Report on the S+T+ARTS Symposium to reflect on impact and shape the future

HacTe, Barcelona’s Hub of Arts, Science and Technology, and Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) are happy to present the Report of the Symposium “Exploring the Intersections of Arts, Science, Technology and Society As Catalysts for Change” that they co-organized in the framework of the S+T+ARTS in the City project, on October 29th & 30th, 2024 in Barcelona.

Over the past seven decades, the discourse on the dialogues and intersections between the arts and sciences has undergone a profound transformation since the inception of the “two cultures” debate. Today, numerous publications, institutions, organisations, academic associations, and funding programmes, such as S+T+ARTS in the European context, testify to the burgeoning emphasis on transdisciplinarity.

However, amidst this progress, persistent questions and concerns remain, particularly with regard to the dissemination and impact assessment of projects within these transdisciplinary fields. A key challenge is to develop effective methods for observing, monitoring, evaluating, and identifying key variables illuminating project findings and respecting their inherent complexity.

This symposium addressed these needs by convening an international dialogue that spanned academic discourse and practical applications. By fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange, it explored new strategies for accurately addressing, monitoring, and measuring he multiple impacts of projects situated at the intersection of the arts, technologies, and sciences, within the global challenges of contemporary society.

The event brought together contributions from more than 50 international academics, researchers, artists, policymakers and practitioners working on the crossroads between the arts, science and technology, proposing a journey through the genealogies of interdisciplinary practices, to reflections on potential values social and ethical changes, epistemologies and ontologies, legacies, practices from past and ongoing projects and material and ethical questions, as well as looking to the future of S+T+ARTS initiative throughput panel discussions, roundtables, conferences, workshop and project presentations in the poster and audiovisual area.

Overall, the event aimed to explore transdiciplinarity to address societal challenges through research and innovative practices.

S+T+ARTS in the City Symposium is kindly supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya and FECYT.

Co-organized by:

S+T+ARTS in the City is funded by the European Union under grant agreement LC-01984766 under the STARTS – Science, Technology and Arts initiative of DG CNECT. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or DG CNECT. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.