Doing artistic research: A Collaboratory Symposium on artistic research practices
“What you learn from any project you love is a way of paying attention. Call it methodology if you want.” (Donna Haraway in: Schneider 2005, 132)
How can artistic research be done? What sensitivities, methodologies, and collaborations emerge in practices of artistic research? In this symposium, we reflect on artistic research by taking a ‘substantive detour’: instead of using artistic research as object of reflection, we start with concrete examples of artistic research practices. This way, the fundamental discussion ofhow artistic research is (or should be) done is inspired by a lively exchange of concrete and innovative methods and practices that problematize the current academic as well as the artistic status quo. The context of this symposium is the initiative to try and think through a Maastricht graduate school for Artistic Research. This graduate school is thought as a ‘collaboratory’ between the initiating partners: Zuyd Hogeschool (Faculty of Arts Maastricht, Research Centre for Arts, Autonomy, and the Public Sphere), Maastricht University (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Humanities and Sciences) and Van Eyck Academy.
The morning-program consists of interactive presentations of four projects, which together explore some contours of a ‘Maastricht-style’ of doing artistic research. In the panel discussion in the afternoon, we reflect on these examples of artistic research, and question how this type of research is to be done, by whom, what for, and where. We specifically address three themes: 1) Methodologies-in-the-Making: developing rigorous sensitivity in practice; 2) A Collaboratory: artistic research as ‘agnostic laboratory’ for cooperation between researchers from various backgrounds, disciplines, and institutions, and the construction of a shared (societal) problem or issue; and 3) The Topology of Artistic Research: the relationship between artistic research and the environment in which it takes place (its societal context), specifically Maastricht and its EUregional environment.
Participating in the event is free. Registration is required, by sending an email. The event is organized in conjunction with the Annual Conference of the Maastricht Centre for Arts and Culture, Conservation and Heritage (MACCH), which takes place on March 18th and 19th.
