The materials and technologies of the contemporary art invite us to reconsider, not only the role that these play in the articulation of artistic practices, but also the theoretical frameworks that demonstrate the role of the materiality itself inside the Art History. These premises involve new methodological challenges and important epistemological transformations in the examination of art; challenges that must be analysed, discussed and contrasted with the long and fertile tradition of art studies. Fundamental problems such as the distribution of the agencies involved in the investigation and the artistic practice, the lines of temporal causality, the interconnection between materialities and discoursivities, the role of the technology and the society, the spatiality and location of the art, gain relevance from the suggested challenges.

Perspectives such as Media Archaeology, the Actor-Network Theory or the New Materialisms contribute decisively to the possibility of blurring or even erasing preconceived ontological distinctions –inoperative today-, and traditionally supported by the framework of our modernity. We are alluding to established dichotomies such as subject/object, matter/discourse, theory/practice, social/technological, expert/non-expert that lay out important onto-epistemic challenges to overcome. The interest of the congress is precisely to connect these new perspectives with the tradition of history, theory and art practice, starting always from both the reflection and the experience with the routines, the infrastructures and the art fields.       

Problems to discuss:

• Researches about art infrastructures: museums, art galleries, centres of production and investigation, archives, exhibition and distribution displays, art market dynamics.

• Investigations about objects and artistic practices: new materials, technologies inside the art field, production processes, distribution, conservation and preservation of the art and the media, etc.

• Other art histories and narratives: “minor” or divergent histories, linear narratives, emergency of novelties, relational temporality and spatiality, forgotten geographical areas, etc.

• Onto-epistemic and methodological art frameworks: human and non-human agency, relations between practice and theory, experts and non-experts, trans/inter/meta/non-disciplinarity, etc.

Those people interested in participating are invited to send, before 31st of October, 2014 (included) a communication proposal to this email address artmattersconference@gmail.com for its following evaluation.

Proposal format (two separated documents):

• Format .doc, .docx, .rtf

• Communication title

• Communication abstract (300 words maximum)

• Between 3 and 5 keywords.

• Format .doc, .docx, .rtf

• Name and surname

• Institutional affiliation (in case of having it)

• Email address

• Brief curriculum (100 words maximum)

• Information and contact person (only if the communication is presented by more than one author).

• Communication title

Notification of the communication acceptance will be published on 10th November, 2014.