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5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 OCTOBER 2018 THIS WEEK MUSIC for this year? Whereas previous editions of the conference focused on specific phi- losophers or philosophical move- ments, this year we are foreground- ing a broad branch of philosophy – aesthetics and the philosophy of art – and then let the different philo- sophical, theoretical and disciplinary viewpoints engage with it. The over-arching concern is how philosophy and academia can en- gage with the contemporary, and ask questions such as: What is go- ing on around us today? How have we come to this? What tools do we have at our disposal to engage with these questions? Where can matters change and how? How can academic research inform such debates? These are key questions with which we have engaged every year. This year, we are asking these ques- tions in terms of aesthetics and art to see how we can and do think about art and artistic practices, what philo- sophical questions are raised or an- swered through art, and the role of art in society. We felt that the theme of art and aesthetics is a particularly relevant topic for this year. Aesthetics and art have a long history in philosophy and outside of philosophy. Different thinkers have grappled with ques- tions such as: what is beauty, or, are there limits to artistic expression? Beyond that, this year we were in- terested in how the variety of media and emerging art forms raise specific questions on the notion of medium itself. We also pay attention to how such questions have to be under- stood in relation to other disciplines, such as cognitive science, psychol- ogy, sociology and urban theorists. Moreover, we are also interested in the connection between aesthetics, politics and culture. The last point is particularly rele- vant in light of Valletta being the Eu- ropean Capital of Culture this year. We firmly believe that the location in which philosophical thinking takes place informs the practice of philos- ophy. We cannot properly speak of critical theory if it does not take into account the happenings around it. This year has seen various, often spirited, debates on V18. What does it mean for a city to be a capital of culture? What remains of the possibility of subversive art in view of state co-option? What can be said about the politics of memorials and memorialisation? How do capi- talist and neoliberal cultures impact artistic practices? What, after all, is art today? This year's conference is, implicitly and in some form, a con- tribution to this debate. The programme certainly promises a wide array of speakers with varied interests – was having an 'eclectic' mix of speakers always on the agenda, or do you hope the event will still have some intellectual through-lines, and why? Yes, having a wide array of varied interests represented in the confer- ence is something we're particularly keen about. Whereas some of the pa- pers will be more strictly philosophi- cal insofar as they deal with questions of aesthetics in philosophers such as Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Rancière, and Immanuel Kant among others, other papers will be more 'applied' insofar as they deal with questions of aesthetics and the city, gender and aesthetics, disability and aesthetics, aesthetics and film, and other intersections. While the academic discipline that keeps the conference together is clear- ly philosophy, we intentionally try to blend different disciplines together. Or, rather, we understand philosophy to be an activity that necessarily ex- ceeds its disciplinary boundaries. Without wanting to sound romantic about it, we want to practise a more ancient understanding of philosophy where knowledge is not as fragment- ed and divided into specialised disci- plines, each marked by their technical jargon. Universities thrive on having knowledge neatly divided into differ- ent and clearly demarcated pigeon- holes. While respecting intellectual rig- our, we want to embrace true diver- sity in academia. Inter-disciplinarity shouldn't be just a buzzword but a regular practice in universities, and this conference is a contribution to this healthy and dynamic academic practice. The conference theme is a springboard to thinking the present and engaging the contemporary. Engaging the Contemporary will be taking place on November 1 and 2 at the Valletta Campus of the University of Malta. For more information on the programme and to register for the con- ference, log on to um.edu.mt/events/ etc2018 currents "What does it mean for a city to be a capital of culture? What remains of the possibility of subversive art in view of state co- option?" "We want to practise a more ancient understanding of philosophy where knowledge is not as fragmented and divided into specialised disciplines" Painting by 'atanasis' (Shutterstock) Defining hardcore 'art punk' band Crass at the Cleatormoor Civic Hall, UK, May 3, 1984. Lasse Ullvén (University of Malta) will be delivering a paper on the (Anti)Aesthetics of Punk at 'Engaging the Contemporary'. Photo by Trunt (Wikimedia Commons) Conference co-organiser Kurt Borg