“Experimenting, experiencing, reflecting -

Art and science at work in the public realm”

Science and art represent the creative sparks of humanity known as knowledge and beauty and driven by curiosity, passion and persistence. Their historical trajectories and institutionalization diverged, leading to different kinds of performance in the public domain. Experiments, experience and reflection offer an enormous potential for renewed engagement with the public(s) of today. As the public domain becomes more dense, regulated and digitally blurred, one question becomes more urgent: where is the spatial location – and the time needed - for free spaces to experiment, experience and reflect. Rather than seeking a re-enchantment of the world, new navigation charts and skills are needed to explore and cope with the increasing complexity while circumventing the rocks of misplaced simplicity. It means to confront the material, economic, social and cultural resistance of our contemporary realities.

Helga Nowotny is Professor emerita of Science and Technology Studies, ETH Zurich, and a founding member of the European Research Council. In 2007 she was elected ERC Vice President and from March 2010 until December 2013 President of the ERC. Currently she is Chair of the ERA Council Forum Austria, member of the Austrian Council and Vice-President of the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. She is also Visiting Professor at NTU Singapore.

Among other, Helga Nowotny is Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and continues to serve on many international advisory boards in Austria and throughout Europe (e.g. Member of the Steering Board of the Falling Walls Foundation, Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Complexity Science Hub Vienna, Chair of Advisory Board of The Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity Paris, Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the L’Institut d’études avancées de Paris and Member of the Strategic Research Advisory Board of the Austrian Institute of Technology). Helga Nowotny has published widely in Science and Technology Studies, STS, and on social time. Throughout her professional career, Helga Nowotny has been engaged in science and innovation policy matters and continues to serve as advisor at national and EU level. From 2001 till 2005 she was Chair of the European Research Advisory Board, EURAB, advising the European Commission.

Helga Nowotny has published more than 300 articles in scientific journals. Her latest book (in German) is Eigenzeit Revisited in Zeit der Algorithmen. Her previous books include The Cunning of Uncertainty, that was featured by the Financial Times on the list of the best books 2015; Naked Genes, Reinventing the human in the molecular age, (with Giuseppe Testa), MIT Press, 2011, Insatiable Curiosity, Innovation in a Fragile Future, MIT Press, 2008, and Cultures of Technology and the Quest for Innovation (ed.), New York and London, 2006.