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