Symposium exploring the use and abuse of theory and philosophy in contemporary art practice. Discussions will encompass theory as art, what ‘materiality’ is if theory can count as just another material, the non-pictorial ‘writeability’ at the heart of the pictorial. Speakers include: John Mullarkey, philosopher at the University of Dundee and author of Post-Continental Philosophy; Marcus Steinweg philosopher/theorist at Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Braunschweig, editor of Inästhetik: Theses on Contemporary Art and author, with Thomas Hirschhorn, of Bataille Maschine; Stephen Zepke, theorist, Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna and author of Art as Abstract Machine: Ontology and Aesthetics in Deleuze and Guattari. Organised and chaired by Jonathan Dronsfield, reader in theory and philosophy of art, University of Reading. Sponsored by Birmingham City University Art and Writing Network.
Institute of Contemporary Art, London, May 2009
artreading.org 