Eighty- seven Questions on Artistic Research
SARN :: Swiss Artistic Research Network
SARN — Swiss Artistic Research Network – is a network of competences that regroups researchers from the seven Swiss Arts Schools. Based on the idea of enriching the debates and practices of artistic research in Switzerland through exchanges, group activities (workshops), publications and symposia, SARN would also like to progressively incorporate points of view from the artistic community in general (artists, institutions, universities, public authorities and foundations in charge of supporting culture) in its reflexions in order to promote the specific contribution of artistic research and enlarge this community in Switzerland and internationally. This notebook will be launched at the Basel Conference ‘Economies of Aesthetics’ taking place from 18 – 20 June 2015 at the Academy of Art and Design of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (HGK FHNW) and co-organised with the European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA). It focuses on the dynamics and epistemological impact of the question form: by asking personalities of the art world to share their questions regarding artistic research, SARN wishes to initiate a sustainable reflexion in the rich and booming field that is artistic research.
Anne-Catherine Sutermeister, President of SARN
Eighty- seven Questions on Artistic Research
Sabine Schaschl, Director Haus Konstruktiv Zurich
Nยบ 1
In which direction does research direct the artist?
Kathleen Buehler, Curator contemporary art, Kunstmuseum Bern
Nยบ 2
Are we looking for artistic solutions for a chaotic world? Or chaotic solutions for an artistic world?
Damian Christinger, Gallery owner, Zurich
Nยบ 3
Is artistic research the contemporary equivalent of alchemy?
Denise Ziegler, Artist, post-doctoral researcher Aalto University / Finland
Nยบ 4
Can we look forward to a day when artistic research does not have to justify its existence as a recognized form of research parallel to academic research?
Elena Filipovic, Director Kunsthalle Basel
Nº 5
Since we do not demand of artists that the ‘research’ they do follow the same rules / criteria or accountability as does that of a scientist, historian, or other researcher, should we use the same term — ‘research’ — at all?
Sabine Hagmann, Artist, Zurich
Nยบ 6
Who is going to pay?
Mika Elo, Artist, Professor in Artistic Research University of the Arts Helsinki
Nยบ 7
Who comes after the artist?
Beat Brogle / Nicole Schuck, Artists, Berlin
Nยบ 8
Do the arts lose their own language when they try to be scientific?
Claudia Mareis, Designer, cultural scientist, Head ixdm HGK FHNW
Nยบ 9
Why such concern about methods?
Julie Harboe, Art historian, critic, curator, Zurich / Lucerne
Nยบ 10
Is artistic research becoming just another organizational category?
Philippe Sormani, Head Science Program Istituto Svizzero, Roma
Nº 11
If there is (or should be) such a thing as ‘artistic research’, can it (or should it) be ‘curated?’ If so, what would it mean — how, what for, and by whom?
Katharina Ammann, Head Department for Art History, SIK - ISEA, Zurich
Nยบ 12
Is the thinking process provoked by artistic research the main result of the research?
Lucie Kolb, Artist and currently SNSF Doc. Mobility Fellow
Nยบ 13
Do artists benefit from the label artistic research?
Johannes Bruder, Sociologist, post-doctoral researcher HGK FHNW
Nยบ 14
Can artistic research be the political consciousness of art?
Petra Lange-Berndt, Curator, art historian, University of London
Nยบ 15
Is capitalism illogical?
Christine Heil, Professor University of Duisburg - Essen
Nยบ 16
If several artistic research projects are in play, how do they play together?
Kathleen Buehler, Curator contemporary art, Kunstmuseum Bern
Nº 17
Is scientific research creative? Can it be artistic? What about curatorial research? Is this more scientific, theoretical, practical? Or if on artistic practice — in a way — artistic?
Daniel Brefin, Artist, researcher HGK FHNW
NÂş 18
Does the Earth’s rotation slow down when all people make a leap into the air towards the east at the same time?
Thierry Davila, Publisher MAMCO Geneva
Nยบ 19
What does it mean to make a discovery in art?
Beate Florenz, Professor for Art Education, art historian, researcher HGK FHNW
Nยบ 20
Could we describe artistic research as the strong little sister of philosophy of science?
Oliver W. Villiger, Art philosopher
Nº 21
The most pressing question to debate is whether the experience of art — as opposed to the scientific consciousness — may be a powerful reminder to admit its limitations. To what extent artistic research can establish its characteristic epistemic implications is not merely a question of art, but of the traditional scientific establishment and its inherent ontology.
Beat Brogle / Nicole Schuck, Artists, Berlin
Nยบ 22
Are scientists interested in collaborations with artists, or do they rather expect possibilities of creative illustration for scientific results?
