Today, the necessity of taking joint action in the face of global challenges could not be more evident, yet political economy is tacitly propagating and pressing for increased specialisation as a key to progress. The idea of converging bodies of knowledge cries for theoretical and practical support. The insights art and design education can provide might be instrumental here, as the conflicts underlying the separation between ”hard” (natural sciences) and ”soft” (humanities) disciplines have been played out – in vitro – within their fields of expertise, between design and art.

What then are the challenges and potentials of art and design education in integrating different modes of knowledge production? How can the often opposing interests and assumptions of a variety of stakeholders be reflected through the diverging insights of design and art practitioners? How to address wicked problems, and propose new – whether feasible or utopian – ways of convergence?

Potential themes

• Art and design education: conflicts and synergies
• Institutions and non-institutional modes of knowledge production
• Online and offline learning environments
• Various types of art and design research
• The role of art and design practitioners within academia
• Transdisciplinary overlaps: art, design, science, and technology
• STEAM vs. the pressures of neoliberalisation (pun intended)
• New disciplinary domains and frontiers of art and design (e.g. NBIC)

Track chairs

Miklós Erhardt

Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest

Tünde Varga

Hungarian University of Fine Arts