Panel: Atmospheres, International Conference, National Gallery of Denmark, The Art Work between Technology and Nature, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark

The present climate crisis foregrounds the observation that during the last century human technology has come to play a crucial role in the overall behaviour of nature, both as a disturber of ecological balances and as a potential healer of them. Parallel to this development, art seems to have become more closely involved with both nature and technology, challenging, on the one hand, conceptions of art contemplating nature as a distant landscape and, on the other, art as being foreign to the social interaction and physical dynamics of technology. These approaches often highlight art?s critical and reflective function, and yet in art?s very interchange with nature and technology there are certain reminiscences of the ancient and medieval periods in which art and technology were aspects of a common area of cultivated products and their methods ? the Latin ars and the Greek technè ? and in which this area was thought to function according to principles imitating nature.

The conference is primarily aimed at the international circles of art historians and other scholars and students interested in the history of ideas, culture, technology and science. The conference is also relevant to all professionals interested in climate issues and conceptions of nature. Interested museum visitors will also find that the conference elaborates on the issues raised by the exhibitions at Statens Museum for Kunst. In addition, the conference is aimed at people interested in contemporary art, current affairs like the climate crisis, and the historical approach to the field of art, nature and technology.