Conference Dates: 16-18 February 2022
Pre-event Dates: 14-15 February 2022
Venue: University of Lapland and Galleria Valo in Rovaniemi, Finland, and online platforms
Conference theme
Entanglements of social realities may expose or hide the margins of society. One of the key roles of the arts is to elicit dialogue and generate discussion around important societal challenges that often are entangled with, and located at, margins. In his well cited interview of 1976, Joseph Beuys maintained that ‘social sculpture’ is based on dialogical practices, that he described as ‘thinking, speaking and listening with others’ (Harlan, 2004, p. 2; Kuspit et al., 1993; Sacks, 2004, p. ix; Thistlewood, 1995). Beuys sought to transform the ways artists would interact with both the wider public and their own audiences. Through these ideas of social sculpture, he would set the trend for a more deliberate strategy for socially-engaged practices as artists began to interact with institutions by way of their artistic methods and approaches (Harlan, 2004). Social sculpture (also re-sculpting or de-sculpting) can be considered to consist of an array or collection of multidimensional actions that shape the arts as a vehicle for social change through dialogue and activism.
Central to this conference is a core question: How can the arts serve as a means to bring people together, from both the mainstream and the margins? Four key themes are proposed for exploration during the conference:
Conference approach and format
Collaborative action between researchers, academics and artists in ‘pre-pairing’ and executing their contributions will be encouraged. Research presentations, artist talks, artistic poster presentations and workshops will explore case examples of artistic experiments, projects and interventions conducted in the AMASS testbed and elsewhere. Each conference day will end with a picnic that will focus on a group discussion to reflect on, analyse and create dialogue in order to capture and share our experiences and learning from the day.
We encourage researchers and academics to pair with artists and collectively pre-pair contributions to explore:
References
Harlan, V. (2004). A Note on the Text. In: V. Harlan (Ed.), What is art? Conversation with Joseph Beuys. Clairview Books.
Kuspit, D. B., Beuys, J., Warhol, A., Malevič, K., Mondrian, P., Duchamp, M., & Picasso, P. (1993). The cult of the avant-garde artist (pp. 98-99). Cambridge University Press.
Sacks, S. (2004). Forward. In: In: V. Harlan (Ed.), What is art? Conversation with Joseph Beuys. Clairview Books.
Thistlewood, D. (Ed.). (1995). Joseph Beuys: diverging critiques. Liverpool University Press.
Chairs
Conference Chair: Satu Miettinen
Academic Chair: Teresa Torres de Eça
Program Chairs: Maria Huhmarniemi (artist talks), Paul Wilson (academic presentations), Mira Alhonsuo (workshops) and Ângela Saldanha (artistic posters)
Exhibition Chair: Raphael Vella
Student Volunteer Chair: Amna Qureshi
Pre-event Chair: Melanie Sarantou
International Scientific and Art Committee
Satu Miettinen
Melanie Sarantou
Mirja Hiltunen
Maria Huhmarniemi
Raphael Vella
Valentina Vezzani
Marie Fulkova
Paul Wilson
Teresa Torres de Eça
Roger Blomgren
Organisation
University of Lapland, www.ulapland.fi/AMASS
Associação de Professores de Expressão e Comunicação Visual (APECV), www.apecv.pt
University of Leeds, www.leeds.ac.uk
Pre-event Dates: 14-15 February 2022
Venue: University of Lapland and Galleria Valo in Rovaniemi, Finland, and online platforms
Conference theme
Entanglements of social realities may expose or hide the margins of society. One of the key roles of the arts is to elicit dialogue and generate discussion around important societal challenges that often are entangled with, and located at, margins. In his well cited interview of 1976, Joseph Beuys maintained that ‘social sculpture’ is based on dialogical practices, that he described as ‘thinking, speaking and listening with others’ (Harlan, 2004, p. 2; Kuspit et al., 1993; Sacks, 2004, p. ix; Thistlewood, 1995). Beuys sought to transform the ways artists would interact with both the wider public and their own audiences. Through these ideas of social sculpture, he would set the trend for a more deliberate strategy for socially-engaged practices as artists began to interact with institutions by way of their artistic methods and approaches (Harlan, 2004). Social sculpture (also re-sculpting or de-sculpting) can be considered to consist of an array or collection of multidimensional actions that shape the arts as a vehicle for social change through dialogue and activism.
Central to this conference is a core question: How can the arts serve as a means to bring people together, from both the mainstream and the margins? Four key themes are proposed for exploration during the conference:
- The power of the non-visible as the unrecognised or unseen connections between people and their communities (both towards the margins, and from the margins).
- Connection between these people and communities can take place in many ways, and these connections are often complex and tangled.
- From certain positions and in certain contexts, the strengths of communities (rather than their challenges or weaknesses) can be overlooked and remain unrecognised. What will be lost and, importantly, what can be gained if such strengths are visualised?
- Challenges may often be difficult (or, at times, impossible) to solve due our proximity to them as some perspectives, often determined by a distance from such challenges, do not enable detailed views.
Conference approach and format
Collaborative action between researchers, academics and artists in ‘pre-pairing’ and executing their contributions will be encouraged. Research presentations, artist talks, artistic poster presentations and workshops will explore case examples of artistic experiments, projects and interventions conducted in the AMASS testbed and elsewhere. Each conference day will end with a picnic that will focus on a group discussion to reflect on, analyse and create dialogue in order to capture and share our experiences and learning from the day.
We encourage researchers and academics to pair with artists and collectively pre-pair contributions to explore:
- emergent dialogical opportunities for all ‘voices’ and experiences of contributors (artists and researchers or academics) to emerge;
- Innovative ways to perform your pre-paired dialogue;
- different ways to express synergies and differences between the work of researchers and artists.
References
Harlan, V. (2004). A Note on the Text. In: V. Harlan (Ed.), What is art? Conversation with Joseph Beuys. Clairview Books.
Kuspit, D. B., Beuys, J., Warhol, A., Malevič, K., Mondrian, P., Duchamp, M., & Picasso, P. (1993). The cult of the avant-garde artist (pp. 98-99). Cambridge University Press.
Sacks, S. (2004). Forward. In: In: V. Harlan (Ed.), What is art? Conversation with Joseph Beuys. Clairview Books.
Thistlewood, D. (Ed.). (1995). Joseph Beuys: diverging critiques. Liverpool University Press.
Chairs
Conference Chair: Satu Miettinen
Academic Chair: Teresa Torres de Eça
Program Chairs: Maria Huhmarniemi (artist talks), Paul Wilson (academic presentations), Mira Alhonsuo (workshops) and Ângela Saldanha (artistic posters)
Exhibition Chair: Raphael Vella
Student Volunteer Chair: Amna Qureshi
Pre-event Chair: Melanie Sarantou
International Scientific and Art Committee
Satu Miettinen
Melanie Sarantou
Mirja Hiltunen
Maria Huhmarniemi
Raphael Vella
Valentina Vezzani
Marie Fulkova
Paul Wilson
Teresa Torres de Eça
Roger Blomgren
Organisation
University of Lapland, www.ulapland.fi/AMASS
Associação de Professores de Expressão e Comunicação Visual (APECV), www.apecv.pt
University of Leeds, www.leeds.ac.uk