Call for Proposals > Thematic Axes

Thematic Axes

Theme 1 - The ethics of doing and making

Are artists and designers creating the conditions for themselves that they need to create new forms in a world saturated with objects? Can we express those conditions in a formal way and give examples?

Even an overloaded world still needs new objects, which give meaning and its own aesthetics to an era. What ethical or technical rules do creatives set for themselves? What trade-offs are involved? Of course, here we are thinking of compliance with environmental standards and practices like recycling, upcycling, material recovery, reduction of materials used, accountability and transparency in the use of materials, energy and infrastructure, ideas like low tech, open source, permacomputing and so on.

We are also seeing inspiration coming from a sense of the common good: the philosophy of the commons, respect for all life forms, a sensitivity to the notion of "territory" and the local, work on archives and a document-based creative process, recognition of vulnerabilities, condemnation of discrimination. Are these attitudes and practices the source of a particular type of aesthetics? Do they lead to renouncing certain things? What is the critical thinking about dependency on the industrial and economic environments, and the persistence of de facto dominations, the involuntary enlistment of invisible hands by the infrastructure of creative research creative at the very time when creativity is maturing criticism?

recycling, upcycling, recovery, reduction of materials, accountability, transparency, energy, infrastructure, code, algorithm, data, low tech, open source, commons, cooperation, common good, local, heritage, archives, documentation, vernacular knowledge, vulnerabilities, discrimination, domination, alterity, care

Theme 2 - Agency in the creative process

In what ways does agency characterise creative work in the arts and design?

Acting through creation is not simply dependent on an artefact. We should look at the performative, symbolic, relational and political dimensions. The performativity of graphics, incorporated into routine behaviours, semiotically defines the uses of space and its intelligibility. That plays out in the expression of authority, for example the power of urban signage, or in resistance, with the manifest object, the activist performance, the critical scope and the counter-balancing force that an ephemeral architectural structure, a digital work or an image can constitute. Mere, non-functional inscription creates a symbolic territory and gives shape to the experience of others by rendering an inter-subjective presence that does not involve verbal language.

Some artists are working on "non-doing" and "non-making". This is not "a nothing". It is an act. It posits non-doing as a refusal to fit into a world order that we disapprove of. It rearranges the "already done" and the "already there", be they archives or things. In addition, performative practices are directed. They act on the audience. How is their transformative power diffused? How are they re-appropriated, translated, circulated and turned into actions? Are performative forms a form of expression adapted to the state of the world as it is today? How does studying them enrich our understanding of the agency of creative work today, both generally and specifically?

performativity, symbolic, agency, working, relations, political, artefact, manifesto, non-doing, non-making, arrangement, ephemeral, activism, signage, wander lines, sign, drawing, new utterables, invisible, unknown, appropriation.

Theme 3 - Arts and Industries

What the arts and design are doing to industry. What the new factories are doing to the arts and design.

What do the arts and design produce? What actual transformations do they bring about? Even as creative approaches are taking an interest in the social changes imposed by the depth of the transformation of life, industry is preparing to go in a different direction. By industry here we mean industrious human activity focused on the improvement of life. Within this meaning, we are thinking not only of factories, but also of micro-factories, farms, craft collectives, etc. What intermediation or instigation roles are those working in the arts, design and architecture playing in the re-invention of people's social lives, daily lives, working lives, and that of industrial, scientific and craft activities? We may think of objects, processes and infrastructure that meet new needs, markets and standards, of the speculative and imaginative contributions of artists and designers working in laboratories, residencies and incubators, including those working in the rural world and with significant otherness.

In what directions are alternative production systems evolving? What impact do these areas of activity have on the trajectories of designers and artists? Is there research in progress on new professions and skills? Does the experience of given environments steer artists and designers towards technological, biotechnological, ecological, historical and anthropological research, or just as much towards activism?

living environments, industries, redirection, changes, transformations, intermediation, effectiveness, crafts, micro-factories, farms, rural world, significant otherness, residencies, incubators, objects, processes, infrastructure, laboratories, imagination, trajectories, professions

Theme 4 - Theoretical infrastructures

By theoretical infrastructures we mean the contribution of historical knowledge and philosophical thinking to our reflection on fabrication (technical) and on agency (transformative).

How is aesthetic, architectural or technical theory interpreted in art and design schools? In our teaching do we manage to go beyond a quest for references and models that may be exposed to the pitfalls of analogy? Probably. How then, drawing on this, can we characterise contemporary ways of doing and making? Are they more pluralistic, decentralised because of it? Can we therefore help to measure whether the current historic environment makes them singular? Symmetrically, we may ask ourselves whether these contemporary ways of doing and making provide avenues for renewing aesthetics and the field of Arts and Industries.

The conference would also be enriched by contributions that look at interdisciplinary combinations, for example with materials science, the life sciences, ecological science, earth sciences, anthropology, political science and critical studies of colonialism and gender studies in this first quarter of the 21st century.

In a historical approach, studies concerning the contributions of art and design interventions in the criticism of industry, aesthetics and formal research are also expected. How to interpret - and reuse to our best advantage - what we have drawn from different movements, groups and schools to make something for the present, even as our specific environmental circumstances preclude simple analogies or the seeking out of models?

Finally, to what extent is there a dialogue between the schools, or, in the context of research events and exhibitions, between research teams and students?

critical theory, future, utopias, speculation, societies, theoretical learning, perspectives