OPEN CALL:2 Junior Fellowships for PhD candidates at University of Art and Design Linz

2 Junior Fellowships for PhD candidates at University of Art and Design LinzThe VALIE EXPORT Center Linz_ Research Center for Media and Performance Art appraises, studies, contextualises, and mediates the premature legacy of VALIE EXPORT. International in its orientation, the research center strives to promote the artistic and scientific exploration of Media and Performance Art. The VALIE EXPORT Center is a co-operation of the University of Art and Design Linz (Kunstuniversität Linz) and the City of Linz with LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz.

The planned doctoral thesis is required to deal with one of these two subject areas:

(1) With the oeuvre of VALIE EXPORT serving as a starting point and in the context of a research focus on “art and language in artistic practice,” linguistic structuralist aspects of media works are to be examined. These include critical and reflexive approaches to media, such as “media anagrams,” as well as aspects of game, combinatorial analysis, of overdetermination, and, along with this, of multivalency and (poetic) surplus meaning. In the case of the artist VALIE EXPORT, anagrammatic shifts in context also stand for an exploration of media’s diverse languages and representations of “reality,” which entail specific ways of image generation. Putting special emphasis on the oeuvre of VALIE EXPORT, the research subject relates to the ways that structural linguistic and visual artistic practices intertwine.

(2) The implementation of new technologies into artistic practice and their manifold possible applications in the field of artistic-scientific research shall provide the basis for an examination of the relationship of art and science. VALIE EXPORT’s extensive oeuvre forms the starting point. It is her work in particular that analyses the use of the computer and the possibilities offered by digitisation in their function as critical approaches to media and society with regard to the transformation of the human image in the sciences and in social theories. The period to be studied should extend mainly from the late 1980s (experimental works by EXPORT on “digital photography” and works using the computer) to the 1990s (screenplays for unrealised film projects, such as “The Virtual Body. From the Prosthetic to the Postbiological Body)”.

Two fellowships can be granted. The fellowships include a monthly sum of EUR 1,200 each and will initially be awarded for twelve months, though, subject to a positive evaluation, they can be extended for a maximum of 24 additional months. The fellowships also include work space for the PhD candidates at the University of Art and Design Linz. Successful applicants commit themselves to being present on site to a large degree. The fellowship precludes holding any external job on the side that exceeds minor employment.

Applications can be submitted in either German or English, and must include the following documents:

  1. Résumé / CV incl. list of publications
  2. Motivational letter (1–2 pages)
  3. Exposé of the planned dissertation (5–10 A4 pages, including time schedule)
  4. Abstract
  5. Scan of diploma confirming entry requirements for the PhD programme

The final selection of the two PhD candidates will be made on the basis of an interview which will take place at the University of Art and Design Linz at the end of September / beginning of October. Travel costs will not be refunded.

The anticipated starting date for the fellowships is November 1, 2019.

The application deadline is September 1, 2019 Applications should be sent as a single PDF document, via email to:
Kunstuniversität Linz, Office of the Rector
Attn: Dr. Mariana Scheu, mariana.scheu@ufg.at
Hauptplatz 6
4020 Linz, Austria

Please address any questions to:
Art.Research
Dr. Veronika Schwediauer
veronika.schwediauer@ufg.at
T +43 676 84 7898 2202
Office days: Monday, Tuesday