SARN – to conference 2021
Traversing Topologies: Imagining worlds and knowledge with/through artistic research

Topology is to an equal extent an over- and under-determined topos. It exists nearly independently in various individual disciplines, refers foremost descriptively to the arrangement of things in space-time, takes the surface as its point of departure and seems to be an optimal location for carrying out seemingly objective measurements, rather than being perceived as a formable matrix.

The conference highlights the potential to develop thinking and acting in complex topological-relational networks. It seeks proposals, statements, perspectives and speculations for the intersection of existing knowledge spaces. Superficial cartographies of order are to be unsettled and re-mapped, subjectivized toward the layers that underlie them.

What we offer
A landscape extending from Lucerne to Valais and Ticino, encompassing suburban, slightly urban, rural and alpine sceneries. Contributions/interventions can be positioned within or engage with this landscape, either in real terms on site or by taking these settings as a metaphor; an imaginary space or starting points for a narration that leads somewhere else. Proposals may suggest interacting with real locations from afar, relating to them physically or virtually.

What we wish for
We invite you to create collaborative experiments and rituals in physical and virtual space, to respond to topological conditions together with real and virtual others, and to interact with the landscape that is offered.

Please send your suggestions in an abstract of no more than 400 words and a short note on your background (which might be in the arts, the cultural sector in general, the sciences or include transdisciplinary cooperations) to: sarntoconference2021sarn.ch
Application deadline: 31st of March 2021

For further information see: https://www.sarn.ch/events

Organised by
Maia Gusberti, Petra Köhle, Rachel Mader, Federica Martini, Iolanda Pensa
(Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts – Art and Design, EDHEA – Ecole de design et haute école d'art du Valais, SUPSI – Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana)

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SARN
The Swiss Artistic Research Network (SARN) is composed of artists and researchers from the seven Swiss Universities of the Arts as well as independent practitioners. SARN seeks to enrich conditions and contexts for artistic researchers through open exchange, work group activities, publications, workshops and symposia. It facilitates debate and dialogue between artistic research communities, institutions of higher education, foundations and public and private competence centers.