Description

"Science-Art-Philosophy Lab" (SAP Lab) is an innovative, experimental and interdisciplinary laboratory in which philosophy is called to deeply intertwine with science and art. As far as we know, this Lab is the first of its kind in the world. In fact, more than just a meeting point between scientists and artists, something which already exists in several Sci-Art centres, SAP Lab aims at integrating the work of scientists and artists with the conceptual analysis which philosophy is prepared to provide. So, SAP Lab will be a place where philosophers will be asked to act not just as external critical observers but to reinvent their work through an inner, innovative experimentation with scientists and artists. Taking philosophy as a creative work of elaboration of concepts open to the outside of philosophy («les marges» and «le dehors»), we hope that new conceptual problems coming from the deep relation between philosophy, science and art will emerge in this new SAP Lab: science and art will experiment the active character of philosophy as a dynamic conceptual catalyser to the new theoretical problems which defy their work; in parallel, philosophy will be challenged through the experimental connection with science and art established in the SAP Lab.

The main inspiration for the SAP Lab comes from the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. Among contemporary philosophers, Deleuze is widely recognized as the most important thinker of the triple relationship between philosophy, science and art. In his latest book What is Philosophy? (1991) together with Felix Guattari, Deleuze drew a new cartography of thought in which Philosophy, Science and Art are considered as the three complementary non hierarchic dimensions of thought, respectively corresponding to the creation of concepts (philosophy), of functions (science) and of affects/sensations (art). In parallel with this innovative view on the relations between philosophy, science and art, Deleuze provides an influential conceptual «toolbox» - rhizome, micro-brain, affect and percept, plan of immanence, transversality and ecophilosophy - as well as a set of powerful methodological proposals. Taking this Deleuzian background as a starting point, we intend to put forward a complete new way of intertwining philosophy with science and art.

Structure

Science-Art-Philosophy Lab (SAP Lab) will be organized as follows:

1) a series of regular SAP Lab residencies where scientists, philosophers and artists will develop their research in a context of deep interdisciplinary work-in-progress,

2) a SAP Lab Permanent Seminar where a regular conceptual and accurate analysis of all the work occurring at the residencies will be developed,

3) a SAP Lab Digital Platform working as a virtual forum for discussion, as well as a documental archive,

4) a series of Biennale SAP Lab exhibitions, the "Science-Art-Philosophy Biennale", a major event linking scientists, philosophers and artists all over the world, and

5) a SAP Lab International Conference.

Another SAP Lab task will be the reinforcement and amplification of the "Lisbon Center for Image in Science and Art" (CISA) an innovative online platform (http://lisboncisa.fc.ul.pt), aiming to recover and put together scientific and artistic images in order to look for their affinities, differences, proximities or divergence. Special attention will be given to the most contemporary achievements in Bio Nano-Images.

Another focus of attention will be given to the experimental, interdisciplinary work on the concept of Territory. Coming from ethological and geological context, it is a powerful device for clarifying the anthropological and epistemological dimensions of the creation process in philosophy, science and art. Several approaches will be worked out, namely diagrammatic practices, land-art and map -art as well as the new configuration of the world produced by the current globalization process, from the cartographic representation of the Earth to the electro-numeric image of the Globe.