Summer Meeting of PSi Artistic Research Working Group: July 7th, 2020

To past and present participants in the PSi Artistic Research Working Group.

As we announced back when we received word that the 2020 PSi conference had officially been postponed to next year, we would still like to bring the members of the ARWG together virtually this summer. We initially considered an online version of the “Perform/Respond/Extend” format originally intended for Rijeka; however, the ongoing demands of navigating the current social and political challenges most of us are facing at the moment have led us to a change of plans.

We propose that we hold a focused gathering on Zoom of the Artistic Research Working Group during the originally planned conference period. We are proposing Tuesday, July 7th, at the following time(s):

Melbourne, Australia: 12:00 am

Manila, Philippines: 5:00 am

California, USA: 7:00 am

Toronto, Canada: 10:00 am

London, UK: 3:00 pm

Stockholm, Sweden: 4:00 pm

Delhi, India: 7:00 pm

Beijing, China: 10:00 pm

Tokyo, Japan: 11:00 pm

This gathering will be open to everyone who was planning to attend PSi #26 this summer, as well as all past members of the Working Group for whom we have contact information.

No doubt that the restrictive conditions resulting from the current pandemic, as well as the potentially transformative cultural tensions associated with Black Lives Matter, will not be far from our minds. As such, we'd like to organize the gathering with a specific focus on the following questions:

1) "What Artistic Research are you currently working on/dreaming about at this moment?"

2) "What specific impacts are current social, cultural and political dynamics having on your Artistic Research motivations, interests, and practices?"

All participants will be asked to share for 3 - 5 minutes (maximum) on this topic. Speakers will have access to screen sharing, and short documents/images/video links can be shared in advance (through the convenors). The presentations can be entirely informal, but can also be more formally structured, providing they do not exceed the allotted time.

Note: depending on the strength of response to this invitation, we may also schedule a second session.

***

‘Perform, Respond, Extend: Engaging the Crisis of Care Through Artistic Research'

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Performance Studies international #26  / Rijeka, Croatia / July 7 - 11, 2020
‘Perform, Respond, Extend: Engaging the Crisis of Care Through Artistic Research'
A project of the Artistic Research Working Group of PSi

Inspired by the announced theme for PSi#26: Crises of Care: Act, Respond, Engage— the Artistic Research Working Group will continue to develop a way of working explored over the past two years, and specifically last year’s “Performance, Response, Extraction: the Elasticity of Artistic Research” gathering in Calgary, Canada at PSi#25. Our “performance-response-extraction” approach last year was the most recent adaptation of our established “Porous Studio” model of interaction. Developed several years ago, the Porous Studio was an ambitious but contained invitation to PSi member artists and local practitioners from the constantly changing conference locations to join the Artistic Research Working Group in a space of intermixing, contamination, and multiplicity. While this gathering has traditionally been restricted to the annual conference event, over the past 2 years we have experimented with a new mode of working that involves online pre-conference contributions, exchange and creative research. Last year we added to the established process of “performance and response" a third aspect or phase: the extraction of a research problem or research question, that can then be fed back into future discussion. (The program and submitted extracts from PSi#25 are available on our blog: http://psi-artistic-research-working-group.blogspot.com.) At this year’s gathering, we are shifting the emphasis of this final phase to one of extension, which we believe will provide for greater agency and independence for participants.

Artistic Research is meant as an elastic umbrella concept that includes a range of approaches that use art, creative practice or performance as a primary means and method of inquiry. These include the distinct approaches 'performance as research' (PAR), ‘practice as research’ (PaR), 'practice-based research' (PBR), ‘practice-led research, ‘creative arts research’, 'research-creation', 'arts-based research', and numerous other associated practices. In many cases, the subject of study is artistic practice itself, as in 'artistic inquiry.’ In others, creative practice is used as a way of investigating non-artistic (or not exclusively artistic) subjects. Our aim is to invite a broad spectrum of these approaches, drawn from within and beyond academic and institutional contexts, to reflect the diverse and vital abundance of interrelated orientations, perspectives, and approaches to research in contemporary art.

