Perspectives on Materiality in Art & Design

The SAN IV has been looking at the interplay between state-of-the-art technologies with art and design since November 2018. Researchers are investigating how modern analytical methods can help with the digitisation of art objects, the significance of materials in the current discourse of restoration and conservation as well as design and art, and how artistically creative approaches can be used in the natural and engineering sciences.

How do modern methods of analysing help in the digitalisation of art objects and what significance do materials have in the current discourse of restoration and conservation as well as design and art? Presenters from the various DRESDEN-concept institutions asked themselves these and other questions during the Kick-off event. The Scientific Area Network took place in the premises of the Hochschule für bildende Künste (HfBK) on November 22, 2018.
Prof. Christian Sery from the HfBK and Prof. Hans Müller-Steinhagen (Rector of the TU Dresden and Chairman of the Board of DRESDEN-concept) welcomed the attendees before Prof. Ludwig Schultz (Head of DRESDEN-concept) explained the “rules of the game” of the SAN.

The first panel was dedicated to the topic “Digital Collection of Cultural Heritage” and was introduced with a lecture by the HfBK. Members of the SLUB, the TU Dresden and the State Office of Archaeology examined this topic from different perspectives. Among others, the projects “arthistoricum.net”, the “Big Data Time Machine” and “Saxorum” were discussed.

After the first networking session the second panel started, which focused on “Restoration and Conservation of Materiality and Cultural Heritage”. Cellulose acetates, carbon concrete or wood preservation measures played a role in this panel, with which scientists from the German Hygiene Museum Dresden (DHMD), the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology (Fraunhofer IWS), the TU Dresden and the HfBK, among others, are working.

The panel also gave the participants the opportunity to exchange ideas. A higher number of breaks was introduced from the experience of the last SANs. “Virtuality and reality”, for example in the field of virtual reality or in connection with the representation of materials, played a role in the third panel.