NEXT TO NOTHING: ART AS PERFORMANCE
26th September – 27th September, 2015
NEXT TO NOTHING: ART AS PERFORMANCE
A meeting of art and philosophy in the age of post-dematerialisation
26 SEPTEMBER 2015 – 27 SEPTEMBER 2015
OPENING 6PM 26 SEPTEMBER 2015
A two-day event in partnership with the School of Creative Arts, University of Newcastle.
A case of “less is more” or doing more with less? Contemporary artists have moved beyond twentieth century contests between formalism and dematerialisation. Today, creative and performing artists routinely take on themes and issues rather than styles. They work as comfortably with art as material as they do with art as performative. It is not what or how it is represented but rather the ideas and concepts an artwork exemplifies that defines it.
For this symposium we have presented a challenge to artists, musicians and performers to do more with less. We offer a corresponding challenge to the philosopher to think art as a unified concept rather than an amalgam of ideas.
This symposium, presented by the School of Creative Arts at the University of Newcastle in conjunction with the Lock-up, will attempt to find an interface between art and philosophy by considering what constitutes the bare essentials of creative practice. For this reason, artists, musicians and actors have been asked to respond to the theme of art as performance conceived in terms of the bare minimum needed for their creative practice. We will see whether philosophical commentary assists artists in positioning their work in the relevant field and in turn whether experience of artistic practice can revise entrenched concepts in philosophy. Alternatively, a less conservative approach to interfacing art and philosophy may unfold when art is understood as a particular instance of philosophical engagement.
Curators
Jenny McMahon – Associate Professor Philosophy, University of Adelaide
Sean Lowry – Convener of Creative and Performing Arts, University of Newcastle
Commentators
Elizabeth Coleman, David Macarthur, James Phillips and Daniel von Sturmer
9.30AM – 5.30PM SATURDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 2015
Dale Collier, Alexandra Day, Brian Joyce, Miranda Lawry, Emily Parson – Lord, Jane Polkinghorne, Julie Vulcan
6PM – 8PM SATURDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 2015 – OPENING DRINKS
FOR MIDPOINTNESS & NEXT TO NOTHING: ART AS PERFORMANCE
9.30AM – 6.30PM SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2015
Gillian Arrighi, Deidre Brollo & Deb Mansfield, Richard Kean, Philip Matthias, Faye Neilson, Angela Philip, Honi Ryan, Kris Smith, Braddon Snape, Sally Walker, Linda Walsh
To attend both days of the symposium, BOOK HERE
To attend Saturday, BOOK HERE
To attend Sunday, BOOK HERE