Through the ‘performance, response, extension’ model of exchange, participants will have the opportunity to respond to presentations, performances and articulations through presentations, performances and articulations and then extend the examination of a key question (problem, principle, provocation…) that they find interesting for further discussion. Ultimately, we hope these three phases effectively parallel the explicit priorities of PSi#26—act, respond, engage—through a direct, generous and extended engagement with the most urgent of issues emerging out of the ARWG members’ research practices. As well, this year we are working to arrange a one-day pre-conference gathering; more information will be made available about this session as soon as the details are in place. When submitting your proposal, please indicate whether you would be able to join us for the day prior to the formal start of the conference.

Model of Engagement for PSi#26

In Brief:

• All participants make an artistic submission prior to the conference gathering. The submissions can take a wide variety of forms, including text, video, audio, images, etc.

• All participants prepare a response to another participant’s initial submission for presentation at the conference event in Calgary.

• All participants are assigned one of the above paired sets of ‘submission and response’ that will be experienced at the conference, and tasked with identifying a key question or problem that they find interesting, based on the discussion in Calgary. Participants then prepare an original extension of this key question for dissemination through their own practice (in the form of a document, recording, object, etc.) to be shared and preserved after the conference.

The Details:

Confirmation of participation by 1 February 2020.

Stage One: Each participant submits an artistic research project (at any stage of development) or performance documented in some manner, supported by images, audio, video, text, etc., together with a written description or abstract of 100-300 words that introduces the general idea of the project. It should be possible to experience (read, view, or listen to) the submitted materials within a period of 60 minutes. All proposals must be received no later than 15 March 2020. Please send the abstracts (with links to the artistic research materials) in an email with the subject title “ARWG 2018” to the three Working Group conveners (emails below). All accepted abstracts will be posted to a dedicated online folder. Participants will then be able to submit additional materials to individual sub-folders, either directly or via links to existing online platforms (such as Vimeo, Youtube, etc.).

Stage Two: Each participant is assigned another participant’s submission by 31 March 2020, and is invited to prepare a presentational response to that submission, using their own preferred mode of practice to critically engage with the submission. The response can take the form of a performance, a participatory research exercise, a written document to be read aloud, etc. The respondents will submit the title and duration of their response (from 5 min to 20 min.) to the group no later than 31 May 2020.

Stage Three: Participants present their responses at the working group sessions during the conference in Rijeka. The 100-300 word abstracts are made available in advance for the other participants and onsite for all other attendees at the open session who have not had access to online materials.Stage Four: Each participant is assigned one of the ‘submission and response’ pairings witnessed in Rijeka and asked to extract a question or problem out of that exchange, leading to the preparation of a shareable object (document, recording, etc.). These ‘extensions’ are based on the witnessed exchange but also reflect the third participant’s original contribution to the exchange in a form that can be both shared and archived online. The extensions should be uploaded to the participant’s individual sub-folder no later than 1 September 2020.

On behalf of the working group convenors:

Annette Arlander: annette.arlander@uniarts.fi
Bruce Barton: bruce.barton@ucalgary.ca

Johanna Householder: jhouseholder@ocadu.ca

"Extracts" from the working group meeting in Calgary 2019

Documentation of 

Performance, Response, Extraction – Elasticity of Artistic Research 

A project of the Artistic Research Working Group of Psi (2019)

This post will be updated and completed 

The participants in the working group were assigned one of the paired sets of ‘submission and response’ experienced at the conference, and tasked with extracting a core question or problem that they find interesting, based on the discussion in Calgary, in most cases. Participants then prepared an archivable version of this extraction (in the form of a document, recording, object, etc.) to be shared and preserved after the conference, which is here available through the links.

