Looking forward to Presenting Infrathin Images at UAAC 2026
on Art/Theory: Revisiting the "Ancient Conflict"
October 13–15, Concordia University, Montréal, QC
Chairs: Dan Starling, University of British Columbia and Jeremy Arnott, Concordia University
Panel Session | Session de panel
Plato identified an "ancient conflict" between philosophy and art—and this wound has never quite healed. Generations of theorists and artists have inherited (and contemplated) this antagonism, often treating the other's domain with suspicion or indifference. Yet some of the most consequential critical interventions have emerged precisely at this border, from Adorno's surrealist writings, to contemporary "auto-theory" or figures like Hito Steyerl who blur the distinction, operating simultaneously as artists and theorists. It also points to a broader trajectory: a long and underexamined history of theorists making art, and artists doing theory. We aim to hold art and theory in productive constellation, using art to refract theory and vice versa. This panel session invites presentations and reflections, from artists, theorists, writers, curators, and art historians that use art as a tool to deliver their theory; or who employ theory as a mechanism to charge art. We encourage reflection upon the (sometimes violent) tension between art and theory. How can we think about the on-going and persistent disciplinary boundaries that still prevent serious interdisciplinary cross-pollination, even when some of the best instances of contemporary critique come in the acute register of theoretically precise actions?
Keywords: art, theory, auto-theory, interdisciplinarity