About RE:TRACE

The 7^th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology titled RE:TRACE focuses on an evaluation of the status of the meta-discipline MediaArtHistories today.

More than a decade after the first conference founded the field now recognized worldwide as a significant historical inquiry at the intersection of art, science, and technology, Media Art Histories is now firmly established as a dynamic area of study guided by changing media and research priorities, drawing a growing community of scholars, artists and artist-researchers.

Immersed in both contemporary and historiographical aspects of the digital world, we explore the most immediate socio-cultural questions of our time: from body futures, information society, and media (r)evolutions, to environmental interference, financial virtualization, and surveillance. And we do so through a fractal lens of inter- and trans-disciplinarity, bridging art history, media studies, neuroscience, psychology, sociology, and beyond. MediaArtHistories is a field whose theory, methods, and objects of study interweave with and overlay other disciplines.

About the CONFERENCE SERIES

The series aims at highlighting the increasing importance of media art for our contemporary culture and society, and placing it in an intercultural and historic context. For nearly 14 years, this conference series brings together prominent researchers, artists and scientists and sets topics of importance for the Humanities and the interdisciplinary research landscape. The bi-annual conference series (Banff 2005, Berlin 2007, Melbourne 2009, Liverpool 2011, Riga 2013, Montreal 2015, Krems/Wien 2017 is initiated and administered by the CONFERENCE SERIES BOARD of internationally renowned researchers of the field.

“Recognizing the increasing significance of media art for our culture, this platform, conference series and archive for the Histories of Media Art discusses the history of media art within the interdisciplinary and intercultural contexts of the histories of art.” (Mission Statement)

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Martin KEMP (em. professor Oxford University, British Academy, UK)

Wendy Hui CHUN (Brown University, USA)

Ryszard KLUSZCZYNSKI (University Lodz, PL)

Sarah KENDERDINE (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, CH)

Morten SøNDERGAARD (Aalborg University, DK)

TOPICS AND CLUSTER

Historiographies and futures of an ever-emerging field
Media art & politics (surveillance, climate etc.)
Archiving, preserving and representing media art
Alternative histories and evovlving fields for media art
Aesthetics of Media Art
Institutional histories of media art
Genre Histories
Local and international histories/practices of media art
(Post)colonial experiences and non-Western histories
Paradigm shift – digital vs. post-digital theory
Methodologies and research tools for MediaArtHistories (Digital Humanities focus)
Models and perspectives of research fields across disciplinary lines
Collecting media art/ media art market