Transdisciplinarity is being urged and invoked in all quarters. In practice, however, the cross-disciplinary exchange of knowledge and experience is anything but simple—and is likely to present even more difficulties in the future given how every field is becoming increasing specialized. The Kunststiftung NRW’s new fellowship program “Workshop of Arts and Sciences” establishes open spaces in which knowledge does not remain confined to hermetic specialist discourses, putative certainties, or rhetorical echo chambers. The program’s trust in the process and its broad understanding of research help foster an ongoing dialogue between artistic and scientific perspectives. This volume reviews the first year of the workshop with essays, conversations, and pages contributed by fellows that explore techniques of transdisciplinary thinking, the wisdom of genre boundaries, and the practical challenges involved in any collaboration between science and the arts.
Peter Bröckerhoff is a senior research associate at the University of Bonn’s Center for Life Ethics. Corç George Demir is an interdisciplinary artist taking a research-based approach to collective and individual constructions of the self. Tuğba Durukan is an interdisciplinary artist who deploys a clear formal language of abstraction to study systems such as writing, religion, and architecture as they relate to the body. Enis Maci has received multiple awards for her plays and essays. Jan Mehlich is a senior research associate at the University of Bonn’s Center for Life Ethics. Sebastian Müller is a senior research associate at the University of Bonn’s Center for Life Ethics. As a composer and media artist, Phillip Schulze focuses on the essence and impact of acoustic, visual, and physical stimuli and the options for using them artistically. Noemi Weber applies a critical eye to the prevailing narratives governing the Western concept of painting.
