TABOO - TRANSGRESSION - TRANSCENDENCE

The conferences "Taboo - Transgression – Transcendence in Art & Science" include theoretical presentations and artists' talks focusing (a) on questions about the nature of the forbidden and about the aesthetics of liminality, as expressed in art that uses or is inspired by technology and science, and (b) on the opening of spaces for creative transformation in the merging of science and art.

A brainchild of Dalila Honorato, Assistant Professor at the Ionian University, the first two conferences, TTT2016 and TTT2017 were held in Corfu, Greece, organized by the Department of Audio & Visual Arts and supported by public and private institutions, mostly local. In the first two years the conferences were attended by Stelarc, Roy Ascott, Adam Zaretsky, Manos Danezis, Polona Tratnik, Gunalan Nadarajan, Irina Aristarkhova, Marta de Menezes, María Antonia González Valerio, Andrew Carnie, and Kathy High as guest speakers. The third TTT conference, TTT2018, took place in Mexico City, hosted by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and the Centro de Cultura Digital as part of the N Festival. At the invitation of Marta De Menezes, Ana Ventura Miranda, and María Antonia González Valerio, the conference was co-organized by the Research and Creation Group Arte+Ciencia, UNAM (MX), Arte Institute (USA), Cultivamos Cultura (PT) as well as the Department of Audio & Visual Arts, Ionian University (GR).

Since its beginning TTT seeks to provide a comfortable setting for the interaction of its participants and the students of the academic institution hosting it. This is accomplished through coordinating the conference's agenda with the development of other activities such as art exhibitions, screenings, live performances, book presentations, poster exhibitions, and workshops developed within the hosting institution in collaboration with other organizations.

In 2016 and 2017, among other events, TTT teamed up with the Audiovisual Arts Festival and the Municipal Gallery of Corfu to host the exhibitions "Stelarc: Alternate Anatomies", "iGMO: Adam Zaretsky", and "Body Esc" which included works by artists Andrew Carnie, Alkistis Georgiou, Marne Lucas, Joseph Nechvatal, Kira O'Reilly & Manuel Vason, Nikos Panayotopoulos, Ayse Gul Suter, Hege Tapio, and Adam Zaretsky. TTT2018, coordinated in partnership with the program of the FACTT 2018 - Festival Art & Science Trans-disciplinary and Trans-national within the N Festival, included in its agenda the opening of the exhibition "Espacios de Especies" with artworks, among others, by Brandon Ballengée, Andy Gracie, Bios ex Machina, Jaime Lobato, Kathy High, Lena Ortega, Marta de Menezes, Plataforma Bioscénica, Robertina Šebjanič, and Victoria Vesna. The conference in Mexico was preceded by the TTT Satellite Physiological Bioart - Body Performance Live Art Event "BioCuerpos Perfor|m|ados", organized by the Grace Exhibition Space in collaboration with Casa Viva Gallery, Paranoid Visions UTA, and Anemonal, with performances, among others, by Boryana Rossa, Alexander Romania, Praba Pilar, Adam Zaretsky, Alejandro Chellet, Marita Solberg, Jacco Borggreve, Margherita Pevere, Cecilia Vilca and Lorena Lo Peña.

The conference proceedings of 2016 and 2017, available as free e-books published by the Department of Audio & Visual Arts - Ionian University, can be accessed via the official TTT website. Both are edited by Dalila Honorato and Andreas Giannakoulopoulos, Associated Professor at the Ionian University and webmaster of the conferences' webspace. Selected texts from the TTT2017 and TTT2018 were published in the Special Issue vols. 15:2 and 16:3 of the journal Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research, at the invitation of Roy Ascott (editor-in-chief) to Dalila Honorato (guest-editor). The free digital edition of the proceedings of TTT2018, edited by Dalila Honorato, María Antonia González Valerio, Marta de Menezes and Andreas Giannakoulopoulos was released in November 2019 by the Ionian University Publications.

The fourth international conference "Taboo - Transgression - Transcendence in Art & Science", taking place November 26–28, 2020, would be in Vienna, hosted by the University of Applied Arts Vienna, at the invitation of Ingeborg Reichle, Professor and Chair of the Department of Media Theory. Due to the COVID-19 crisis the conference will be exclusively online: TTT2020 Vienna/Online.

The TTT conference series is supported by its Steering Committee whose members include Roy Ascott, Plymouth University (UK), Andreas Floros, Ionian University (GR), Dalila Honorato, Ionian University (GR), Gunalan Nadarajan, University of Michigan (USA), Melentie Pandilovski, Riddoch Art Gallery (AU), Stelarc, Curtin University (AU), Polona Tratnik, Alma Mater Europaea (Slovenia), and Adam Zaretsky, Marist College (US).