Thierry Davila, Publisher MAMCO Geneva
Nยบ 23
In what way does artistic research coincide with scientific research?
Lucie Kolb, Artist and currently SNSF Doc. Mobility Fellow
Nยบ 24
Why does research by artists need to be artistic?
Philippe Sormani, Head Science Program Istituto Svizzero, Roma
Nº 25
Isn’t research already artistic in some sense, and the very expression ‘artistic research’ either redundant, dismissive, or both?
Damian Christinger, Gallery owner, Zurich
Nยบ 26
Can artistic research be done by non-artists?
el Kunsthalle Bas vic, Director Elena Filipo
Nยบ 27
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Walter Leimgruber, Head Seminar für Kulturwissenschaft und Europäische Ethnologie, University of Basel
Nº 28
If art is the triumph of creative uniqueness and science the triumph of standardized generalization, what then is artistic research? ThE triumph of unique generalization or the triumph of standardized creativity?
Diego Castro, Artist, critic, Berlin
Nยบ 29
Doctorates do not guarantee better chances for getting academic jobs. In earlier days PhD students could at least get jobs as assistants: this has widely been eliminated nowadays for there are not enough opportunities with regard to the number of applicants. The situation is precarious without perspectives in the artistic-scientific research field. Does a doctorate lead to a professional occupation at all, or is it merely a status symbol for privileged milieus?
Marianne Burki, Head of Visual Arts Pro Helvetia, Zurich
NÂş 30
Is society and its new elements closer to the arts than 20 years ago? Are the main triggers in artistic research natural sciences and technologies — or rather popular online culture?
Kathleen Buehler, Curator contemporary art, Kunstmuseum Bern
Nยบ 31
Why does every artist, who reads a book once in a while, think s/hE is doing research?
Samuel Herzog, Art Critic Neue ZĂźrcher Zeitung
NÂş 32
Does art have to be research today? Is art really more explorative now than 100 years ago, when nobody called it research? Or is this just another language regime? Or an ingratiation to scientific criteria? Or pure bumbledom?
Petra Lange-Berndt, Curator, art historian, University of London
Nยบ 33
Is anarchy the highest form of order (elisee Reclus)?
Marianne Halter, Artist, Zurich
Nยบ 34
Whoever reads all those papers swallowed by the digital mouth of institutions?
Sabine Hagmann, Artist, Zurich
Nยบ 35
Will I have to speak your language?
Christoph Keller, Journalist, author, Basel
Nยบ 36
Is my artwork speaking to me, and if so, in which language?
Pat Badani, Artist, Editor-in-Chief, Media-N Journal of the NMC / USA
Nยบ 37
Is my meaning wrong, or is it just my grammar?
Nicole Henning, Artist, Zurich
Nยบ 38
Why do we have to talk in English when we talk about artistic research?
Regula ValĂŠrie Burri, Professor HafenCity University Hamburg
NÂş 39
What are adequate forums to debate and present artistic research? Do we need new arenas or should we rather focus on existing ones? Who is /should be addressed?
Marianne Burki, Head of Visual Arts Pro Helvetia, Zurich
Nยบ 40
Do we need more and more extensive knowledge to work in the art field?
Susanna Kumschick, Deputy Museum Director, curator, Gewerbemuseum Winterthur
Nยบ 41
How can the unknown be discovered in the well known? Or: how could we look at the familiar from another perspective?
Kathleen Buehler, Curator contemporary art, Kunstmuseum Bern
NÂş 42
What happens if an artist does research on another artist? (As Bethan Huws did recently on Marcel Duchamp?) Is this artistic research, art history, art theory, art philosophy ‌?
doung anwar jahangeer, Artist, architect, Durban / South Africa
Nº 43
What’s next?
Damian Christinger, Gallery owner, Zurich
Nยบ 44
Is artistic research a sign of contemporaneity?
Regula ValĂŠrie Burri, Professor HafenCity University Hamburg
NÂş 45
How can knowledge produced in artistic research be related to and enrich scientific knowledge production (and vice versa) in a way that both art and science are equally involved and addressed?
DorothĂŠe Baumann, Artist, researcher, Geneva
NÂş 46
How can practice-based artistic research keep its autonomy as a form of aesthetic thinking in an institutional frame? Or in other words: How can academization be prevented?
Diego Castro, Artist, critic, Berlin
NÂş 47
Scientific jargon and methodology entangles with art in collaborations which causes art to derive from artistic form. What can art expect from science in content and form? Can artistic formats play a more important role in science? Aren’t the expectations of creativity and dislimitation rather a projection originating from creativity techniques?
Nicole Henning, Artist, Zurich
Nยบ 48
Is artistic research a good auxiliary income?
