Material Stories. Werkstattwissen als Erkenntnisprozess

The bilingual conference Material Stories: Werkstattwissen als Erkenntnisprozess marks the beginning of a fundamental repositioning of the long-established workshops at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. In the arts and cultural studies, anthropology, ethnology, and media studies—as well as in the interdisciplinary field of material culture—there are already leading approaches that challenge the traditional dualism of theory and practice and focus on other forms of knowledge as a starting point for knowledge acquisition. The conference builds upon these theoretical precursors and historical scholarship, yet takes them a step further: It does not stop at analytical observation but examines the relationship between thought and action directly with the physical and digital workshops. The goal is to define practice-based knowledge from the workshop, which, as an independent, theoretically valid form of knowledge, feeds directly back into theoretical development and scholarly practice. Material Stories creates a discursive and transdisciplinary platform on equal footing for scholars, craftspeople, and artists from different parts of the world to reflect together on theory, practice, and research from their respective perspectives. In this shared space for thought and action, materials, tools, and manufacturing processes are understood as active, digitally and analogically enhanced co-producers of knowledge. This conceptual framework unfolds across nine formats that explore knowledge from the workshop in the context of its history, accessibility, methods, and materiality, as well as its circulation, transmission, and potential from both local and global perspectives.

 

The conference is accompanied by the spatial installation Remnants in the atrium. Material traces from various production processes and workshops at the University of Applied Arts Vienna are brought into dialogue with one another, offering insights into the diverse practices and forms of hands-on knowledge.

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—1 h lunch break—


—30 min coffee break—



18:00–18:30 
Final Remarks

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