One of the main features of the 20th century is the massive critique of the seemingly natural caesura between ideas and expression, deeds and words, hard science and pure subjectivism or imagination. These dualities have been challenged, explored and intertwined by recent artistic research. This intertwining produces neither universal nor purely individual knowledge, but a creative research stance, performative power that disturbs our habitual gaze on the world, surprises us and uncovers new possible worlds. The central question is what methodological approaches producing knowledge shall be used within artistic research in order to profit from the aesthetic experience and not to reduce its specificity. The main issues to be addressed revolve round the following questions:

Submissions

Please submit proposals (150-200 words) for 20-35 minutes presentations including a short CV at the address of the conference arprague2016@gmail.com by October 15, 2015. The conference committee will announce their decisions by December 2015 at the latest. The program will not include parallel sessions; we aim at creating a working, intense, cooperative group of approximately 25 participants.
  1. What is the appropriate methodological approach that succumbs to neither reductive “universalism” nor purely personal confession in artistic research? What shouldn’t be lost and what can be ignored by the method?
  2. Is the artistic research an art of its kind? Or shall it be?
  3. If art claims to produce knowledge, are there methods that scrutinize this knowledge?
  4. To what extent are methodological approaches in artistic research hostile to the creative process?
  5. How shall existing methodology of humanities and natural sciences (phenomenology, enactive theory, qualitative research, ethnomethodology, cognitive science) be used in artistic research?
  6. What is the added value of artistic research methods for art?
  7. What are the consequences of the artistic research and how can they advance our understanding of the personal, political and social context of our lives?