Brian Rusted’s extract of a core question in the response by Colin Tucker to the material presented by Beau Coleman: "Extractions"

Jane Frances Dunlop’s extract of a core question in the response by Beau Coleman to the material presented by Brian Rusted:  ”One man’s hands”

Alexandria Inkster’s extract of a core question in the response by Brian Rusted to the material presented by Jiang Feng: XXXXX 

Denise Ziegler’s extract of a core question in the response by Jane Dunlop to the material presented by Alexandria Inkster: XXXXX

Glenn D'Cruz’s extract of a core question in the response by Alexandria Inkster to the material presented by Denise Ziegler: "Extractions"

Michelle Man’s extract of a core question in the response by Denise Ziegler to the material presented by Glenn D’Cruz: "Liquid Light"

Annette Arlander’s extract of a core question in the response by Glenn D'Cruz to the material presented by Michelle Man: "Looking at Light" 

Jennifer Nikolai’s extract of a core question in the response by Michelle Man to the material presented by Annette Arlander: XXXXX

Henry Daniel’s extract of a core question in the response by Annette Arlander to the material presented by Jennifer Nikolai: XXXXX

Lauren Mark’s extract of a core question in the response by Jennifer Nikolai to the material presented by Henry Daniel: “How does the idea of home evolve as we age or change familiar locations?”

Kevin O’Connor’s extract of a core question in the response by Henry Daniel to the material presented by Lauren Mark: XXXXX

Melanie Dreyer-Lude’s extract of a core question in the response by Lauren Mark to the material presented by Kevin O’Connor: "Fascia"

Emilie St Hilaire’s extract of a core question in the response by Kevin O’Connor to the material presented by Mike Fletcher / Melanie Dreyer-Lude: XXXXX

Birgitte Bauer-Nilsen’s extract of a core question in the response by Melanie Dreyer-Lude to the material presented by Emilie St Hilaire: XXXXX

Gerhard Liska’s extract of a core question in the response by Emilie St Hilaire Sharon Kahanoff: XXXXX

Paola Livorsi’s extract of a core question in the response byBirgitte Bauer-Nilsen to the material presented by Gerhard Liska: Dismantling the Splits 

Christoph Walter Solstreif-Pirker’s extract of a core question in the response by Gerhard Liska to the material presented by Paola Livorsi: "A Thing Called Nature"

Gry Worre Hallberg’s extract of a core question in the response by Paola Livorsi to the material presented by ChristophSolstreif-Pirker: XXXXX

Mark Harvey’s extract of a core question in the response by Christoph Walter Solstreif-Pirker to the material presented by Gry Worre Hallberg: XXXXX

Johanna Householder’s extract of a core question in the response by Gry Worre Hallberg to the material presented by Mark Harvey: 

Colin Tucker’s extract of a core question in the response by Mark Harvey to the material presented by Johanna Householder: XXXXX

Beau Coleman’s extracts core question in the response by Johanna Householder to the material presented by Colin Tucker: XXXXX

"Performance, Response, Extraction – Elasticity of Artistic Research" at PSI#25 Calgary, Canada 4-7 July 2019

The deadline for the call was extended to 31 March and we received plenty of interesting proposals. The call is here below in its original form, to remind us of the process:

Call for Proposals

Performance Studies international #25 / Calgary, Canada / 4 – 7 July 2019

Performance, Response, Extraction – Elasticity of Artistic Research

A project of the Artistic Research Working Group of PSi

Inspired by the announced theme for PSi #25 – “Elasticity”— the Artistic Research Working Group proposes to continue to develop the way of working explored at last year’s “Performance and Response: Networking Artistic Research” gathering in Daegu, Korea through a ‘performance-and-response’ adaptation of our established “Porous Studio” model of interaction. Developed several years ago, the Porous Studio was an ambitious but contained invitation to PSi member artists and local practitioners from the constantly changing conference locations to join the Artistic Research Working Group in a space of intermixing, contamination, and multiplicity. While this gathering has traditionally been restricted to the annual conference event, for 2018 we experimented with a new mode of working based on ‘performance and response,’ including structured exchange prior to our gathering in Daegu. This year in Calgary we will introduce a third aspect or phase into the process: the extraction of a research problem or research question, that can then be fed back into future discussion.

