thinking techne
International Conference: DFG research group “Dimensions of techne in the Fine Arts. Manifestations / Systems / Narratives” // Technische Universität Berlin // Thursday, November 2nd, 2023 – Saturday, November 4th, 2023.

What does it mean to think about artistic processes? How do they manifest themselves in artifacts, what meaning do they generate, how are they negotiated in texts and images as well as themselves charged with meaning? What methods are used in the disciplines of philology, art history, and the history of science to investigate the practices, experiences, and skills of artists? What parameters are relevant to these investigations, and what approaches are being developed to address them? The conference “Thinking techne” will explore these questions. At the same time, it takes stock of the work of the DFG research group “Dimensions of techne in the Fine Arts. Manifestations / Systems / Narratives”, which investigates the complex interplay of material, form, and art-technical knowledge in its various manifestations (https://techne.hypotheses.org/). Deliberately, the conference is not conceived in the classical format of consecutive lectures, but in a dialogical form. Interdisciplinary conversations will outline possible methodological perspectives for three thematic areas, each consisting of a keynote address and a panel discussion:

The first panel is dedicated to the topic of Material / Materiality (Keynote: Tina Asmussen, Deutsches Bergbau-Museum, Bochum). It will pursue the questions of how matter becomes material and resource through human perception, when and why material becomes visible, how this visibility changes in the working process, as well as how different disciplines negotiate the emergence of material, its properties, and its hierarchies of values. We will ask, which tensions characterize material discourses between Eurocentrism and globalization, and how they relate to the heritage of the disciplines and gender classifications. With a perspective on the material's agency, it will be necessary to examine how the affordances of materials are historically justified and methodically discussed in different disciplines.

The panel Aesthetics of Processuality (Keynote: Dietmar Rübel, Academy of Fine Arts, Munich) deals with the techniques of art and looks at how they can be made visible and kept visible in media and objects. It is to be asked which cultural parameters determine the appreciation and demonstration of the process in artworks, and to what extent the processual can be described as an aesthetic category. We will examine the processes’ duration, repeatability, and relevance, as well as their technical, physical, and epistemic conditions. Furthermore, we address the methodological challenges of analyzing or reconstructing processes from a historical distance and ask to what extent the different research approaches are shaped by the contemporary art of the respective period.

The third panel, Definitions, Systematics, and Orders, will address the linguistic translation of processes, the transmission of technical art procedures, and the status of the category “order” in the making of art, with its consequences for terminologies, collecting, and curating (Keynote: Andrew Johnston, Freie Universität, Berlin). Special attention will be paid to the changing, culturally determined arrangement of the arts within different societies and the history, historicization, and territorialization of systematizations with their fading out, leveling, and accentuation. Finally, the modes and interactions of linguistic, topological, diagrammatic, and visual forms of recording, archiving, and interpreting procedures, actions, and their associated bodies of knowledge will be inquired into.

Researchers at all experience levels are invited to apply to participate in the panel discussions to contribute their perspectives based on their individual research and discipline. The 90-minute panel discussions will be structured by a series of pre-established questions and will be explored in advance in collaborative Zoom sessions. We offer reimbursement of travel and accommodation costs. Please send a short CV and a letter of motivation to participate in one of the sections (together max. 1500 words) in a single PDF document to techneuni-konstanz.de by August 25, 2023.

For Early Career Researchers and advanced students who wish to attend the conference, we offer a travel grant. It covers travel and accommodation costs and is conditional on a (poster) presentation of one's research interests related to the conference theme on November 1st. To apply for the scholarship, please send a short CV and a letter of motivation to attend the conference (together max. 1000 words) in a single PDF document to techneuni-konstanz.de by August 25, 2023.

The conference will be held in English.
If you have any questions, please contact Luisa Feiersinger at techneuni-konstanz.de.