Intellectual Birdhouse. Artistic Practice as Research
Gespräch mit Florian Dombois, Ute Meta Bauer, Jan Svenungsson und Gästen
Artistic practices are manifold and highly diverse. In recent years, a claim towards research has become meaningful to many practitioners of art. The recently published book "Intellectual Birdhouse" gives room to a number of actors to unfold their attitudes towards this claim. For the presentation, editors and contributors will discuss risks and chances of "artistic research" and its relation to "discipline."
The publication foregrounds questions concerning the type of models, terms and concepts that elucidate the processes and outcomes of epistemic-artistic practices while recalling theoretical debates steeped in tradition. Artistic research often involves productive and reflective work on and with material, and is frequently paired with testing of forms of representation other than texts that engage in open negotiations with knowledge. For this reason, artistic research may take an unexpected or even controversial course.
As a consequence, most of the contributions discuss how borders need to be negotiated as part of the research process. This includes questions bearing on art and science, art and politics, art and history as well as art and philosophy. Many of the authors see themselves as artists, but one of the chief claims of this book is that a position is possible beyond the "theory" and "practice" labels. The participants address this position and the difficulties negotiating it in the context of existing discourses and intellectual frameworks.
With contributions by Gina Badger, Henk Borgdorff, Paul Carter, Bracha L. Ettinger, Sabine Flach, Renée Green, Penelope Haralambidou, Florian Hecker, Tom Holert, Sarat Maharaj, Sónia Matos, Jonathan Miles, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Raqs Media Collective, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Hannes Rickli, Michael Schwab, Henk Slager, Marcus Steinweg, Hito Steyerl, Jan Svenungsson, Alise Upitis, and Francisco Varela.