Artistic Research is meant as an elastic umbrella concept that includes a range of approaches that use art, creative practice or performance as a primary means and method of inquiry. These include the distinct approaches 'performance as research' (PAR), ‘practice as research’ (PaR), 'practice-based research' (PBR), ‘practice-led research, ‘creative arts research’, 'research-creation', 'arts-based research', and numerous other associated practices. In many cases, the subject of study is artistic practice itself, as in 'artistic inquiry.’ In others, creative practice is used as a way of investigating non-artistic (or not exclusively artistic) subjects. Our aim is to invite a broad spectrum of these approaches, drawn from within and beyond academic and institutional contexts, to reflect the diverse and vital abundance of interrelated orientations, perspectives, and approaches to research in contemporary art. Through the ‘performance, response, extraction’ model of exchange, participants will have the opportunity to respond to presentations, performances and articulations through presentations, performances and articulations and then distil or extract a core question (problem, principle, provocation…) that he/she finds interesting for further discussion. In this way we aim to explore the elasticity of artistic research as a methodology, and to expand our collective horizons through the sharing of knowledge(s) and experience(s) both in terms of preparation for the conference and its aftermath.

Model of Engagement for PSi#25 

In Brief: 

1. All participants make an artistic submission prior to the conference gathering. The submissions can take a wide variety of forms, including text, video, audio, images, etc.
2. All participants prepare a response to another participant’s initial submission for presentation at the conference event in Calgary.
3. All participants are assigned one of the above paired sets of ‘submission and response’ that will be experienced at the conference, and tasked with extracting a core question or problem that they find interesting, based on the discussion in Calgary. Participants then prepare an archivable version of this extraction (in the form of a document, recording, object, etc.) to be shared and preserved after the conference.

The Details:

Confirmation of participation by 1 February 2019

Stage One: Each participant submits an artistic research project (at any stage of development) or performance documented in some manner, supported by images, audio, video, text, etc., together with a written description or abstract of 100-300 words. It should be possible to experience (read, view, or listen to) the submitted materials within a period of 60 minutes. All proposals must be received no later than 15 March 2019. Please send the abstracts (with links to the artistic research materials) in an email with the subject title “ARWG 2018” to the three Working Group conveners (emails below). 

All accepted abstracts will be posted to a dedicated online folder. Participants will then be able to submit additional materials to individual sub-folders, either directly or via links to existing online platforms (such as Vimeo, Youtube, etc.). 

Stage Two: Each participant is assigned another participant’s submission by 31 March 2018, and is invited to prepare a presentational response to that submission, using their own preferred mode of practice to critically engage with the submission. The response can take the form of a performance, a participatory research exercise, a written document to be read aloud, etc. The respondents will submit the title and duration of their response (from 5 min to 20 min.) to the group no later than 31 May 2019.

Stage Three: Participants present their responses at the working group sessions during the conference in Calgary. The 100-300 word abstracts are made available onsite for the other participants and for other attendees at the open session who have not had access to online materials. 

Stage Four: Each participant is assigned one of the ‘submission and response’ pairings witnessed in Calgary and asked to extract a question or problem out of that exchange, leading to the preparation of an archivable object (document, recording, etc.). These ‘extractions’ can be either a distillation or an extension of the witnessed exchange, reflecting the participant’s personal reaction to the presented materials. The extractions should be uploaded to the participant’s individual sub-folder no later than 1 September 2019.

