CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: 2 Junior Fellowships for PhD Candidates at the VALIE EXPORT Center, Kunstuniversität Linz (University of Art and Design Linz)

Deadline: 1. September 2019

The University of Art and Design Linz is issuing a call for applications for two Junior Fellowships for PhD candidates at the VALIE EXPORT Center.

The VALIE EXPORT Center at the University of Art and Design Linz processes, researches, contextualizes, and mediates VALIE EXPORT’s premortem bequest. As an internationally oriented research center, it promotes an artistic and scientific confrontation with media art and performance art. The VALIE EXPORT Center is part of the University of Art and Design Linz.

The VALIE EXPORT Center is issuing a call for applications for two Junior Fellowships for PhD candidates. The planned doctoral thesis must deal with one of the two thematic fields:

1. In the context of a research focus on “art and language in artistic practice”, linguistic-structuralist aspects in medial works should be studied on the basis of VALIE EXPORT’s oeuvre. This includes media-critical and reflexive processes, such as (medial) anagrams, and aspects of play, combinatorics, overdetermination, and associated with that, of multivalence and (poetic) surplus in significance. For the artist, anagrammatic context shifts also stand for an exploration of the media’s diverse languages and representations of “reality” that involve specific imagery. With particular consideration of VALIE EXPORT’s oeuvre, the object of investigation refers to the ways that linguistic-structural and visual artistic practices mesh.

2. The relationship of art and science should be examined based on the implementation of new technologies in artistic practice and their diverse possible applications in the field of artistic-scientific research. Starting point for this is VALIE EXPORT’s extensive oeuvre. Use of the computer and the possibilities offered by digitization are analyzed directly in her work as media- and socio-critical processes with regard to the transformation of the human image in the sciences and social theories. The time frame under investigation should extend mainly from the late 1980s (experimental works by EXPORT on “digital photography” and works with the computer) until the 1990s (screen plays for unrealized film projects, such as “The Virtual Body. From the Prosthetic to the Postbiological Body”).

Two fellowships can be granted. The fellowships are endowed with € 1,200 per month each and will be initially awarded for twelve months, yet can be extended for a maximum of an additional twenty-four months on the basis of a positive evaluation. The fellowship also includes a work space at the University of Art and Design Linz and the PhD candidate’s inclusion in the VALIE EXPORT Center and also the University of Art and Design Linz. Successful applicants commit themselves to being present on site, for the most part. Only minimal external work is possible alongside the fellowship.

Applications can be submitted in either German or English, and must include the following documents:
– Resume / CV incl. list of publications
– Motivational letter (1-2 pages)
– Exposé of the planned dissertation (5-10 A4 pages, including time plan)
– Abstract
– Scan of diploma confirming entry requirements for the PhD program

The final selection of the two PhD-candidates will occur on the basis of an interview. The interviews will take place at the University of Art and Design Linz at the end of September / beginning of October. Travel costs will not be refunded.

Anticipated starting date for the fellowship is November 1, 2019.

Deadline for applications is September 1, 2019, and they should be sent as one PDF document per email to:
Kunstuniversität Linz, Office of the Rector
Attn: Dr. Mariana Scheu, mariana.scheu@ufg.at 
Hauptplatz 6
4020 Linz | Austria

Please address any questions to:
Art.Research
Dr. Veronika Schwediauer 
veronika.schwediauer@ufg.at
T: +43 676 84 7898 2202
Office days: Monday, Tuesday