The Forum: Digital Art History Austria is part of the 4th Art + Science Conference on Empirical Methods in Art History and Visual Studies. The aim of this conference series is to provide a platform for new approaches in the art sciences and to support exchange among scholars interested in empirical approaches to art research.

Digital technologies have become an important, nearly essential tool for art historians. Yet, while the digitalization of art historical research has undoubtedly long since reached every corner of the discipline, there is still a pressing need to further enshrine digital competence into the curricula of Universities as well as to discuss challenges of ongoing and future projects within the scientific community. The Forum “Digital Art History Austria” wants to offer a platform for the discussion of hands-on experience with digital tools in art historical research and invites ongoing projects from Austrian universities, research institutions and museums to discuss the following questions:

- What was the initial field of your project’s investigation and how did it change using digital technologies? What was the impetus to use digital tools and when did they become essential?
- How does the collaboration between art historians and computer specialists work?
- Did the digital tools and the results of their use lead to the formulation of new/ specific and unexpected questions? Did the digital tools reshape your research design?
- Does the use of digital tools allow specific methods from different disciplines to be adapted to art history? Does it increase the interdisciplinarity of art history?
-What to do/ where to go with the gained data? What kind of strategies were chosen for the dissemination and the long-term archiving of your research results?
- How is your project positioned in a broader context? What type of interfaces were planned?

This very same set of questions was posed at the 2nd Art + Science Conference in 2016 and is still of utmost importance, if we are to maintain a self-reflective stance in a continuously changing and developing methodological field. It shall be enhanced for this year’s conference by the following questions, in order to specify the infrastructural needs for Digital Art History in Austria:

- Did you receive any support (training, consulting, coaching) regarding digital tools during the conceptual formulation of your project?
- How would you describe the decision making process regarding the choice of an appropriate software? Who (persons/departments) was involved into this process?
- What software do you use? Did you change the software during your project and if so, why?
- Why have you chosen commercial/ non-commercial solutions?

We therefore invite you to engage with the community and share your thoughts, experiences and empirical knowledge on the questions, methods and infrastructures of present digital art history in a dialogical setting. To foster discussion and dialogue as well as to increase exchange among scholars the Forum: Digital Art History Austria takes the form of a scholastic fair, featuring short “elevator pitches” as well as posters by each presenter. Presenters will also be provided with a table to display additional analogue material or to set up a computer. A publication of the presentations is planned.

To present your work at the “Forum: Digital Art History Austria” please submit a 250-word abstract to artandscienceunivie.ac.at latest by May 15th, 2019.
For further information and more details on the submission guidelines please see our website: https://artandscience.univie.ac.at/
Unfortunately travel costs cannot be reimbursed.