2nd IMPACT is an important conference on the art of printmaking. As to its content, the conference discusses the relationship between traditional craftsmanship and modern technology; the basic working methods that are thousands of years old meet the present day image editing. Photography is part of printmaking since its birth. It is indeed hard to even imagine contemporary printmaking without the marriage of photography with the hand made print. 2nd IMPACT is however not only interested in raising issues concerning the technical aspects of printmaking, but intends also to deal with some relevant questions of content from a Northern and Nordic perspective. Art on paper, paper as a surface to print on - the space of paper - are the collective theme of 2nd IMPACT . Printmaking is a form of expression in progress.  

 
Top CALL FOR PAPER THEME
The overall theme for the conference papers is: Material Meaning

With the growing pace of development of distribution and sites of presentation - and a new set of conditions for representation - artists navigating between art and design are confronted with an ever growing range of new media seemingly hazardous for printmaking, craftsmanship and excellence in the traditional means of visual arts.

The visual arts have traditionally defined their genres in convergence with the technology of each genre. Today, artists are challenged with alternatives and options of processing ideas, combining techniques, presenting and distributing works of art in ways never existing before.

Should we adopt the contributions of the new technologies or do we think that printmaking creates its own categories of artistic quality, which are lost when the character of the traditional print is altered?
Yes and no. Artist may have to alter their ways of working. Artists even may want it. What are the aesthetic signs generated by the medium itself?
Theoretical and philosophical discussions on art and design participate in rewriting notions on aesthetic meaning, reconsidering ideas sustained by modernist thinking directed toward the "immaterialization" of the art object and its distribution in urban space. Contemporary art strategies, ranging from digital imaging to architectural modes of representation reflects the construction of our environment by pervasive physicality, marketing by aesthetisation, cultural industries, cultural events, sites and institutions.

2nd IMPACT challenges one to think about production of meaning in printmaking media. Phenomenological as well as pragmatist approaches enlighten action oriented theory of art and design. 2nd IMPACT participates in refining art theories of meaning, and aesthetic signification. 2nd IMPACT discusses the print as symbolic object and as a vehicle for aesthetic experience confronted with the possibility of its material disappearance as artwork.

We particularly welcome papers covering all aspects of printmaking that consider the theme presented above. Proposals for papers, illustrated talks, panels or practical demonstrations should be submitted to the University of Art and Design Helsinki UIAH by 28 December 2000. 

 
Top POTENTIAL TOPICS
Examples of topics that can be discussed:

Objects and meaning.
Art and aesthetic signification in printmaking.
The problem of authenticity in printmaking of today.
The graphic artist as innovator.
Where are the material limitations of a print?
Does multiplying affect the artistīs relationship to his work?
Does a photographer think graphically?
National traditions in printmaking versus international trends.
What is the future of photographic book art?
The changes in the identity of a photographer and a graphic artists.
Material meaning?
Material as different ways of interaction.