CONVIVIA 11—Michael Rottmann: Diagrammatic Art in the Decade of the Diagram. An Artform, a Medium and its Uses, Conceptualizations and Critique

In the 1960s the diagram has become an ubiquitous medium in many fields of many societies. There was a strong belief in diagrams, especially its ability to visualize and its practical, productive potentials. Diagrams became even emblems of objectivity, rationality and evidence. This applies for sciences as well as for design. But there was also critique, not surprisingly by visual arts.

After providing a basic background of the historical context and the theory of “the” diagram my talk aims to reconstruct the diversity of „diagrammatic art“ and how it deals with the phenomenon. It will be shown the wide range of integrating, exploring and using, even developing (artistic) diagrams as well as ways of reflecting and criticizing the diagram; the latter will be pursued in particular in a media-reflexive and a socio-political perspective; the diagram will be introduced as a transfer site between the visual and its critique, as part of an ongoing discourse of visuality.

Dr. Michael Rottmann is an art historian and media theorist. His research focuses on the

history and theory of art and (digital) media in the 20th and 21st century.

As a doctoral fellow in the DFG research group Notational Iconicity (Schriftbildlichkeit), he completed the PhD program. His doctoral thesis (book Gestaltete Mathematik), explores the roles of mathematics in visual arts in New York around 1960. After holding teaching appointments in Graz, Linz, and Vienna he worked in 2017-2022 as a senior researcher (PI) at the Academy of Art and Design Basel, leading the SNSF research project Automated Innovations, looking at machine arts in the 20th and 21st century. Since 01/2023 he has been postdoc researcher in the ERC-project COSE, which is dedicated to Internet-based art, at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). For more info see: michaelrottmann.org