By K. Coessens from the book 'The Artistic Turn: A Manifesto'
1. A Conquest of Abundance
There are many common qualities between art and science and and in fact are quite inter related. Because of the dominance of science even though its fragmented within itself it provides a ‘method’ as starting point for investigating and finding a combination of methods for artistic research.
Conquest of Abundance-A Tale of Abstraction versus the Richness of Being-Paul Feyeraband (philosopher of science)
It’s about the “tension between the abundance of the world and the human tendency to rationalise. “ And the richness of experience relates to the enhancement of human life and the transformations that science provides by discovery. But it also changes the phenomena and thus takes it away from the “abundance of the world”.
Scientific, Artistic and even mundane inquiry causes change (in the world) because we are embodied beings and are culturally embedded. We all have conventions (whether artistic or scientific or norms of societal etc) that we can’t escape from.
Constraints of science: its based in the real world thus its limited to real situations.
Constraints of art: Human imagination and thus its wider. Imagination helps one escape the “real” and enables the creation of new significations to things in our environment. (Duchamp worked with creating new significations)
Fragilities of Science:
a) sense impressions- retrieving from a wide range of impressions that are made/received.
b) Dominated by paradigms that exist at certain periods of time
c) Divisions of science- There different subjects within science, different theories and sub divisions that can’t be all unified as some also oppose each other. (Mathematics, physics, biology, Newtonian physics and quantum theory. )
2. Artistic Research as the last/latest addition to the field of research
Research in art has always been a part of human society but because of its idiosyncratic nature, the artists own practice or own creative process has not been part of the academic study of art. The experiential, “agency and creation for description and analysis” has been neglected and thus the emergence of Artistic Research.
3 domains of artistic research: research into art, research for art and research through art.
Human beings have two approaches to interpret the world: narrative (“experiential truth, the world in movement”) and paradigmatic approaches (“deduction and empirical”)
Artistic Research aims at bringing these two perspectives together: the subjective/personal and the objective/deducible.
Characteristics of Scientific approach:
i. Isolation- laboratory to isolate subject of study
ii. Control- to make replication possible
iii. Exclusion of the observer-to attain highest objectivity
iv. Analysis and formulation- complex subjects are divided into units, studied separately and then unified.
Methodological processes of science:
i. Observation and data gathering
ii. Model of explanation/hypothesis
iii. Experiment
iv. Evaluative
The point to be noted is that the phenomena in question never truly exists in complete isolation etc so there are always “interfering factors’. Like what happens in translation. Thus science isn’t a mirror to the world or the world in itself.
Science from the perspective of culture:
i. It changes with changing cultures.
ii. Theories are accepted until a new one defies it.
iii. It explains phenomenon in “semiotic systems which are subject to change”.
iv. It makes inquiries sometimes at the expense of others.
v. It also “considers nature as useful for humans”.
vi. It’s a social practice-between the scientist and nature.
Social physics- when science combines the paradigmatic and narrative. The inquiry into human society and physiology, social class etc. In this context it becomes difficult to apply the characteristics and methodologies as rigidly in the case of laboratory experiments.
Problems with:
i. Objectivity- The ‘godlike’ and distant stance results in the scientist positioning themselves outside of the human experience and thus is outside of empathy or other considerations.
ii. Generalisation- One opinion gets overlapped by another leading to the negation of individual opinion. Too statistical to decide what is ‘normal’.
Paul Ricoeur uses consensus, conformity and verification (values of scientific truth) in art fields. Even though art has a method it doesn’t quite put its focus on checking the reliability of it but rather opens up to variability and new knowledge.
Research (scientific context) - asks a question and creates answers which form the hypothesis and works towards proving that right. Thus there is some certainty in the trajectory of the experiment.
Art- an open, exploratory process which is uncertain and ‘finished’ only when the artist claims it.
Artistic research combines the above two-structure and creativity
3. Four artistic research projects
I. Patricia Cain: The Experience of Drawing as Thinking
- She was curious about the artistic process of two artists (Richard Talbot and Oliver Zwink) so she took their drawings
- She took their drawings and copied them.
- During this, she derived learnings about drawing as she retained the copying. (drawing as an experience in time and movement)
- She asked the artists about how they learn through drawing.
- This was incorporated in her own artistic practice.
II. Heather Helday: Relationship between visual artist and audience in rural context
- On the Edge 2001
- Focused on the relationship of people with one another in the rural community- ‘close’ as the metaphor
- She worked with participants from different fields
- Provided a space to explore experiences through sensory ways to share and voice feelings.
- Drew upon De Certeau’s – practice of everyday life- aesthetic, ethical and polemical.
III. Rashdi Ibrahim: Methodology for fine art formulation applied to investment casting moulds.
- To find out if cuttlefish bone in powder can be used to make moulds which are otherwise made from different material which is imported and expensive
- Worked with scientists and new materials. Investigating the combinations and process required.
- He developed a method of drawing while he was observing the experiments and all the possibilities and the way things react and mix with each other. He was able to respond directly.
-Responses became immediate and performative.
IV. Peter Swinnen: music for the silent movie ‘La Chute de la maison Usher’
- He was interested in exploring the transferability of one material to another- literature to film and film to music.
- He analysed the script, the context of the film, the shots and scenes, the mood
- Reflected on the music context and used sounds of nature and used algorithms to create a score.
4. Methodology in Artistic Research:
Situatedness is essential for AR. The “integrity of the real situation” and “respect for subject and object”
Situatedness: According to William J. Clancey – ‘where you are when you do what you do matters’.
i. Spatio-temporal location- a place, a position in environment
ii. Possibility of action- embodied as well as cognitive
iii. Relationship between subject and environment which brings an outcome through experience and “individual’s movement in time and space”
Artistic Research should have an ecological situatedness; self-reflection; and “combine art-critical and art-analytical” points of view.
Aspects of situatedness:
i. Ecological situatedness-physical and perceptual interaction between artist and environment
ii. Epistemic situatedness-knowledge exchange between the two
iii. Social situatedness- exchange between humans and communication
Reflective practitioner (Donald Schon)- positioning oneself as actor and spectator. (Hannah Arendt)
Knowledge is an exchange or relationship between the personal (as we accumulate all that we learn over the years) and the universal therefore it is implicit and cannot be purely marked as objective. (Karl Poanyi)
Ways to test the outcome of artistic research:
i. Content- its value for artists and art ; comparison should be possible ; or provide example for further research ; adding value to the art field
ii. Form (technical approach)- clarity of the process ; clear conditions stated ; vocabulary
iii. Function (historical value) – relation to past and future ; how it situates in time; insights that are theoretical or practical in nature.
“Deterritorialisation” of the research field as Artistic research is dynamic and diverse in nature and operates by combining the experiential and the rigor of research.
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