the first time, the SAR conference takes place as a collaboration between three arts universities. This will enable a very detailed presentation and creative exploration of the dynamic field of artistic research in all its diversity of art disciplines and approaches.

Besides strengthening this field of research, the 2021 SAR Conference will also shine a spotlight on Vienna as an important venue within the German-speaking world for artistic research in all disciplines of the arts.

This first-time collaboration between three art universities within the framework of a SAR conference serves to thoroughly demonstrate and creatively explore the dynamic field of artistic research and the diversity of art disciplines and approaches.  Besides strengthening this field of research, the 2021 SAR Conference will also shine a spotlight on Vienna as an important location within the German-speaking world for artistic research in all disciplines of the arts.

care, dare and share: keynotes and programme

From 145 submissions through an international call, some 40 contributions were selected, representing the most diverse array of current disciplines and research approaches.

This year’s keynotes will be given by Emma Cocker (associate professor, fine art, Nottingham Trent University), Liza Lim (professor of composition, Sculthorpe Chair of Australian Music, Sydney Conservatorium of Music), and Jyoti Mistry (professor of film at the University of Gothenburg).

Ulrike Sych, Rector of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna:

"This cooperation project highlights the increasingly international status of artistic research in all its methodological and disciplinary diversity. At the same time, participating arts universities gain visibility as producers of cutting-edge artistic knowledge and as places that engage in questions of broader societal importance, seeking to address some of the major issues of our time."

Deniz Peters, President of the Society for Artistic Research SAR

“Artistic research uniquely questions, changes and expands - by means of thinking through artistic actions and not merely about them - what we know and what we can know. In their search for new insights and ways of knowing, artist-researchers explore difficult questions innovatively from subjective and intersubjective perspectives. In over 45 diverse and intriguing contributions and with plenty of opportunity for dialogue, the 12th International SAR Conference shows how artistic research can make a profound and unique impact on art and on questions relevant to human existence. I am particularly pleased that the SAR conference, organised with the combined forces of Vienna's three world-class art universities, also offers a time capsule to the lost 11th SAR Conference 2020 in Bergen, cancelled due to pandemic, in the form of a "Suspended Absence" website.”

Johan F. Hartle, Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

"Arts-based research is an essential part of the self-conception of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and is often cited internationally as a role model. Focused on critical epistemologies, our approach draws on a lived diversity that holds its own reservoirs of knowledge. The performative power of the visual arts opens up sources of knowledge that often remain inaccessible to conventional knowledge. We are constantly bringing this perspective into everyday academic life. I welcome the lively cooperation both within the Society for Artistic Research and with the two other art universities in Vienna."

Gerald Bast, Rector of the University of Applied Arts Vienna:

“The University of Applied Arts Vienna was not only instrumental in establishing the internationally respected programme for funding artistic research projects but is also the most successful Austrian university in terms of project funding by the national research fund. Artistic research represents a central element of the Angewandte's profile and contributes towards  the development and interdisciplinary networking of artistic fields in all departments. In recent years, the results of artistic research projects at the Angewandte have been showcased with great success in exhibitions in Vienna, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Los Angeles.“

Conference Committee: Anna Artaker, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Alexander Damianisch, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Michaela Glanz, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Johan A. Haarberg, Society for Artistic Research (SAR), Therese Kaufmann, mdw—University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Johannes Kretz, mdw—University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (Chair), Deniz Peters, Society for Artistic Research (SAR), Barbara Putz­Plecko, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Gabriele Schmid, Society for Artistic Research (SAR)

Detailed information and conference programme: sar2021vienna.ac.at

The Society for Artistic Research (SAR) is an international nonprofit, artistic and scientific society devoted to developing, connecting and disseminating internationally artistic research as a specific practice of knowledge production. SAR facilitates a range of encounters for its community of artistic practitioners in the pursuit of transformative understanding that impacts on political and societal processes as well as on cultures of research and learning.

SAR was founded in 2010 in Bern, Switzerland by a group of some 80 artists, researchers and academics from around the globe, under the initiative of the Florian Dombois and Michael Schwab together with Henk Borgdorff.  It is the only international society for artistic research in the world and has an international membership drawn from both academic and non-academic institutions as well as individual affiliates.

link: Society for Artistic Research