Transdisciplinarity is gaining momentum. It is often argued that wicked real-life problems require the collaboration of not only different academic disciplines (interdisciplinarity) but also non-academic stakeholders (transdisciplinarity). While transdisciplinary research collaborations are desirable and promising, they also face unique methodological and political challenges, such as establishing a shared language  (or for that matter becoming trans-lingual), agreeing on a shared research question, agreeing on (making, producing) experiment(s) or research methods/elements to acquire knowledge, establishing relationships in which every participant’s knowledge and expertise is equally acknowledged and appreciated, and integrating and synthesising diverse (but equally valuable) forms of knowledge. In this panel, we will consider transdisciplinary research collaborations involving artists, philosophers of technology, and social scientists. Artists and academic researchers who are involved in such collaborations will share their experiences and discuss what methodological approaches work well in such projects, how to best deal with challenges, and what unique insights can be gained by these collaborations. We will also address the roles of artists and philosophers in transdisciplinary collaborations: What are their unique qualifications and how can the involvement of artists and philosophers contribute to successful transdisciplinary research projects? This panel is connected to the art exhibition at Vrijhof and DesignLab, which includes works by Lotje van Lieshout, Michaela Honauer & Malou Beemer, Špela Petrič, and Dani Ploeger.

Moderator: Julia Hermann

Panelists:

Malou Beemer, designer, artist, and researcher
Lucas Evers, Head of Make Programme & Lead Open Wetlab at Waag Futurelab
Janna van Grunsven, assistant professer in ethics and philosophy of technology, TU Delft
Michaela Honauer, post-doc in design research, University of Twente
Lotje van Lieshout, artist and researcher
Špela Petrič, new media artist
Dani Ploeger, artist and professor of performance and technology, University of Music and Theatre Munich

This panel will continue in parallel session VI track 8.