International Conference

Digital Aesthetics: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Artistic Practices as Applied Technologies

Date: November 26-28, 2026

Location: Warburg-Haus, Heilwigstraße 116, 20249 Hamburg

Program (PDF)
Book of Abstracts (PDF)
Location and Travel Information (PDF)

This international conference explores contemporary artistic practices as applications of digital technologies. Recordings of poetry performances, experimental films, visual novels, interactive documentaries, and VR installations — to name just a few examples — are increasingly produced, circulated, and received through programs, video platforms, websites, and social media. Their production, circulation, and reception are shaped by technological infrastructures such as program codes, video codecs, responsive algorithms, tactile interface designs, and participatory tools.

The term artistic practices emphasizes that these works are dynamic configurations whose aesthetic appearance emerges through multiple technological layers. The conference therefore addresses four central questions:

• Which layers of digital technology are crucial to digital aesthetics?
• How can these different layers and their impact on aesthetics be traced and investigated, especially when technical knowledge is limited or technologies (such as machine learning algorithms) are opaque or inaccessible?
• What artistic strategies are employed to make these applications of technology perceptible?
• How can humanities scholars interrogate their own dependencies on digital environments and technologies?

Bringing together scholars from literary studies, media studies, film studies, and art history, the conference initiates an interdisciplinary dialogue between (established) aesthetic theories and emerging fields such as Platform Studies, Interface Studies, and App Studies. It investigates digital phenomena through artistic practices that examine how platforms, algorithms, and interfaces shape audiovisual aesthetics, often making these technological processes perceptible through glitches and algorithmic disruptions. At the same time, understanding artistic practices as applications of digital technologies enables a critical reflection on the situatedness and thus the dependence of researchers within digital environments, since the analysis of digital culture necessarily requires engagement with the very platforms, interfaces, and software under investigation.

Participation is free of charge. We kindly ask you to register via email at jasmin.kermanchi"AT"uni-hamburg and henrik.wehmeier"AT"gmx.de.

This conference is financially supported by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation.