The third edition of the conference Digital Art History – Methods, Practices, Epistemologies aims at bringing together established and early career scholars, independent researchers, and professionals involved with the transdisciplinary digital research initiatives, to critically examine the most recent developments in the field of Digital Art History, Digital Visual Studies, Digital History of Architecture, Digital Humanities , Social Sciences, Research and Methodology.

Building upon the most recent discussions within the DAH community, the fundamental question is whether the ongoing infrastructural shifts towards online culture, education and research – towards online pedagogy, new types of virtual project research and management, new and different models of presenting born-digital and digitized cultural content – could provide a convincing argument for presenting this ‘online turn’ as an unique opportunity for digital art history to demonstrate and put forward its huge capacity for experimentation and innovation within the broad area of visual culture and visual literacy. The answer to this question is a rather complex one, and assumes inputs from Digital Art History, Digital Humanities, Social Sciences, experts in Information and Communication sciences, as well as artists, designers, creative individuals and collectives active in the realm of independent culture, who are all invited to give their contribution to this conference.

Along with the presentations of ongoing or recently completed research projects, and unpublished discussions concerning methodological, theoretical and epistemological issues of Digital Art History / Digital Humanities, as well as papers focusing on the technical problems and solutions that might be of interest to a wider research community, topics that might be examined include, but are not limited to:

1. Present state of DAH and new research possibilities

  • State of the art of the field and new possibilities of research
  • Confirmation bias vs. hypothesis-driven research 
  • Links between research methods and theories
  • Quantitative vs. qualitative methods of data analysis
  • Interplay, strengths and limitations of analogue and digital research methods
  • Sharing knowledge within and between disciplinary boundaries
  • History of digital art history

2. Presentation and Representation

  • Graphical representation and interpretation: visualization of uncertainty and fragmentary data
  • Completeness and statistical significance of data
  • The impact of non-human agents on research imagination
  • The impact of virtual access to museum exhibitions during the COVID-19 pandemic on the status of the artwork

3. Education and Pedagogy

  • Response of DAH / DH to the educational, cultural and social challenges posed by the present COVID-19 pandemic

4. DAH / DH Policies: 

  • Power centers and ‘new’ peripheries
  • Digitization practices and data access equality
  • Mass digitalization and ethical approaches to data
  • Digital tools and data sustainability 
  • Open data practices and transparency

To apply for a 20-minute presentation please submit an abstract (500–1000 words maximum, plus 3 citations) and a brief biographical note (200 words maximum) to [email protected], not later than June 15, 2021. The abstract should include a brief discussion on the background of the research (overview of the topic) and research objectives, as well as a brief description of methods, tools and findings. In the biographical note please indicate clearly your institutional affiliation (if any). We accept submissions on completed, original and unpublished results, as well as contributions that present work in progress.

Notifications of acceptance/rejection will be announced by July 1, 2021.

The participation to the conference is free and open to everyone, with no registration fees.
Selected papers will be invited to prepare a submission for an edited and peer-reviewed volume.

The conference and the publication are realized within the research project “Models and Practices of Global Cultural Exchange and Non-Aligned Movement. Research in the Spatio-Temporal Cultural Dynamics”. For more information please visit: https://www.nam-globe-exchange.org/.

For more information on previous editions of the conference and the preceding research project “Modern and Contemporary Artist Networks, Art Groups and Art Associations – Organisation and Communication Models of Collaborative Art Practices in the 20th and 21st Century”, please visit: https://www.art-net-ipu.org.

Note: We hope that the participants will be able to meet in person. However, depending on the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference will be held as an online event if necessary.

Conference organizers: Institute of Art History, Zagreb; DARIAH-HR, SRCE – University of Zagreb, University Computing Centre