DFG-Research Group
Art is not only thought, but also made. Under this premise, the research group, which is funded by the German Research Foundation, is concerned with the artistic work process and the factors that make this work process possible. We understand artistic production as an interplay of practical doing, conceptual knowledge and cultural location. In this context, the Greek term techne serves us as a heuristic instrument: it encompasses not only the two areas of "art" and "technology", which are usually negotiated separately in German, but also a whole range of skills and processes that are connected with art-making: the knowledge of materials and processes that manifests itself in the artefacts and is passed on in texts or illustrations, art theory, which can be used to formulate evaluation standards for technical achievements, and the narratives that charge artistic action with meaning. The aim of our joint project is to broaden the horizon of questions about the artistic process and to recover the materiality of objects, which threatens to dissolve in digital surfaces, as a repository of actions and knowledge for art historical research.
- 1st speaker: Prof. Dr Magdalena Bushart
- 2nd speaker: Prof. Dr. Karin Leonhard
- Coordination: Luisa Feiersinger
- Sub-project "Printmaking as a Process

Luca Frepoli, MA
With counter-printing, the project takes a look at a further development of intaglio printing methods that was widespread in the 16th and 17th centuries, but which has been little researched with regard to the work process. The individual sheets will be examined from a practice-oriented perspective with regard to their significance for design work and their function as a working aid. At the same time, the counterprints open up aesthetic questions about the problem of page reversal, the tension between the uniqueness and reproducibility of the printed products and the hybrid character of the works between printmaking and hand drawing.

Dr. Maria Deiters / Stephanie Schüler, MA
The scientific examination of the possibilities and limits of digital reconstructions as well as the visualization and linking of research results is a new challenge for our subject. This is the subject of the pilot project for the Church of the Holy Blood in Bad Wilsnack, which is being developed in collaboration with the Potsdam Glass Painting Research Unit at the Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi (Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities).

Prof. Dr. Magdalena Bushart, PD. Dr. Henrike Haug (University of Cologne)
Since 2011, the project Interdependencies - Arts and their Techniques has been investigating the interactions between materials, artistic techniques and shaping processes in conferences and publications. The project investigates the creative potential and the changing status of processes and materials, the forms of organisation and visualisation of artistic work, and the theoretical reflections on the practical activities of artists.

Dr. Andreas Meinecke
The project examines Karl Friedrich Schinkel's court and professional network and his designs, buildings, and expert opinions for buildings in non-Prussian German states as a contribution to cultural state competition in the 19th century.