Contingent Agencies

From 19.09.2022 until 25.09.2022

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. The symposium is conceived as an intensive research week that includes micro-workshops, practice sessions, public lectures, panel discussions (both accessible onsite and online), and showings of artifacts.

Preliminary 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

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.”