CALL FOR PAPERS

Elementy. Sztuka i Dizajn Issue 9
“Risk, Uncertainty, and Experiment”

We invite submissions for the 9th issue of the academic journal Elementy. Sztuka i Dizajn, published by the Publishing House of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow.

Uncertainty, risk, and experiment form a triad of concepts that first underpinned the avant-garde and later became key terms in narratives surrounding contemporary art. These ideas became embedded in the language describing artistic practice largely through literature—thanks to Émile Zola, who in the 1880s introduced the term “experimental novel”, emphasizing elements of the unknown and risk in artistic endeavors. As he noted, the very concept of experiment originates from scientific methodology and inherently involves uncertainty—a scientist never knows whether an experiment will succeed or whether it will confirm or refute a hypothesis.

Exactly 60 years ago, Allan Kaprow published his essay “Experimental Art.” As both an explorer of new artistic territories and a talented essayist, he mocked the established artists of his generation who had abandoned experimentation. He accused them of producing “art art”—works that were erudite, well-versed in art history, but never risky. They replicated familiar avant-garde styles, creating pieces that audiences and buyers could immediately recognize as art. Experimenters, like Kaprow himself, worked in a way that left them uncertain whether they had even created art at all. They embraced uncertainty and the unknown.

In 2014, Walter Robinson highlighted a slightly different aspect of experimentation by coining the term “zombie formalism.” He described essentially the same phenomenon Kaprow had ridiculed: a legion of success- and money-hungry creators taking shortcuts by copying once-revolutionary but now well-worn styles, producing simulacra of experimentation rather than genuine revolution—a pastiche of the very avant-garde that once thrived on risk, provocation, and self-doubt. A decade earlier, in a different artistic context, Artur Żmijewski seemed to follow a similar path, creating a perverse pastiche of the idea of experimentation in art (and science) by titling his re-enactment of Philip Zimbardo’s 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment “Repetition.”

So what has become of experiment, uncertainty, and risk? Are these still essential categories in artistic practice? If not, where does art derive its prestige and legitimacy today? What language should we use to describe it? Can we still claim that art investigates, analyzes, critiques, and engages with pressing issues—that galleries and museums are laboratories for new practices and visions of social life? And if so, where do we find uncertainty, risk, and experiment today—in what practices, contexts, and media? What generates the discomfort that is both creative and inspiring?

These questions serve as the starting point for the 9th issue of “Elementy.” We encourage authors to reflect broadly on the role of experimentation in today’s art and culture—and whether questions about experimentation still matter or belong to the paradigm of contemporary art at all. Possible topics include:

• How has the concept of experimentation evolved from the 19th century to today? Does contemporary art still take risks, or has experimentation become merely a safe stylistic choice?
• Does art need a new definition of experiment?
• Should the goal of experimentation be primarily to produce new artistic quality, or simply to introduce unpredictability, trend-breaking, and procedural disruption into the art world?
• Why do avant-garde “failures” (e.g., unrealized utopias, incomplete or abandoned projects) now hold museum, economic, and archival value?
• To what extent does the logic of today’s art world allow an artistic experiment to “spiral out of control”? How much risk of failure is acceptable in a professionalized art system?
• How do we move from Dadaist chance to algorithmic unpredictability? Is this continuity or rupture? Is AI art a new form of experimentation or merely a simulation of creative risk?
• How do glitch art and other techniques based on deliberate system failures challenge traditional notions of agency and control in art?
• What connects art and science today? Were these ties ever meaningful, or were they merely metaphors taken too seriously by some?
• Is the pseudo-scientific language used to describe artistic practice (e.g., problem analysis, research, testing, laboratory, or even experimentation) still relevant?
• How do uncertainty and risk in art relate to contemporary crises—migration, geopolitical tensions, climate change?
• How does art justify its social relevance in an era some call “post-artistic”?
• Is Anthropocene and post-apocalyptic art merely an aestheticization of fear, or a tool for constructive and effective critique?
• Are “uncertainty” and experiment still artistic categories, or just commodities in the “experience economy”?
• How do risk-, uncertainty-, and experiment-based practices define creators’ responsibilities?
• How is risk distributed in the interconnected art world? Who takes greater risks—the artist, curator, institution, or collectors—and how can we measure and describe this risk?
• As experimental artistic practice declines, is there a growing potential for experimental art theory and criticism?
• What does risk mean psychologically—emotionally and existentially—as an element of every creative process? Is creation only possible where there is a risk of failure, rejection, or disintegration?
• How do artistic professions compare to others in terms of risk?
• Authors are requested to submit their paper proposals in the form of an abstract (up to 500 words) to: elementy@asp.krakow.pl