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Art and Research: New Interfaces

European Doctoral Seminar in Culture, Criticism, and Creativity

Copenhagen, June 5-7, 2008

Registration by April 21 2008 to Kirsten Zeuthen. Please include a short abstract of the paper to be presented.

In traditional academic studies of art and culture, the field of art and the field of research used to be neatly divided, art being the object of study of research, and research the theoretically and methodologically informed analysis and interpretation of artworks. This distinction and the idea of a certain division of labor underpinning it, according to which the artist creates material and sensual objects, whereas the scholar scrutinizes and reflects upon such objects, has become increasingly contested in contemporary artistic and academic practices.

Many creative artistic practices today are overtly research-based, relying on research both in a journalistic sense, collecting data and inquiring into institutions, archives, and processes, and in a more scholarly sense as well, using and integrating theories and materials from an entire range of scientific traditions, from biomedicine and cartography to sociology and philosophy. Such practices underscore the fact that art produces knowledge about and insight into the world that surrounds it, very much like academic research does, albeit in a different manner, using other media and techniques. Art produces knowledge through formal procedures and expressive constructions rather than through discursive argumentation.

Conversely, research practices in contemporary art studies and cultural studies tend to defy the traditional forms of learned discourse. Still more academic studies are based on research designs that deviate from the institutionalized research traditions and the generally approved methodologies, instead bringing specific historical, theoretical and analytical perspectives into new constellations in order to illuminate singular, problematic aspects of their subject matter.

When creative art practices converge towards cognitive procedures and scholarly research practices converge towards constructive devices, a new dialogue between the two spheres becomes conceivable. From the vantage point of the shared endeavor of art and research – the production of knowledge about the world in which we live – this dialogue promotes an encounter between different media, work methods and cognitive strategies.

The seminar will examine this encounter from multiple perspectives. It will interrogate the cognitive agendas and procedures of art-making as well as the constructive agendas of new research designs. Participants are invited to present papers on individual art practices and research practices addressing this interface, to reflect upon how the dialogue between art and research is conceived in their own work, and to contribute to the general discussion on how the intermingling practices of art and research will develop in the future.

For further information on European Doctoral Seminar in Culture, Criticism, and Creativity, please see www.eurodocsem.net.