The convergence of science, technology, society (STS) and artistic research

Abstract

Preconceptions supposing that scientific knowledge and artistic knowledge are distinct from each other have begun to lose validity. It is due to the increasing number of artworks and artistic research activities at the intersection(s) of science, art and technology particularly from the beginning of the 19th century. Those activities and artworks which can be given as examples of boundary works have converged art and technoscience by transforming the definition(s) and scopes of those areas. Thus, this thesis defends the need for the art discipline to enter the research field of science, technology and society (STS) studies. One of the two main research questions raised by this thesis is that what associations can be established between STS and contemporary artworks. The other main research question is that what the convergence points are between STS and the artistic research discipline in the fields of knowledge production, science and technology communication, public understanding of science and technology and the public engagement of science and technology. In order to explore the answers to these questions, examples of artworks and art movements from the nineteenth and twentieth century art history and the ones from the past 20 years which have blurred the boundaries among art, technology and science were selected. Then those artworks, art movements and the corresponding artists were introduced and interpreted under the conceptual and theoretical scope of STS. As a research finding of this thesis, it is concluded that the artifacts and activities that hybridize art and technoscience can have a positive impact on the public's understanding of science and technology thus they can maintain a more democratic and participatory technoscience by improving the ways in which public engages with science and technology. Furthermore, within the framework of this thesis, it is found that today's artists who also perform the role of scientists in their artistic research practices, take the position of STS scholars via their artworks in which they criticize technoscience and unveils the mutual interactions between the public and the technoscience. In this regard, it is further suggested to examine the artistic research practices carried out in Turkey within the framework of the STS. By this way, there will be a local knowledge contribution to the field that can reveal new convergence points between STS and the artistic research disciplines. Keywords: STS; artistic research; contemporary art; knowledge production; public understanding of science and technology; public engagement with science and technology