{"id":27317,"date":"2026-05-20T02:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T00:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aluo.uni-lj.si\/objava\/open-call-for-the-7th-international-scientific-conference-of-the-chair-of-theoretical-studies-ul-aluo\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T02:18:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T00:18:55","slug":"open-call-for-the-7th-international-scientific-conference-of-the-chair-of-theoretical-studies-ul-aluo","status":"publish","type":"objava","link":"https:\/\/www.aluo.uni-lj.si\/en\/objava\/open-call-for-the-7th-international-scientific-conference-of-the-chair-of-theoretical-studies-ul-aluo\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Call for the 7th International Scientific Conference of the Chair of Theoretical Studies UL ALUO"},"content":{"rendered":"

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Seventh International Scientific Conference of the Chair of Theoretical Studies UL ALUO
\nPotentialities: The Unexplored Possibilities of Visual Arts Practices and Their Language<\/strong><\/p>\n

On 23 September 2026, the Chair of Theoretical Studies UL ALUO will host the seventh international scientific conference at the Koper Regional Museum<\/a>, on the topic of the potentialities of visual arts practices and interpretations of their language.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Defining the concept:<\/em><\/p>\n

The term potentiality has multiple interpretations that reach deep into the history of ancient philosophy. Aristotle is likely the first thinker to be associated with an autonomous and systematic examination of potentiality and with the establishment of its fundamental conceptual frameworks. Seeking to explain the processes of change in nature, he introduced a crucial distinction between two different modes of being: potentiality<\/em><\/strong>, and its opposite, actuality<\/em><\/strong> (Aristotle 1999). Before him, these categories\u2014especially within the Megarian school\u2014were understood primarily as inextricably linked, as an indivisible phenomenon.<\/p>\n

Potentiality (dunamis, dynamis<\/em>) is used in several different ways. On one hand, it denotes the possibility<\/em><\/strong> for something to arise or be transformed, given appropriate conditions. (Possibility is closely associated with the relationship between substance and matter.) A classic example of this kind of potential is a seed: under the right conditions, a plant seed has the potential to develop into a plant. On the other hand, potentiality can also denote the ability<\/strong> of someone or something to perform an action or effect a change. (Ability encompasses knowledge, skills, or proficiencies and is tied to the relationship between capacity and change.) Someone might possess certain knowledge or the ability to play an instrument.<\/p>\n

For Aristotle, actuality (entelecheia<\/em>) denotes the realization, or fulfilment, of potentiality. Actuality represents a state in which this potential possibility has been fulfilled and the goal achieved. To return to the previous example, we speak of about actuality when the seed has grown into a plant.<\/p>\n

The Greek dunamis<\/em> and Latin potentia<\/em> contain an essential ambiguity. One of the crucial distinctions is that between active and passive potentiality, that is, potentiality as the ability to act and potentiality as the ability to become. In the first case, change is viewed as a process; in the second, it is understood as a state of dormancy and openness to future realization. Possibility thus presupposes a transformation whereby something is realized, whereas ability already involves a certain power, knowledge, or skill to bring about or create something.<\/p>\n

The notions of possibility and ability raise a number of different yet interrelated questions. The first cluster concerns the potentiality of an object itself\u2014a design object, a work of art, an architectural structure, and so on. The second cluster pertains to its ability to be used, to function, and to fulfil a purpose, as well as to questions of activity, effect, sustainability, and conservation. The third cluster addresses the issue of language and reading: the possibilities of interpretation, understanding, perception and visual literacy.<\/p>\n

In the background of this discussion, a third concept begins to emerge: impotentiality. This is precisely what, in Giorgio Agamben\u2019s view, holds the key to understanding Aristotle\u2019s doctrine of potentiality. Agamben argues that inscribed at the very core of every potentiality is also the possibility of failing to do something\u2014that is, impotentiality. This serves both as a necessary precondition and the very foundation of potentiality itself. It therefore becomes possible to argue, paradoxically, that it is precisely when the possibility of its absence is most strongly present that something reaches its maximum potentiality.<\/p>\n

If potentiality were, for example, only the potentiality for vision and if it existed only as such in the actuality of light, we could never experience darkness (nor hear silence, in the case of the potentiality to hear). But human beings can, instead, see shadows (to skotos<\/em>), they can experience darkness: they have the potential not to see, the possibility of privation. (Agamben 1999)<\/p>\n

Potentiality is not merely a logical or conceptual possibility; it is an effective mode of existence of possibility itself. It has its own mode of existence, as well as a certain degree of autonomy, and therefore does not remain passive or neutral but constantly produces effects. It is precisely through this horizon of potentiality that we perceive numerous phenomena, forms of expression, and interrelationships, that is, as something that is yet to be fully realized, but is already having an effect and exerting an influence. In this sense, potentiality does not denote an actual manifestation of a certain skill or power but the existence of possibility as such. Agamben writes: \u201cThe greatness\u2014and also the abyss\u2014of human potentiality is that it is first of all potential not to act, potential for darkness.\u201d (Agamben 1999),<\/p>\n

Potentiality can be understood as the opening up of a field of possibilities, with this opening having no existence beyond the presence of a lack of something that could be. Yet it is precisely this indeterminacy and incompleteness that open up space for human expression, creativity, and thought. Starting with this premise, we can understand potentiality as one of the fundamental fields within which visual arts operate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We invite researchers to participate with contributions that critically examine the role of potentiality within visual arts practices and their language.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Possible starting points:<\/em><\/p>\n