Art / Knowledge. Between Epistemology and Production Aesthetics

Situating the visual arts in the perspective of knowledge and
knowledge production automatically entails a re-visioning of
the actors within the field of arts as actors within the socalled
societies of knowledge. This epistemological shift necessitates
a ‘staking of a claim’ regarding the status, specificity and styles of artistic knowledge so they may be instated as topics of a research practice that can be regarded as both scientifically and artistically based. The envisioned research platform “art/knowledge” at the Academy of Fine Arts is to dedicate itself determinedly to the epistemic
and cognitive processes that are initiated and designed by
the visual arts. Art production as such is intended of central
focus within the research programme - both as an aesthetic
and social practice of knowledge. The international conference
“Art/Knowledge. Between Epistemology and Production
Aesthetics” will discuss key concepts in the debates around
“artistic research” and the relationship of art and science,
furthermore aiming to demonstrate contemporary social
conditions involved in the production and distribution of
knowledge.

Programme:

2 p.m. Welcome address
Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Rector

2.30 p.m. Experimentum. Mapping Possibilities of Artistic Research
Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna; Deputy Head of the Institute
for Art Theory and Cultural Studies

3 p.m. Art in the Knowledge-Based Polis
Tom Holert
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Professor for Epistemology
and Methodology of Art Production

Intermission

5 p.m. The Knowledge of the Arts, and The Art to Know
Sabine Flach
Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Berlin
Head of Department “Kunst und Wissenschaft”

6 p.m. The Server/User Mode and Distributed Experience
Caroline A. Jones
MIT Department of Architecture, Director of the History,
Theory and Criticism Section and Professor of Art History

The conference language is English