The Relations between Art and Science: complicity, criticality, knowledge

The IVth AICA Congress was held in Dublin in 1953. In the post-war era there was a great suspicion of the value of science within culture given the horrors of the previous decade. Now over fifty years later Dublin once again hosts the AICA Congress and we want to re-visit this theme from a 21st century perspective at a time when the field of Art and Science has become firmly rooted across artistic disciplines.

The Congress aims to address the many contemporary theories and approaches within art and science from a fresh and independent critical perspective. With the dearth of new terminology, corporate funding, government initiatives, new venues both real and virtual, the question is not whether art can be science or vice-versa,but how has the production of knowledge benefited from these avenues of cultural research and investigation?

The question arises as to how art criticism can engage critically with this phenomenon outside of curatorial and/or instrumental perspectives. What discourses or aspects of enquiry have been over-looked or side-lined within recent discussions and practices? This call for papers invites submissions from the widest possible range of disciplines within contemporary art criticism and art practice. This could include topics and approaches from Technology as Art as Science; New Media and Net.Art; Psychoanalysis; Art, Politics and Science; Art and Climate; Body Art and Biotechnology; (Art) Historical Perspectives; Supporting Agencies, Festivals, Biennales; as well as submissions from Artist and Curatorial Practitioners.

The Congress and General Assembly will take place in Dublin Castle, Ireland 25th-31st October, 2009

The XLIIIrd AICA Congress; 62nd General Assembly – Dublin, Ireland would like to thank the following sponsors for their support