Call for Papers: Art and Research
Deadline: 1 September 2017
It is true to say that research has been linked traditionally solely to sciences as a form of knowledge par excellence. Martin Heidegger spoke in this sense of research as the essence of science and a defining phenomenon of modernity. Theodor W. Adorno placed research alongside instrumental reason, and therefore contrary to art. Even Gilles Deleuze defined art as a way of thinking with sensations and emotions that had nothing to do with science and its functions. However, the fact is that, for some years, we have also been talking of artistic research, occasioned by many and varied reasons that are studied in this call.
It is also true to say that we do not always talk of artistic research in a single way, but rather that there is a diversity of approaches regarding its nature. None of these approaches is exempt from reasons and arguments, in some cases exclusive and in others perhaps too all-embracing. We can assert the classification once made by Christopher Frayling and that Henk Borgdorff then qualified distinguishing between three types of artistic research, summarized in three simple formulae: research for art, research on art and, finally, research in art, seen as the most genuine type of artistic research.
Asking ourselves about artistic research is also to question what we understand by knowledge. The answer to this question cannot leave us indifferent, whether we are speaking from academia, from professional practice or from the same society and culture that shapes us. Casting a light on this question means, in turn, not just epistemological and methodological questions, but also ontological questions on the artistic condition itself.
Inseparable from the question on artistic research are other questions, such as what type of knowledge does it offer and what work methods make it possible? In what way is it different inside or outside academic contexts? How do education strategies and policies interfere in the clarification of the associated debates? Now that the term is being called for both by universities and by artistic practice and institutions, the institutional stance from which the different approaches to the nature of artistic research are being argued is even more relevant.
For some years now, especially in northern Europe, artistic research has begun to be recognized institutionally. It has been welcomed in support centres for artistic practices and in academia, where university studies have been rolled out and public artistic research projects conducted. At the same time, a prolific debate is being generated in which artistic production plays a fundamental role in research processes. The interrelation between art, science, technology and society that we have been mapping in the Artnodes journal over the last fifteen years gives good account of the way in which the different spheres of knowledge have worked together and interwoven their practice throughout history, and this dossier on artistic research aims to continue to feed these interrelations.
Topics
In this issue of Artnodes, we are putting out a public call for articles that explore the following lines of topic and debate:
Organizational, institutional and political contexts for artistic research
Artistic research inside and outside academia (artistic production centres, schools, arts centres, practices outside any institution, extitutional research practices, at local, national or international level).
We are open to receiving articles that research contexts for artistic research, strategic policies that foster it, or case studies on specific institutions or programmes. Another topic is research relating to the different ways of publicizing research results, whether this is through conferences, symposia, festivals, exhibitions or online, offline, academic or alternative publications, that tackles and enables the expansion of the ways of showing the results of artistic research.
Theoretical perspectives for and on artistic research
Taking into account that the aims and questions of artistic research are very broad, this line opens up a debate on the various perspectives from which to focus artistic research, and it involves highlighting and analysing epistemological theories and frameworks that make it possible.
It also includes the problematization of specific cases in relations between these theoretical perspectives and artistic research, as well as the paradoxes created in research practice from the arts sphere due to its disciplinary argumentation or its applied development methodologies. At all times taking into account the role of the written text as the vehicle of research.
Assessment of artistic research
The aim is to tackle questions such as the place of assessment, the space where the research is exposed to its legitimization. They will include reflections on their certification spaces, revisions of the affinities and disjuncts between the in-disciplinary spaces and the settings of legitimization of the research. However, also included will be the contributions on the existence or otherwise of a suitable inherent space for the specificities of artistic research, and the terminological distinctions that we use to describe it or classify it: from the strictly academic sphere, from artistic practice, from disciplinarity, etc.
Artistic research projects
In light of the flood of theses submitted recently because of the Gabilondo Decree, we are in a highly suitable situation to be able to show a series of references to artistic research works that, on the one hand, enable us to deploy a taxonomy of relevant projects, and, on the other, open up a debate on what we consider to be an artistic research project. To this effect, articles will be included that question the current definitions of artistic research, their references to the scientific formulation of knowledge, their methodologies and the documentation of their processes and results.
Submission process
We invite authors to send us articles of no more than 5,000 words in Spanish or English, using the form available on the website. We recommend that you carefully follow the instructions for authors given on the journal’s website. Should you have any questions, please contact the editors directly (
publicacions@uoc.edu).
About Artnodes
Artnodes is an open-access academic journal produced by the UOC since 2002. It is published twice a year, in June and December. Its articles come from public calls for scientific articles and are submitted to double-blind peer review. You can find more information about the indexing of the journal and its classification in the relevant section on the website.
You can check last issue published, guidelines for authors and submission form in here:
Many thanks,
Pau
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Dr. Pau Alsina
Professor dels Estudis d'Arts i Humanitats