Johannes Bruder, Sociologist, post-doctoral researcher HGK FHNW
Nยบ 49
Can artistic research be political?
Denise Ziegler, Artist, post-doctoral researcher Aalto University / Finland
Nยบ 50
Will artistic research be able to loosen up and find its way back to inventive perception?
Beat Brogle / Nicole Schuck, Artists, Berlin
NÂş 51
Do we need a third field in which neither art nor science are at home — where the two disciplines could develop something new together?
Marianne Burki, Head Visual Arts Pro Helvetia, Zurich
Nยบ 52
Can we function in the arts if we are not spending more time outside the arts (gaming, video-clipping, congresses for neurosciences and similar events)?
Daniel Brefin, Artist, researcher HGK FHNW
Nยบ 53
How does perception and thinking change if space is conceived as memory?
Christoph Keller, Journalist, author, Basel
Nยบ 54
How distant should I feel towards my work?
Petra Lange-Berndt, Curator, art historian, University of London
Nยบ 55
How can we be complicit with materials?
Pat Badani, Artist, Editor-in-Chief, Media-N Journal of the NMC / USA
Nยบ 56
Monopoly cash notes to credit my idea incubator?
Philippe Sormani, Head Science Program Istituto Svizzero, Roma
Nยบ 57
Any practical tips on how to turn my research results into valuable pieces of contemporary art?
Roderick Coover, Artist, lecturer Temple University / USA
Nº 58
As ever, it is very confusing for funding organizations to approach works that combine scholarship and creative methods. Many of my works and my students’ works are too creative for scholarly support and too scholarly for creative support. Each thinks the other should be doing the funding. Couldn’t this be improved by better definitions of what visual research and creative research projects are, from leading institutions in both scholarship and arts? And couldn’t co-funding be targeted across organizations to promote some awards that are explicitly hybrid (and / or support collective, interdisciplinary work)?
Susanna Kumschick, Deputy Museum Director, curator, Gewerbemuseum Winterthur
Nยบ 59
Where are the limits of words and images? How could they complete or substitute each other?
Katharina Ammann, Head Department for Art History, SIK-ISEA, Zurich
Nº 60
How does artistic research relate to ‘scientific’ research in art?
Julie Harboe, Art historian, critic, curator, Zurich / Lucerne
Nยบ 61
Can we change the conversation about both art and research by unconditionally working for a return to open knowledge, praxis, poetics and the empirical?
Regula ValĂŠrie Burri, Professor HafenCity University Hamburg
NÂş 62
Do we need new interdisciplinary forms and formats to assess and critique the outcomes of artistic research? Who is entitled to evaluate artistic research projects and proposals?
Kathleen Buehler, Curator contemporary art, Kunstmuseum Bern
Nยบ 63
How much thinking and searching contributes to good art?
Marianne Burki, Head of Visual Arts Pro Helvetia, Zurich
NÂş 64
How can we find the expertise for evaluating projects that are not located in the traditional artistic disciplines — or in the codes of academic research?
Pat Badani, Artist, Editor-in-Chief, Media-N Journal of the NMC / USA
Nยบ 65
Do I need to knead my archive now?
Sabine Hagmann, Artist, Zurich
Nยบ 66
Will I lose my practice?
Claudia Mareis, Designer, cultural scientist, Head ixdm HGK FHNW
Nº 67
What does the ‘end of practice’ mean?
Christoph Keller, Journalist, author, Basel
Nยบ 68
Should it [the artwork] be understood, or rather productively misunderstood?
Elena Filipovic, Director Kunsthalle Basel
Nº 69
Where is the line between artistic ‘research’ ( in what is often called an artist’s ‘research-based practice’ ) and simply, being an artist, period: which is to say, being someone who looks closely at, is inquisitive about, and ultimately reflects on history and the world around him or her?
Beat Brogle / Nicole, Schuck, Artists, Berlin
NÂş 70
What is the perspective of scientific understanding and what is the perspective of artistic understanding? Which are each other’s interests?
Diego Castro, Artist, critic, Berlin
Nยบ 71
The lack of a basic education in scientific methodology for PhD students may cause frustration and demotivation on both sides, for professors and for students. What could be done to ensure better preconditions?
Roderick Coover, Artist, lecturer Temple University / USA
NÂş 72
Current scholarly models based on monograph production and solo work are not particularly useful for many digital projects that require artists and scholars to work together. Arts and humanities institutions have a lot of trouble giving tenure credit and funding to multi-author work. The teaching schedule, in the US context, is also not so well set up for this, though some European systems are better. Wouldn’t laboratory approaches such as in science and short teaching modules, and teach-research-module periods, better suit the arts and humanities, rather than semesters and summers?
