ArteActa is a peer-reviewed, online, open-access journal for performative arts and artistic research, offering publication in multimedia formats (text, hypertext, photo, video, audio), mostly presented in Research Catalogue expositions (www.researchcatalogue.net) or as film essays.

WHAT IF?

Speculation occupies a unique position within artistic practice and research. While other disciplines are bound by facts, we are permitted to explore, experiment, and engage with fiction. This capacity for speculation has made art central to certain 21st-century theoretical discourses, such as speculative realism and some branches of the new materialist philosophy.

But speculation as a method has both preceded this burst of interest and persists in many tools for our everyday navigation: strategies of “worlding” and “fictioning”, long-used in literature and performing arts, became habituated in fine arts and in practices of speculative design. This issue invites papers that extend speculation beyond the futuristic grandeur and explore its relevance from a more embodied perspective. We welcome contributions that take the speculative question of “what if?” as an impulse to reflect on slight or mundane alternatives, (seemingly) dead ends, and personal hypotheses of creative practice and everyday life.

We welcome artistic-research submissions, especially in the fields of performance, sound, visual, and film art, that address the following themes:

Mythologies, fairy tales, and wishful thinking
From a very early age, we learn about the world around us through fairy tales, where the forces of good and evil battle over power in the universe. In these operations, they use devices beyond the workings of earthly physics: magic coats make them invisible, magic carpets teleport them at supersonic speed, special potions erase aging, and mythical beings do all the dirty work. Gradually, we find out that the world operates on shades of grey rather than black and white, and we delegate fairy tales into our memories of childhood. However, the forces fuelling these narratives seep into our daily lives in the forms of technology advancements (magic carpets transforming into fighter jets and spaceships) and advertisements (cryotherapy and social freezing). Wishful thinking has become a recommended method in psychology, and what was the matter of sci-fi decades ago is the lived reality in many parts of the world. In popular discourse, artists are seen as children, and not in a good way. But creative imagination encourages pursuing the physically impossible and fantastic. The “what if” game is a matter of method and persistent exercise. We welcome submissions that think along the following lines:

– How can utopias and fairy-tale narratives manifest themselves in daily lives and current contexts?

– How does the “what if” question adapt within current techno-optimistic narratives and material choices?

Adaptability of a method
In today’s world, the interconnection of methods, multidisciplinarity, or the crossing of approaches is not optional, but indispensable. Transdisciplinary fusions are important, even though they may overshadow the diversity of original approaches. We welcome submissions that seek to address the nature of mutual overlaps between disciplines and the more consistent need to think through their relationships. For example, what happens when the same method is used for different materials? Is it possible to achieve breakthrough results by applying a method in new conditions or in contact with a different material? Are there any limits to this practice? This concerns the very essence of the functioning of methods outside their original context:

– What happens when the same method is applied to different systems or materials? What if we take into consideration that a method is never neutral but always based on the relation between a procedure and a material?

– Can a new material reveal aspects of a method that were previously invisible?

– Would a method be able to transfer historical and ideological assumptions from one context to another?

Conditionality and applied speculation
The “what if” narrative is essentially conditional, i.e., based on a set of conditions that must be met to achieve the desired result. However, when we voluntarily redefine the conditions (along the line of theme or method), the effect will necessarily be different. The “what if” framework thus opens space for thinking outside the box, for subversion and failure as meaningful strategies for the exercise of thought and imagination, not just for the visions of the future, but also for a refashioning of the past.

“What if” narratives are often criticised as “nothing more than speculation”. However, such narratives have been put into practice many times, ranging from “applied utopias” of politics to more ego-centred scenarios such as winning the lottery. Such applied speculative scenarios often lead to unscripted consequences, failures, or even disasters.

– What can we learn from the history of applied speculation?

– Can we speculate productively about situations in which the “what if” scenario is put into practice?

– How can everyday daydreams (e.g., “What if I didn’t have to go to work tomorrow?”) transform our lived reality?

Deadline for submission: 15 May 2026

An exposition draft consists of 2-3 pages, including media content, with specific research question/s, method/s, and references, artistic approach description, media examples, and the layout of the future exposition.

Drafts are to be sent via the Research Catalogue portal or by e-mail (redakce@arteacta.cz).

Approved final expositions will then undergo the standard editorial process and double-blind peer review.