PhD seminars HOW TO THEORIZE ART TODAY?

Date: September 9-12 / 5 pm–8 pm

Venue: Estonian Academy of Arts, Põhja pst 7, room A301

Lecturer: Ewa Domanska

This series of seminars is based on the assumption that today art can offer the historian (as well as anthropologists, archaeologists, literary scholar, etc.) theoretical inspiration, and even an epistemological paradigm and a research program of knowledge building. Interesting cognitive models, research categories, and representations of reality can be derived from the analysis of works of art. Following Susan Sontag’s statement that “each work of art gives us a form or paradigm or model of knowing something, an epistemology,” I would claim that analysis of various types of art objects, performances and activities might help us to build an inclusive knowledge of the past.  Such knowledge would be more appropriate for the planetary condition than offered, for example, by history understood as a specific approach to the past that emerged within the Greco-Judeo-Christian tradition and carries a stigma as a colonial enterprise. Thus art participates in the struggle for the epistemic justice, commenting on the problem of “epistemological dependency” of non-western scholars, and criticizing Western cognitive (artistic) imperialism. It is an important force in the development of an emergent paradigm that is post-anthropocentric, post-Western, post-secular and post-global (planetary/ cosmic).

Contemporary art is a great laboratory for the testing of various kinds of future. If indeed there is a need for realistic, responsible (local or micro) utopias in the world today, they might be developed with the help of various ways of knowing (the world). This would include not only humanities, social sciences as well as life sciences and Earth Sciences (“radical interdisciplinarity”) – which is to say, Western type of knowledge, but also include indigenous ways of knowing. The question arises as to whether the historian and the artist can offer a more positive (affirmative) scenario of the future?

Registration

The seminar is open to PhD students.

Registration is open until 01.09.2019. Max group size is 15.

Registration form

Readings (readings will be sent after registration)

• Doris Bachmann-Medick, Cultural Turns. New Orientations in the Study of Culture, trans. Adam Blauhut, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016.
• Bruno Latour and Timothy M. Lenton, “Extending the Domain of Freedom, or Why Gaia Is So Hard to Understand.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 45, no. 3, Spring 2019: 659-680.
• Ariella Azoulay, “Potential History: Thinking through Violence”.Critical Inquiry, vol. 39, no. 3, Spring 2013.
• Rosi Braidotti Rosi, “Powers of Affirmation: Response to Lisa Baraitser, Patrick Hanafin and Clare Hemmings.” Subjectivity, vol. 3, no 2, 2010: 140–148.
• Ewa Domańska, “Affirmative Humanities”. Dějiny – teorie – kritika [Czech Republic], no. 1, 2018: 9-26.
• Ruth Lipschitz, Skin/ned Politics: Species Discourse and the Limits of “The Human” in Nandipha Mntambo’s Art. Hypatia, vol. 27, no. 3, August 2012: 546–566.
• Ann-Marie Tully, Becoming Animal: Liminal Rhetorical Strategies in Contemporary South African Art. Image & Text, vol. 17, 2011: 64-84.
• Kathy Charmaz, Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. Sage, 2006.

Program

 Monday, September 9

1. Paradigm shift in the contemporary humanities and social sciences

Tuesday, September 10

2. Prefigurative Art/Humanities

 Wednesday, September 11

3. Contemporary Art and the Future of History

Thursday, September 12

4. How to build a theory? [workshop]

Giulia Lanza will present her project “Vestiges” as the final outcome of her residency at Vent Space on Wednesday, June 19 from 6 to 9pm.

During her residency at Vent Space
Italian born artist Giulia Costanza Lanza (b. 1988) is exploring the relationships that form from measuring the body and the space by experimenting with materials.

„Skin, body and organic tissues are starting points to explore the interaction between the surface of the object, its thingness, and the meaning that we attach to it. I’m currently investigating the object’s dichotomy and playing with materiality in order to give a tactile feeling. The objects dialogue with the empty space around, creating a new environment characterized by the aesthetic of fragment, meant as a tool of dissection to investigate human nature, the complexity of its patterns and metamorphosis. I try to blend together the linguistic codes of applied arts with the one of sculpture and drawing, materializing ephemeral shapes. The relationship that interweaves the body and the object that originates from it is fundamental.“

On Thursday, July 18, Bianca Hisse presents ‘A Safe Place for Criticism’, the result of her residency period at Vent Space. The doors will be open from 18:00 to 21:00.

Bianca Hisse (b.1994) is a Brazilian artist based in Norway. From a continuous double movement between visual arts and dance, Hisse’s practice delves into performative strategies to reflect on how today’s societies are choreographed.

Fast-paced monologues, actions in public space, ironic manifestos, industrial materiality and other elements common to urban contexts are central in her pieces, normally employed to question the complex movement dynamics of the world. Through diagrams, performances and textual installations, Hisse asks herself what are the politics of scale between humans and their social framework, and if artistic practices can unravel new directions to what words can do – and to how our structures are moving.

Bianca Hisse has a Master in Fine Arts from Kunstakademiet i Tromsø and a Bachelor in Performing Arts from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo.

