NIEA Experimental Arts Conference

"We have en­tered the ex­per­i­men­tal age…Ex­per­i­ments are no longer con­duct­ed just in the lab­o­ra­to­ry. They have be­come col­lec­tive ex­per­i­ments that con­cern each and ev­ery one of us." Bruno La­tour, 2004

What is ex­per­i­men­ta­tion? What makes art 'ex­per­i­men­tal'? What are the re­sults of aes­thet­ic ex­per­i­ments and why do we need them? Could artists in­vent new modes of ex­per­i­men­ta­tion with/for sci­ence? What are the dif­fer­ences be­tween ex­per­i­ments and in­ven­tions; ex­per­i­ments and fail­ures; ex­per­i­ment and in­no­va­tion? How do we set up ethi­co-sci­en­tif­ic-aes­thet­ic ex­per­i­ments?

This con­fer­ence will show­case and dis­cuss in­no­va­tive arts pro­jects by lead­ing prac­ti­tion­ers, think­ers and re­search groups that mod­el new forms of trans­dis­ci­pli­nar­i­ty and of­fer new ways of ad­dress­ing re­al-world is­sues. Th­ese in­clude works that have suc­cess­ful­ly 'changed the world' as well as spec­ula­tive ini­tia­tives that rad­i­cal­ly change the way we think. It will sur­vey the re­sults and po­ten­tial of Ex­per­i­men­tal Arts, invit­ing lead­ers in the field to dis­cuss how we can ex­tend and sup­port a plat­form for path-break­ing ex­per­i­men­ta­tion. The main con­fer­ence will be pre­ced­ed by a two-day Na­tio­n­al Post­gra­d­u­ate Con­fer­ence on Ex­per­i­men­tal Arts.

Speak­ers in­clude: James Crutch­field and David Dunn (Art-Sci Lab, U Davis); Do­n­ald Brook (Flin­ders), Amy Balkin (CCA; Stan­ford), Mischa Kuball (Acade­my of Me­dia Arts, Cologne); Chris Bosse (UTS, L.A.V.A.), Vic­to­ria Ves­na (UCLA); Adrian McKenzie (Uni­ver­si­ty of Lan­cast­er); Pia Ed­nie- Brown (RMIT); Joyce Hin­ter­d­ing (USyd), Ter­ry Smith (Pitts­burgh); El­iz­a­beth Ann Mc­Gre­gor (MCA); Dou­glas Kahn, Richard Good­win, Paul Tho­mas, An­na Mun­ster, Heike Kluss­mann (Uni­ver­si­ty of Kas­sel, Ger­many), Thorsten Kloost­er (Uni­ver­si­ty of Kas­sel, Ger­many)

Na­tio­n­al In­sti­tute for Ex­per­i­men­tal Arts (NIEA), CO­FA UN­SW
Ex­per­i­men­tal Arts Dou­ble Con­fer­ence
19–20 Au­gust 2011 Main Con­fer­ence
17–18 Au­gust 2011 Na­tio­n­al Post­gra­d­u­ate Con­fer­ence
John Ni­land Sci­en­tia Build­ing, Uni­ver­si­ty of New South Wales, Syd­ney, Aus­tralia