A Gathering of Artistic Research: From New Science to Nameless Science

Art and Research
Volume 2. No. 2. Spring 2009

Editorial:

This issue of Art & Research represents a ‘gathering’ of issues and experiences in artistic research as manifest in papers and artworks presented on the ‘occasion’ of significant international conferences and symposia dedicated to artistic research held between May and December 2008: Arts Research: The State of Play, Gradcam, Dublin ,8-9 May, an interdisciplinary conference, Who is Afraid of Artistic Research?, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD), Dundee, 22 May; Artistic Research, The Iceland Art Academy (LHI), Reykjavik, 3-4 October; Talkin´ Loud & Sayin´ Something - Four Perspectives of Artistic Research, a symposium organized by Johan Öberg (University of Gothenburg) as part of the 10th ELIA Biennial Conference, Gothenburg, 29 October - 1 November; Nameless Science, Cooper Union, New York, 12 December 2008. The symposium at Cooper Union was held on the occasion of the Nameless Science exhibition at Apexart (10 December 2008 31 January 2009) curated by Henk Slager, Dean, Utrecht Graduate School of Visual Art and Design and co-editor of MaHKUzine: Journal of Artistic Research. The texts here are simultaneously published in a printed version in MaHKUzine, Journal of Artistic Research # 7, Summer 2009 The publication of this project is supported in part by the Mondriaan Foundation, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

This issue is also published in collaboration with Art Monitor: The Swedish Journal for Artistic Research, in the reprinting of the essay ‘Catch Me If You Can Chances and Challenges of Artistic Research’ by Mika Hannula and his interview with Jacqueline Donachie which first appeared Art Monitor 4, 2008, which accompanied the exhibition Talkin´ Loud & Sayin´ Something - Four Perspectives of Artistic Research, at Göteborg Museum of Art (24 September – 16 November). Also included in this issue is a research project report by Erik Andersson investigating the parallels between artistic and scientific research methodologies in a collaborative exhibition context, a revised translation of ‘Artistic Research and the Poetics of Knowledge’ by Kathrin Busch (originally published in A Portrait of the Artist as a Researcher, AS Mediatijdschrift, No. 179 2007) and the artwork Crash and Burn a series of questions, statements and provocations by Peter McCaughey.

The international collaborations with Art Monitor (Gothenburg) and MaHKUzine (Utrecht) marks an exciting new development for Art & Research and future collaborative publications and projects are planned with both Art Monitor and MaHKUzine as well as with brumaria, Madrid and The Institute for Contemporary Arts Research (IFCAR), Zurich.

Art & Research would like to thank the contributors and Annette W. Balkema, Lindsay Brown, David Harding, Jennifer Nolan, Johan Öberg, Elaine Sissons, Henk Slager and Cornelia Sollfrank.

This issue of Art & Research is dedicated to the memory of Claude Schumacher (1936-2009), Emeritus Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Glasgow and former editor of Theatre Research International.

Other links: Upcoming event information, abstracts and biographies for Who's Afraid of Artistic Research? on Friday 8th May 2009. Speakers include Prof. Tom Holert (Vienna), Prof. Hinrich Sachs (Stockholm), Dr Sofia LyCouris (Edinburgh and Prof. Gavin Renwick (Dundee).

Archives: Dieter Lesage (Brussels), Simon Sheik (Berlin), Nigel Johnson (Dundee) and Laurence Rassel (Barcelona) here

Armin Medosch (London/Vienna) and Lorens Holm (Dundee) here.