International Conference Art, Museums and Digital Cultures                    
Lisbon, 22 and 23 April 2021        

At a time of greater and ever deeper interest in the impact of information technologies on contemporary society, the International Conference on Art, Museums and Digital Cultures aims to provide a space for the discussion of current issues and projects relating to the crossover between artistic practices and the institutional sphere, with a particular focus on art museums.         

The main objective is therefore to discuss the way in which digital technologies have contributed to the creation of new territories and stimulated different innovations in artistic production, curatorial practices and museum spaces. Furthermore, considering that technological systems are also a social and cultural construct, an attempt will be made to investigate the circumstances under which contemporary art and museums have formulated new challenges and paved the way for new scientific developments.

The conference will thus bring together a range of artistic, critical and scientific perspectives, affording visibility to recent or ongoing research works in various countries and cultural contexts.

This conference is a collaboration between maat — Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology and the Institute of Art History (School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa), under the scope of its Art, Museums and Digital Cultures cluster.

Call for papers
The International Conference on Art, Museums and Digital Cultures will bring together different scientific and creative perspectives on the crossovers between information technologies and the arts. How are museums, curators and the artists themselves responding to the opportunities, but also the risks, of the so-called “digital transformation”?

Recognising the complexity and plurality of digital cultures, the conference will discuss recent or ongoing research works in different geographies and cultural contexts.

We invite scholars, independent researchers, digital media specialists, curators and artists to submit proposals for a 15-minute in-person or online presentation, focusing on one or more of the following topics: 

— Digital art and museums: preservation, documentation and exhibition
— Historiography of New Media Art
— Digitisation of contemporary art collections and archives
— The presence of art museums on the web: institutional representations and narratives
— Networked artistic and curatorial practices
— Derivative artworks and digital cultures
— Virtual museums and online exhibitions
— Contemporary art and digital literacy
— Politics of online mediation
— Digital technologies, accessibility and inclusion in art museums
— Algorithms and artificial intelligence in artistic and museological projects
— Architecture for digital art — museums, galleries and alternative spaces
— Hybrid realities: artistic interfaces and spatial overlapping
— Art, science and technology: new objects, new relations and new issues

Important dates
Deadline for abstract submission: 21 December 2020.
Notification of acceptance: by 25 January 2021.
Submission of full papers for publication: 8 March 2021.
Deadline for registration: 16 April 2021.

For more information
Conference website: https://museumdigitalcultures.weebly.com/
Contact: museumdigitalcultures@gmail.com

Organisation: maat — Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology and the Institute of Art History (School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa)