Together with Nikolaus Gansterer and Mariella Greil, I will be presenting a performative paper at this year's Society of Artistic Research conference, Please Specify!, taking place in Helsinki, 28 -29 April 2017. The paper, Choreo—graphic Figures: On Qualitative Specificity (How-ness) within Artistic Research, provides reflection on our research project Choreo—graphic Figures: Deviations of the Line, and will be accompanied by the launch of our research publication.
Abstract: Choreo-graphic Figures: Deviations from
the Line
stages a beyond-disciplinary, inter-subjective encounter between the lines
of choreography, drawing and writing, for addressing the how-ness — the qualitative-processual,
aesthetic-epistemological and ethico-empathetic dynamics — within shared artistic exploration; requiring a thematic shift of attention from the
realm of demarcated disciplinary specificity towards an affective realm of forces
and intensities (called figuring) operating before,
between and beneath the more readable gestures of artistic practice. Our research explores the relation between the experience of figuring
and emergence of figures (the point that
figuring coalesces into a specific recognisable form). This performative presentation elaborates the qualitative specificity and constitutive conditions for three groups of
figures: (1) Elemental Figures — exposition of key
moments within the arc of creative endeavour; (2) Empathetic Figures — diagramming of relations and sensitivities of being-with;
(3) Transformative Figures — identification of explicit
shifts in quality or state of
being, blurring the line between activity/passivity, subject/object,
self/world.
About the Conference: Artistic
research is maturing. The period of inauguration characterized by multi-faceted
discussions concerning institutional and disciplinary questions has, in many
contexts, reached a saturation point. Diverse perspectives have emerged.
Artistic research consists of a variety of approaches and solutions and often
functions as a multi- and transdisciplinary venture. As a developing
multi-methodological research culture artistic research enriches methodological
innovation and cross-over projects. Furthermore, research activities are
structured with regard to some kind of specificity. A group of researchers
might come together to work on a distinct object of study, through a specific
question, with a certain methodology, and in a particular context. Depending on
circumstances, specificity thus can appear as a socio-cultural parameter, a
disciplinary variable or it can become a question of the medium of research.
The Please Specify! Conference
explores new perspectives on conditions of sharing research in the artistic
field. How can specific interests, methods, discourses, positions and ways of
knowing be more widely disseminated and made useful within and beyond artistic
research? The traditional frameworks for sharing research have been built on
ideas about the research object, method, context or medium. We ask if the
conditions of sharing research can be thematised in other terms? What if
these conditions relate to provocation, excess, limited resources, reduction,
mise en abyme, absurd argumentation, populism, conspiracy, amateurism and the
like? How do these or other invented specificities inform your take on artistic
research? How can these issues be shared?