November 21 to 23, 2008
ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany

Every religion, political ideology, philosophy, and scientific theory embodies a set of structured beliefs. These belief systems maintain a symbiotic liaison with the arts. Throughout history, communal beliefs have relied on music, theater, painting, and dance in order to propagate accepted doctrines, and the arts in turn have shaped the articles of faith.

The conference brings together artists and scholars in an unusual forum. The arts addressed deal primarily with media, the major art form that has only come to the fore in recent decades. The scholarship concerns antique matters, such as Sumerian music, early Egyptian medicine, and the omens, codes of law, and creation myths of Mesopotamia. The divergent perspectives of the participants augur well for innovative ideas emerging from this close encounter between scholarship, the arts, and the belief systems of early and modern times.

Lectures: Belief Systems Under Construction, Contemporary Christian Arts in China, Astronomical Creation Myths and the Mathematical Universe, Do You Believe in the User?, DIY Belief Systems, A Culture of Technological Obsolescence, K. Marx and the Destiny of Classical Art, Pataphysics: The Science of Imaginary Solutions, From (music) Minimalism to (media) Maximalism, Belief Systems: The Musical, Animals Making Music, The New Raw Unconsciousness, Sumerian Cultic Songs and Music…

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