Contingent Agencies Symposium

Contingent Agencies is an artistic research project conceived as an inquiry into atmospheres― the subtle, dynamic, complex, and enveloping presences that emerge in given situations for those who inhabit them. More particularly, this project investigates the specific ways in which the agencies of single components of a situation (from light to animals, artifacts to sounds, matter to vegetation, traffic to color …) condition the emergence of these all-over and senseful presences.

In this concluding symposium, a cross-disciplinary group of researchers will address this complex subject matter as well as the specific research methodology developed in this project, based on practices of notation and reflection in diverse media. Participant researchers will be Karen Barad, Arno Boehler, Emma Cocker, Gerhard Dirmoser, Mika Elo, Tim Ingold, Sabina Holzer, Paula Kramer, Lambros Malafouris, Erin Manning, Dieter Mersch, Hans Jörg Rheinberger, and Andreas Spiegl, together with the principal investigators Nikolaus Gansterer and Alex Arteaga and the head of the Zentrum Fokus Forschung Alexander Damianisch.

Agencies and atmospheres will be inquired from a multi-perspective approach with contributions from artistic research (somatics, choreography, drawing, sound, video, photography, language-based practices) philosophy, archeology, anthropology and physics.

This symposium is conceived as an intensive research week articulated in two interconnected parts—a series of public lectures, panel discussions (both accessible onsite and online), and public showings, and an internal program comprising micro workshops and practice sessions.

Venue
Zentrum Fokus Forschung
Rustenschacherallee 2–4
1020 Vienna, Austria

>>> Download the program of the Contingent Agencies Symposium as PDF.

Public program:

Admission free and live streaming via youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/DieAngewandteWien

• Mon 19.09.2022:

  19:00 – 20:30: Tim Ingold. Impulse lecture and panel discussion

  20:30 – 22:00: Get together in the garden

• Tue 20.09.2022:

  19:00 – 20:30: Lambros Malafouris. Impulse lecture and panel discussion

  20:30 – 22:00: Get together in the garden

• Wed 21.09.2022:

  16:00 – 17:30: Erin Manning. Online impulse lecture and panel discussion

• Thu 22.09.2022:

  14:00 – 18:00: Gerhard Dirmoser. Impulse lecture and panel discussion with Dieter Mersch, Hans Jörg Rheinberger (in German), Moderation: Alexander Damianisch

  >>> Download texts, slides and additional materials concerning this panel (in German)

  18:00 – 19:00 Break

  19:00 – 21:00 Public sharing: artifacts of notation and reflection (no live streaming)

• Fri 23.9.2022:

  19:00 – 20:30: Karen Barad. Online impulse lecture and panel discussion

  20:30 – 22:00: Get together in the garden

• Sat 24.9.2022:

  19:00 – 20:30: Collective Closing Panel with Arno Boehler, Emma Cocker, Gerhard Dirmoser, Mika Elo, Sabina Holzer, Paula Kramer, Dieter Mersch, Hans Jörg Rheinberger, Andreas Spiegl, Nikolaus Gansterer and Alex Arteaga
  Moderation: Alexander Damianisch
  
  20:30 – 22:00: Get together in the garden

• Sun 25.9.2022:

  11:00 – 15:00: Brunch & Open house

If you would like to participate in this public part, please send an email to contact@contingentagencies.net with the content: “I am interested in attending in person the public part of the Symposium Contingent Agencies.”

Internal program:

This symposium is articulated in two interconnected parts – a series of public lectures, panel discussions and public showings (see program above) and an internal program of micro workshops and practice sessions. From Monday September 19 to Saturday September 24 a core group of guest researchers (Arno Boehler, Emma Cocker, Mika Elo, Sabina Holzer, Paula Kramer and Andreas Spiegl) together with the key researchers Nikolaus Gansterer and Alex Arteaga will perform different practices of notation and reflection and experiment and implement various tactics of showing and sharing.  Furthermore, together with guest researchers Gerhard Dirmoser, Dieter Mersch, Hans Jörg Rheinberger the whole group will discuss the conceptual framework of the project. The results of these internal working sessions will be presented in the public assemblies.