Sabine Schaschl, Director Haus Konstruktiv Zurich
Nยบ 73
Is a self-employed artist more responsible for his works than an employed researcher for his findings?
Lucie Kolb, Artist and currently SNSF Doc. Mobility Fellow
Nยบ 74
What kind of discourse is both, intrinsic to individual art research practices and comprehensible for the development of a larger research community?
Beat Brogle / Nicole Schuck, Artists, Berlin
Nยบ 75
How do different salaries influence the status of the involved researchers?
Roderick Coover, Artist, lecturer Temple University / USA
NÂş 76
Longer solo residencies for traditional artists and writers are also not necessarily the best model for funding creative research. Wouldn’t an intensive month with dedicated technical support, followed by solo time when artists and researchers develop the project; then a follow-up month to advance or finalize the work be much more economically viable and useful?
Marianne Halter, Artist, Zurich
Nยบ 77
Can artistic research be funny?
Mika Elo, Artist, Professor in Artistic Research University of the Arts Helsinki
Nยบ 78
If form is born of the formdesire of knowledge, what then could research be when made for the sake of the forming of the form only?
Julie Harboe, Art historian, critic, curator, Zurich / Lucerne
Nยบ 79
Does the term artistic research keep the ball in the court of the institutions?
Claudia Mareis, Designer, cultural scientist, Head ixdm HGK FHNW
Nยบ 80
Are there any secret agents around?
Christine Heil, Professor University Duisburg - Essen
Nยบ 81
Which role does the materiality of the record play in the research process?
Denise Ziegler, Artist, post-doctoral researcher Aalto University / Finland
Nยบ 82
Is the immaterial artwork the nucleus of artistic research?
Johannes Bruder, Sociologist, post-doctoral researcher HGK FHNW
Nยบ 83
In what way can the meaning of art be reconfigured in artistic research?
Christine Heil, Professor University Duisburg - Essen
Nยบ 84
Does knowledge originating from the collaboration of diverse artistic research projects have a specific form or specific qualities?
Kathleen Buehler, Curator contemporary art, Kunstmuseum Bern
Nยบ 85
When does questioning turn into research? When does searching turn into research?
Susanna Kumschick, Deputy Museum Director, curator, Gewerbemuseum Winterthur
Nยบ 86
How to practice the art of exactitude?
Mika Elo, Artist, Professor in Artistic Research, University of the Arts Helsinki
Nยบ 87
What does the artwork want?
Eighty-seven questions on artistic research After more than ten years of experience with research at art schools in Switzerland – and internationally since the beginning of the 1990s – scholarly statements and visions about the future development of artistic research have become well known. SARN’s aim is to investigate the impact of artistic research with a focus on non-school protagonists in Switzerland and abroad – by collecting questions. In a first step, and inspired by the book by artists Fischli/Weiss, Findet mich das Glück?, we looked for questions – straightforward, multi-layered, enigmatic, inspiring – presenting the personal experiences of artists, curators, researchers, and observers of the field or representatives of a funding organisation. The present notebook includes 87 multi-faceted questions and is the starting point of a long-term project dealing with the impact or ‘added value’ of artistic research in society. We invite you to step into the flow of questions in order to enable a deepened reflection. By accepting the current ambivalent situation in which there might be no (simple) answers, we would like to keep the discussion going. In a second step, after the conference, SARN will continue the project by including various points-of-view. The space left in the notebook is provided for you to sketch your thoughts. You are very welcome to send further questions, remarks and answers to SARN under the following address: camille.dumond@hesge.ch. Get inspired!
Flavia Caviezel & Markus Schwander, Members of the SARN board, June 2015
Flavia Caviezel – Ethnologist/vidéaste, senior researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures, Academy of Art and Design at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. Markus Schwander – Artist, senior researcher and lecturer at the Institute for Art and Design Education, Academy of Art and Design at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. Anne-Catherine Sutermeister – Head of research and lecturer at HEAD – University of Art and Design Geneva at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland HES SO, and consultant in cultural policies.
We would like to thank all members of the SARN board, the contributors of the questions for the Notebook and the HGK FHNW for its financial support.
Published by SARN – Swiss Artistic Research Network, www.sarn.ch Editors: Flavia Caviezel, Markus Schwander Coordinator: Camille Dumond Correcting/Proofreading: Matthew Burbidge Design: Simon Mader, Basel Font: Dinamo-Grow (Fabian Harb & Johannes Breyer, dinamo.us) Cover colour: PANTONE 206 U Print: Grafisches Zentrum, Bürgerspital Basel Published in Basel, Switzerland 2015 ISBN: 78-3-9524411-3-8 © 2015 SARN — Swiss Artistic Research Network, and the authors
www.sarn.ch