For more information on Bianca Hisse’s work, please visit www.biancahisse.com

Join us for the opening of ”WinLab” by Mia Tamme and Paul Grünenwald on July 5 at 5 PM. Entrance to the EKA Gallery from the Kotzebue street.

WinLab Is an interactive installation about competitiveness and identity. The interaction is based on a questionnaire: The player is given two options for each question and within a limited time the player has to pick their preference. The choices of each player are recorded to generate a personality evaluation. The exhibition is open until July 31.

Mia Tamme was born and raised in Estonia, Paul Grünenwald in Germany. They are both current students of the Man and Media department at Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Mia works with moving and still images but expands her practice to designing platforms in the shape of interfaces, workshops and events. Paul has studied film and scenography, following a spatial and architectural approach, on the other hand, a theoretical side looking into political structures and participatory systems. They share an interest in pushing design beyond being merely lipstick on a pig. WinLab is their first collaborative exhibition and in many ways a search for their own practice. 

The exhibition is supported by Tallinn Airport and Põhjala Brewery 

his year’s Graduation Ceremonies will be held on June 20th in the EKA hall (room A101, Põhja puiestee 7, Tallinn).

12.00 o’clock – graduates of Faculties of Design and Art Culture

3 o’clock pm – graduates of Doctoral School and the faculties of Architecture and Fine Art

NB! Dear graduate, please come to the EKA gallery 15 minutes earlier, so we can lead you to your place.

In the event of Graduates Elevator pitch selected graduates of the Estonian Academy of Arts will present their final thesis to an expert panel in 7 minutes. The event is a part of the EKAs’ final thesis exhibition TASE. The idea of this event is to rise awareness of choosing the right final thesis subject and to help to interact the outcome of the work with real life in social and entrepreneurial fields.
First tree presentations will be in English and rest of them in Estonian.

Please register here:
https://forms.gle/C4yPVwxZ9detSs3SA

Timetable
15.00 Registration
15.15 Introducion
15.25 Pitching session
17.10 Expert panel
17.30 Closing words & networking

Graduates:
– Arife Dila Demiri “AURA-altering self-perception through interactive light emitting textiles” (textile design). In English
– Nesli Hazal Akbulut “Personal Touch – A Design Concept to Empower Connections” (interaction design). In English
– Mike Ramos “VR ambience experience” (interaction design). In English
– Linda Viikant “From Design – Ocarinas to whistling sculptures” (ceramics)
– Annamaria Rennel “Educational music development for kids” (product design)
– Epp Marta Tarvis “Sustainability of upholstered furniture” (product design)
– Kadi Adrikorn “TACIT PRESENCE. Looking into the Experience of Exclusive Headwear” (fashion design)
– Helmi Marie Langsepp “Not building. Mountains, mountain villages and guests” (architecture and urban design)
– Jaanika Sau “Creating an environment for blind and visually impaired people” (architecture and urban design)
– Varje Õunapuu “The Design and Evaluation of Injection Grouts for the Reattachment of Historic Plaster in St Mary’s Church, Pöide” (cultural heritage and conservation)

The event is funded by European Union Regional Fund.

Estonian Academy of Arts invites to the showing of student films – TASE FILM. The festival is going to take place on June 12 at 6 PM at EKA assembly hall.

The film festival is divided into two parts: the first one focuses on the films made in the cooperation of EKA and BFM students, where the main focus is on the importance of scenography in film. The second part of screening focuses on short films made by students and tries to discover if short films can be seen as portraits, or as a poem, carrying the unique voice and message within them. The program is curated by Mariliis Elizabeth Holzmann.

More information: mariliis.holzmann@artun.ee

Free entry!

The course provides an overview of how the contemporary art scene in Estonia functions – the most important organisations, the movers and shakers, the currently important and active artists from different disciplines, and the types of events being held. The causal factors behind the art scene are also explored, starting from the restoration of independence, Estonian art in the context of the regional and broader international art scene, and much more.
The participants will receive an overview of the art field of Estonia through lectures, discussions, studio/institutional visits and art.

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We invite you to take part in a rare opportunity to serve in the Special Programs Think Tank to envision and create hypothetical “special programs” that Estonia’s government might instate, either in the future or in parallel realities.
This five-day event will provide you with the chance to design preferable paths for government, guided by future-visioning strategists from the Extrapolation Factory. Over the course of the workshop, participants will be introduced to the essential principles of futures studies and will learn to identify signals, extrapolate implications and create future artefacts.
Each program will be announced through physical, print or digital artefacts to be shared with local citizens.

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During the sculptural headwear course, the participants will acquire techniques for moulding and draping headwear and making couture millinery in traditional materials. In addition to innovative and alternative solutions, the course will look into the history, functions and meaning of headwear.
The workshop will introduce, based on the example of the Balenciaga fashion house in Paris, the materials and techniques of handmade millinery in order to popularise the field of millinery design that has become marginal in recent decades. By researching various materials (straws, felt, etc.), the participants will obtain the necessary historical background knowledge to help in maintaining the tradition of wearing innovative couture millinery.

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