Leuphana Arts Program - Symposium

Degrees of Freedom. Art Programs at Universities

Leuphana University Lüneburg/Germany
16 - 18 November 2011

Universities are sites of research and of teaching. They are sometimes also home to artistic practice. The symposium "Degrees of Freedom. Art Programs at Universities" explores the roles and potentials of art programs at universities, both for artists and for the universities themselves.

Experts from different fields and institutional contexts discuss historical examples of specific programs, experiences and incidents from different countries. A particular focus will be placed on the different ways in which the artistic practice is integrated into university structures. The symposium asks, firstly, how universities can foster and support artistic work and how artists can best benefit from the university setting. Secondly, we will discuss the role of artistic practice in the university and explore the potential of art practice for a research and teaching institution. Thirdly, we will be looking at concepts like agency, knowledge, creativity, etc., and debate how their different connotations in art, science, research and teaching can be brought into a fruitful dialogue.

The symposium "Degrees of Freedom" will prepare and inaugurate the new "Leuphana Arts Program" through which Leuphana University will, in the coming years, bring artists into the university. The work of artists is based on forms of querying, of searching and exploring, which are comparable to scientific research, even if they don't subscribe to the same expectations about objectivity and truth. Artistic research is aimed at strategically broadening and deepening knowledge that is not ancillary to an individual project, but that forms an integral part of an artistic practice. In dialogue with scientific partners, artistic research can spark important innovative impulses for the sciences by systematically questioning their thematic, methodological and epistemological preconceptions.
The relationship between art, science and the humanities is not new but has been evolving, in its modern Western form, ever since the Renaissance. However, the conditions under which the dialogue between these different fields takes place have changed dramatically over the past century. It is therefore timely to investigate how new feedback mechanisms might be constructed through which emerging forms of knowledge and creativity in the arts or in the sciences can be brought to bear on each other. At the same time, the changes that we can observe may make it necessary for institutions - like universities and art schools - to transform and reinvent themselves.
The Leuphana Arts Program serves to integrate art into the university as a practice, as a form of knowledge and a form of discourse. The Leuphana Arts Program focuses on the development of artistic projects. It supports them in the interdisciplinary environment of the university. The impulses for the evolving interdisciplinary dialogues come from the artists who are regarded not as mere 'innovative disruptors', but as researchers and developers in their own right.
LAP seeks to create friction and energy between the different areas of artistic, scientific and social practice. It is a laboratory, a site for people working in the crossover zones of artistic production. Its work is oriented towards open processes rather than towards finished products. The symposium will address the university as a context for artistic exploration.

Symposium participants include: Jens Hauser (Ruhr Universität Bochum), Irène Hediger (Swiss Artists-in-Labs, ZhdK Zurich), Sarat Maharaj (Lund University), Pierre Guillet de Monthoux (Copenhagen Business School), Sally-Jane Norman (Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, University of Sussex), Susanne Märtens (HBK Braunschweig), Claus Pias, Beate Soentgen, Martin Warnke, Ulf Wuggenig (all Leuphana University Lüneburg), a.o. Moderation: Andreas Broeckmann (Leuphana Arts Program)

Schedule:

Wednesday 16 November

17:00-21:00 Get Together, Introduction of the participants, Opening Reception

Thursday 17 November

09:00-13:00 Symposium (statements and discussion)

Andreas Broeckmann (Leuphana Arts Program): Introduction - Art at Universities

Irène Hediger (Swiss Artists-in-Labs, ZhdK Zurich): Think Art - Act Science

Ulf Wuggenig (Leuphana University Lüneburg): Interaction of Art and (Social) Science

Sally-Jane Norman (Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, University of Sussex) (title to follow)

15:00-18:00 Symposium (statements and discussion)

Jens Hauser (Ruhr Universität Bochum): Epistemological Biomedia - Epistemic Art

Martin Warnke (Leuphana University Lüneburg): Artistic research and researching artworks: What could a pictorial turn mean to research on art?

19:00-20:30 Panel discussion "Between or Beyond the Disciplines" with Sarat Maharaj (Lund University)

followed by LAP Inaugural Reception

Fri 18 Nov, 09:00-13:00 Symposium

Pierre Guillet de Monthoux (Copenhagen Business School) (title to follow)

Susanne Märtens (HBK Braunschweig): Art and the Production of Knowledge - Perspectives for Art Academies

(Programme may be subject to change. Please, check http://www.leuphana.de/lap after 7 Nov. for the latest updates.)

Participation is free, reservation requested at: <lapleuphana.de>
(also for general and accommodation inquiries)

Supported by the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony.

Contact
Leuphana Universität Lüneburg
Leuphana Ars Program
Scharnhorststr. 1, Raum C5.225
21335 Lüneburg
Tel. +49 4131 677 2204
E-Mail lapleuphana.de