Art Science Technology: theories and concepts for emergent technological universes

Keeping last year’s theoretical configuration as a premise and conceptual toolbox,* this year’s seminar focuses on notions and forms of intelligence—natural, “non-human,” and artificial—in order to further explore the potential of transdisciplinary migration, which enables concepts in the scientific field and various other disciplines to migrate. From machine vision to the realm of materials intelligence, the seminar investigates notions of ecology, hybridity, and trans-disciplinary queering as propositions and pathways for today’s artistic creation and exhibition making. It traverses keywords such as “alliances” and “non-human” agency and companionship.

The aim is to offer a conceptual framework to navigate the contemporary complex by exploring critically articulated modes of thinking and creating through experimental avenues in artistic practice, curating, and theory. Our work will reflect and question the current transformative theoretical moment, increasingly centred around the intersection of critical theory, philosophy, and scientific and technological discourses. We will observe this phenomenon at different geographies and scales, including global and non-western perspectives, as reframed by information and digital technologies.

From a methodological point of view, this year’s seminar intends to test a more discursive and responsive exchange with the students, enabling a systematic but generative investigation that will gradually render a visual map to facilitate an experiment with the spacing of thoughts. The methodology of the seminar therefore corresponds to a responsive engine; its theoretical figure is the Hydra.

This seminar is a continuation from last year's 2021-2022 seminar (see: link to archived seminar). Important: this does not mean you cannot follow it if you havent followed last year's seminar.