Text: Editorial Team | Section: About w/k
Summary: This is the short lecture held by the w/k editorial team at the 12th Forum Wissenschaftskommunikation (‘Forum for Science Communication’) in Essen, Germany, December 2019.
The online journal’s core editorial team participated in the 12th Forum Wissenschaftskommunikation on the topic of Science Meets Art, which took place in Essen, Germany, from the 10-12th of December 2019. This is the short lecture held by Peter Tepe and Anna-Sophie Jürgens. Till Bödeker was responsible for creating the slideshow presentation accompanying the lecture, the poster (used here as the cover image) and photo documentation during the lecture. Some elements of the slideshow presentation are visible in the photos.
w/k – Between Science and Art: Concept and Realisation
Peter Tepe: Ladies and gentlemen,
firstly, I would like to introduce you to the online journal’s core editorial team, all of whom are present here today. Since March 2019 Dr. Anna-Sophie Jürgens has been head of w/k’s English section. Her areas of research are Popular Entertainment Studies and Science in Fiction Studies. She will soon return to Australia, where she lived for two years before moving to Berlin for a couple of months. Till Bödeker pursues two fields of study in Düsseldorf: fine art at the Kunstakademie, as well as philosophy at the Heinrich-Heine University. Since 2018, as editor-in-chief of the German section of w/k, he is responsible for all creative-technical issues. Accompanying today’s lecture, he will draw attention to relevant w/k contributions corresponding to the topics addressed. My name is Peter Tepe; I am the founder and publisher of w/k.
w/k – Between Science and Art addresses everyone interested in the interfaces between science and art – and especially artists, scientists and curators who deal with this topic professionally. The online journal consists of a German and an English section. The w/k concept is multifaceted and can only be presented here in its basic features. I would encourage you to check out our website to gain a more nuanced understanding of the w/k concept.
1. Individual studies with, about and by visual artists
This field of study is about defining as precisely and thoroughly as possible, through individual studies, the distinct science-art connections existing amongst visual artists, and to deduce their underlying artistic concepts in order to enable a deeper understanding of these art forms. In order to achieve comparable results, it is characteristic for the w/k profile that these individual studies follow the same principles. To broaden the spectrum, w/k also considers other art forms at the margins.
2. Individual studies with, about and by scientists
Similar to the above, in this field of study w/k deals with those scientists who use artistic concepts/methods/results in their teaching, research and academic publications. Here – following the w/k principles – the journal defines the many individual science-art connections and the scientific concepts guiding them.
3. Communicating scientific findings
The new section Art-Related Science, introduced in 2019, is not only a place for articles on individual scientists, it also provides a platform for more general thoughts that deal with the communication of scientific findings through artistic means in a broader sense: for example, with the topic of scientific illustration. The relevant questions include: Does it make sense to draw on art forms such as theatre and comics when communicating scientific findings? Which forms of dialogue even exist between science and art, and what are their respective goals? These more general thoughts which come to light in the w/k section Art-Related Science are therefore directly relevant for the 12th Forum Wissenschaftskommunikation.
4. General Information on ‘Art and Science’
This section is intended, for example, for philosophical reflections on the relationship between science and art in general: thoughts on topics such as ‘neuroscience and art’, ‘biology and art’ and ‘development of concepts of artistic research’. Contributions of this kind should aim to make advances in knowledge within the broad topic of ‘art and science’.
5. Aesthetic & Art Theory
In this section we only publish texts that explicitly make a connection to the broad topic ‘art and science’ and reach new insights in doing so. If we were to publish all types of aesthetic and art theoretical contributions, we would go beyond the scope of w/k and dilute the profile of the online journal. Artists and scientists are invited from all around the world to participate by contributing with articles.
I will now hand this lecture over to Anna-Sophie Jürgens, our new editor-in-chief of w/k’s English section since March 2019: Which new features will you bring about?
Anna-Sophie Jürgens: w/k is about to grow. We are currently rebuilding and expanding the English section of the journal (which has existed for several years). In the course of the intended ‘internationalisation’ of w/k, we have developed a peer-review procedure adapted to the journal; as of 2020, all new contributions in w/k will undergo a peer-review process. We are also working on indexing the online site to make it more attractive for international authors – and to increase its visibility.
In the future, some of our new accents will be visually highlighted in the journal: for example, articles on topics referring to “Popular Culture”, “Circus & Science”, “Games & Art”, among others, will be marked by frames in different colours. Other thematic areas, which are to be supervised by their own editors, are planned. We are delighted that we have recently been able to recruit an Austrian Games Studies expert as editor for the “Games & Art” theme in w/k! So far, this field has been little represented in the German-speaking world, and we are excited that we can give it a stage in our journal.
We invite you to contact us if you have questions about, and are interested in, w/k! We are very interested in establishing collaborations with other institutions and media and look forward to many fruitful discussions.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Pictures above the text: Poster w/k (2019). Design: Till Bödeker.
How to cite this article
Editorial Team (2020): w/k at the Forum Wissenschaftskommunikation. w/k–Between Science & Art Journal. https://doi.org/10.55597/e5651
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