"Abstract Images in Art and Science"

Workshop of the Visualisations Project, Centre of Humanities and the
Descartes Centre, Utrecht University.

Date: 18 Februari 2009.
Location: Utrecht, the Netherlands, Janskerkhof 13, room 0.06.
Time: 9.00 – 18.00.
Coordination: Dr. Ann-Sophie Lehmann, Prof. Dr. Paul Ziche, Pim Verlaek.

This is an invitation for the workshop "Abstract Images in Science and
Art". The workshop is a cooperation between the Descartes Centre
<http://www.descartescentre.com>
and the Visualisations Group of the
Centre for Humanities <http://www2.hum.uu.nl/cfh/>. The
Descartes Centre
and the Visualisations Group are both connected to the Utrecht University.

The workshop focuses on abstraction as a necessary strategy in
visualisation processes in the sciences and the arts. It aims at
investigating both, the process of abstraction and the pictorial
interplay between concrete and abstract aspects of science in general.
In scientific texts, these illustrative abstractions can serve
rhetorical objectives, as a means of communicating ideas. Scientific
illustrations do not simply follow the idea of abstraction as a motion
towards non-representative artistic forms, like abstract art shows.
Abstract illustrations in scientific texts can be seen as attempts to
represent general structures such as laws, but still through pictorial
means. This tension in the interplay between different levels and forms
of abstractness and concreteness will be further explored in this workshop.

The Visualisations Group explores interdisciplinary approaches to the
study of images and visual culture. It is our goal to bring together
researchers whose work is in somehow related to visual culture and the
intersections between art and science. With the workshop we attempt to
create a dialogue between different scientific cultures that deal with
the issue of abstraction. To enable this dialogue, the scientific
background of the workshop’s contributors ranges from art history to the
history of science, from computer science to logics, and from philosophy
to media studies.

Contributors include:
Dr. Rob van Gerwen (Dept. of Philosophy, Utrecht University).
Dr. Peter Hall (Dept. of Computer Science, University of Bath, UK).
Dr. Rosalie Iemhoff (Dept. of Philosophy, Utrecht University).
Prof. Dr. Frank Kessler (Dept. of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht
University).
Dr. Ann-Sophie Lehmann (Dept. of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht
University).
Prof. Dr. Christoph Lüthy (Dept. of Philosophy, Radboud University
Nijmegen).
Prof. Dr. Albert Visser (Dept. of Philosophy, Utrecht University).
Dr. Julia Voss (art critic/ historian of science/ editor at the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).
Prof. Dr. Paul Ziche (Dept. of Philosophy, Utrecht University)

Hopefully we can welcome you at the workshop.

N.B.
There is a limited capacity for participants. Registration is required.
For registration, email Ann-Sophie.Lehmannlet.uu.nl.