The upcoming international conference of the International Society of Intermedial Studies – The Intermedial Work of Art : Conception, Realisation, Performance, Reception, Preservation – will take place in Université Gustave Eiffel, France, 5-6-7 november 2020.

[Click here to read the Call for Papers]

Conference description :

As a contribution to numerous theoretical and historical discussions on intermediality by ISIS and its members, this conference aims to study the intermedial work of art through its different stages, from conception to reception, as well as the related matters of analysis and preservation.

With the introduction of new technologies and new media in the past fifty years, two main tendencies have characterized artistic creation. The first tendency explores the exchanges between artistic domains through the interaction of sound, image, and gesture, which can lead to a true osmosis between different types of perception. The second tendency leans toward the abolition of the distinction of “art” and “non-art”, through the aestheticization and dramatization of other cultural fields (mass-media, sports, politics…).

Thus, forms of art express themselves through the use of intermedial and intersensory phenomena, through multidisciplinarity and indisciplinarity (that is, the transgression of limits or boundaries between artistic domains), but also between different types of perception or even different social environments. In the face of such a plurality of approaches outside of clearly defined disciplines and aesthetics, it is necessary to develop a transverse approach to the analysis of interdisciplinary artistic practice and theory, as well as to the critical discourse that accompanies them. It is also necessary to define or develop concepts corresponding to such situations: the decline of the object, crises of languages, syntheses of arts and synaesthesia, sensorial conjunctions, pluri-artistic environments, active participation, etc. In parallel to all that, it is also necessary to question the different ways of thinking about “non-art” and the significance of the aestheticization of culture.

New notions such as trans– and hyper-, media– or immedia manifest themselves in intermedial work. The creation of the latter is also at the heart of digital computer creation, which has considerably enlarged original avant-garde conceptions, thus creating an epistemological change and the necessity of a deeper thinking — not theoretical, but anchored in the work itself, its existence, its ways of being in its different stages from conception, performance, and reception. On top of the transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary methods used, the “indisciplinary” method, in the sense that Huys and Vernant give to the term (2012) — outside of conventional artistic genres, associated to the creators that voluntarily operate outside of any system — could also be an important path of investigation.

This leads to open questions which should be articulated with case studies in intermedial art. What methodological tools would be necessary to conceive, actually create, and comprehend such a particular artistic production as an intermedial work? What would be the defining characteristics of such a work of art and its practical realisation? What are its creative dynamics, and how do they differ from non-intermedial art? What are the specific problems of its conception, realisation, and performance? How can its different modes of reception be evaluated? What would be the proper analysis tools or the relevant taxonomies? What terminologies would be best suited to investigate such works? Rather than the traditional artistic conceptual vocabulary — perhaps too medium- or disciplinary-specific — this conference could be a moment to discuss terminologies of the common multi-artistic processes involved. Last, since archive centres, libraries, and museums encounter numerous difficulties when confronted with such works (at worst, intermedial works of art are badly archived, badly presented, and even excluded from archival collections), this conference aims to explore remedies to those difficulties.

Keynote speakers :

Jean-Marc Larrue (Université de Montréal, CRIalt – CRILCQ)

Nicola Cisternino (Composer and artist, Accademia delle Belle Arti Venezia)

Organized by :

LISAA (EA 4120) and Université Gustave Eiffel, International Society for Intermedial Studies (ISIS), Sorbonne University (IREMUS/Bnf/ CNRS, LAM/ UMR 8212).

Partners :

ENS Louis-Lumière, Université de Montréal, Université de Rouen (GRHis EA 3831), Université de Versailles-St-Quentin-en-Yvelines (CHCSC EA 2448), aCROSS collective (Art, Création, Recherche, Outils, Savoirs Synesthésies), Théâtre Marigny.

The Organizing Committee :

Lenka Stransky (UGE-LISAA/GRHis Université de Rouen), Martin Laliberté (UGE-LISAA)

Scientific Council : 

Christophe d’Alessandro (LAM), Miguel Almiron (LISAA), Maxime Boidy (LISAA), Olivier Brossard (LISAA), Pierre-Albert Castanet (GRHis), Jean-Marc Chouvel (IreMus), Carole Halimi (LISAA), Xavier Hautbois (CHCSC), Aurélie Huz (LISAA), Jean-Marc Larrue (UdM), Geneviève Mathon (LISAA), Giusy Pisano (ENS-LL).

[Click here to read the Call for Papers]