Research in the contemporary cultural scene
Since process-based art became favorable in the contemporary
cultural scene, research gained importance for many artists. Systematic
investigations of the subject matter, tools, materials and media used to make an
artwork, became a valid part of the creative undertaking. By adopting and
adapting the language of research, the creative processes of art and design
have become more accessible for people from other disciplines. Artists and
scientists can better understand each other's motives and objectives. Designers
and technologists share similar heuristics, where trial and error play an
important part in both the technological and the artistic creation.
Research enables artists to operate in the interstitial spaces
between artistic and scientific, grown and built, physical and digital worlds,
allowing them to re-integrate otherwise disparate human knowledge and initiate
joint endeavors. The future of contemporary art is in the hands of artists, who
are interested not only in advancing their own fields, but sharing and applying
their skills in new social and public contexts. Seeding the substance of
everyday life with the playful, unexpected, inspiring or imaginary situations,
with research as their compost.
Research
at the Tactile Research Lab
At the Tactile Research Lab we consider research to be a creative
endeavour targeted towards producing and sharing new knowledge. We will ask you
to document results from the early beginnings of the process, so others can
follow your tracks, be inspired, intrigued, informed, as well as avoid making
the same mistakes. Documentation (in text, image, video, blog or any other
media) is a crucial element of the process. As knowledge is produced along the
way, not only at the end of the trajectory, the process and its documentation
are necessarily a part of the 'creative work'. Research requires a slightly
more disciplined process of creation, because instead of being judged on your
final work, your whole process becomes 'the work'.
New knowledge can emerge in many different ways. e.g. from a
comparative survey of existing knowledge, whereby you find new connections, or
point at gaps that need further research. Or you can produce it by for example
asking yourself an interesting question, finding that no one before you has
managed to find an answer, think of different ways in which you could answer
it, set up experiments, document them and make your results available (both
positive and negative). Or you can plunge yourself into a situation, unsure of
what you're looking for, look for patterns (of forms, behaviours,
information…); once you found the most interesting patterns, you can do
something with them (write up your findings, you can visualize them, make
something to map, influence or change them, use them as inspiration for a
design…). There are many methods that you can use to research something.
However, it is the most interesting for everyone to come up with your own
methodology for producing new knowledge.
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