Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

Literary Experiments:

Media | Art | Texts 1950-2010

Experiments in art and literature surfaced as new ways of artistic expression during a period of political restoration after World War II. Reminiscent of historic avant-garde movements, writing shifted from storytelling to depicting the very elements of writing itself. Experimental practices in literature and art reached a peak when newly developed technology (video, computers) and a variety of media (TV, radio, performance, music, etc.) were converted into works of art during the 1960s. As a result, the visual quality of poetry, the textual structure of pictures, the performative aspects of letters, and the musical and rhythmic characteristics of words increasingly emerged and allowed for new dimensions of aesthetic experience.

Alluding to Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism, to French poets Mallarmé and Apollinaire, to American writers Gertrude Stein and E. E. Cummings and many others, new artistic movements developed around the globe at nearly the same time and with similar intentions. In particular, German and Austrian cities such as Stuttgart, Wiesbaden, Cologne, Berlin, Vienna, and Graz served as meeting points and laboratories for aesthetic ideas.

Paper presentations will deal with scientific and philosophical influences on neo-avant-garde movements, highlight the inter- and transmedial features of their artworks, discuss the experimental nature of artistic creation and, in this way, define the notion of experiment itself. Literary texts are the basis for investigation: How does literature transform into other media, other media into literature? Which non-literary artworks draw on literary structures? Which literary structures are prevalent in non-literary art? How does language relate to the ‘language’ of art? How do techniques of collage and montage initiate new genres in art and literature?

Papers will include experiments in prose, poetry, plays, conceptual art, and movies, focus on urban artistic centers (Berlin, Stuttgart, Vienna, Prague, and Moscow), philosophical concepts (cybernetics, post-mediality), theories of narration, and visual art.

A program of the conference will be posted online shortly.