On behalf of the working group convenors:

Annette Arlander: annette.arlander@uniarts.fi

Bruce Barton: bruce.barton@ucalgary.ca

Johanna Householder: jhouseholder@ocadu.ca

"Performance and Response" at PSi#24 Daegu: Performance as Network

         "Inside Looking out" screenshot via skype by Göze Saner

The Artistic Research Working Group met at PSi#24 in Daegu, Korea, with some of the members engaged in the process of performance and response present at the site - Julie-Ann Long, Olga Spyropoulou, Bruce Barton and Annette Arlander, while Cherie Samson, Ned McGowan, Göze Saner and Per Roar participated via Skype and Johanna Householder via email. Due to last minute cancellations there were some "broken links" in the chain of responses. The program was nevertheless packed and the conversations exciting. Old and new members of the working group joined some of the sessions: Ray Langenbach, Pilvi Porkola, Carolyn Deby, Kanta Kochar-Lindgren. The new mode of working tried out this year seemed promising and worth developing. The next task will be to consider how to deal with the aftermath: how some of these experiences could be archived and what questions they evoked.

The revised schedule

July 3^rd

13:15 – 16:15 

      

1.    Annette Arlander and Bruce Barton: brief presentation of the working group and this year’s working process

2.    Annette Arlander (response to Ned McGowan): “Durations”

3.    Göze Saner (response to Attila Antal): “Looking at Her, Looking at Other, Looking at Another” Distance presentation with live exercise.

4.    Ned McGowan (response to Julie-Ann Long): Distance presentation.

5.    Cherie Samson (response to Annette Arlander): “observe, perform, labor (repeat)” Distance presentation.

July 4^th

13:15 – 16:15

1.    Bruce Barton (response to Johanna Householder): “A line of flight.”

2.    Cherie Samson’s work Eudaimonia (which had no response to be shared) 

3.     Per Roar (response to Orestes Pérez Estanquero): ”Crowds & Power” Distance presentation

4.     Julie-Ann Long (response top Göze Saner) “Inside Looking Out” 

5.     Olga Spyropoulou (response to Per Roar) “Doctoris angelici”

July 5^th

13:15 – 14:15

1.    Johanna Householder (response to Thomas Riccio): Performed live by Annette Arlander and Bruce Barton, Julie-Ann Long and Carolyn Deby, with Kanta Kochar-Lindgren

2.    Working Group Planning Session: a review of this year’s model and thinking about the aftermath and the future.

The Aftermath

Fragments of the process and the questions it evoked will be archived here:

Performance and Response - Networking Artistic Research, Psi #24, Daegu 3-6 July 2018

Call for Proposals

Performance Studies international #24 / Daegu, Korea / 3 – 6 July 2018

Performance and Response - Networking Artistic Research

A project of the Artistic Research Working Group of PSi

Inspired by the announced theme for PSi #24--“Performance as Network: Arts, City, Culture”-- the Artistic Research Working Group proposes to extend the experiences from last year’s “Excess and Abundance” gathering in Hamburg through a ‘performance-and-response’ adaptation of our established “Porous Studio” model of interaction. Developed several years ago, the Porous Studio is an ambitious but contained invitation to PSi member artists and local practitioners from the constantly changing conference locations to join the Artistic Research Working Group in a space of intermixing, contamination, and multiplicity, producing a shifting network of artists sharing their practices and ideas over time. While this gathering has traditionally been restricted to the annual conference event, for 2018 we are experimenting with a new mode of working based on ‘performance and response,’ including structured exchange prior to our gathering in Daegu, in order to emphasize the networking potential of our work together.

Artistic Research is meant as an umbrella concept that includes a range of approaches that use art, creative practice or performance as a primary means and method of inquiry. These include the distinct approaches 'performance as research' (PAR), ‘practice as research’ (PaR), 'practice-based research' (PBR), ‘practice-led research, ‘creative arts research’, 'research-creation', 'arts-based research', and numerous other associated practices. In many cases, the subject of study is artistic practice itself, as in 'artistic inquiry.’ In others, creative practice is used as a way of investigating non-artistic (or not exclusively artistic) subjects. Our aim is to invite a broad spectrum of these approaches, drawn from within and beyond academic and institutional contexts, to reflect the diverse and vital abundance of interrelated orientations, perspectives, and approaches to research in contemporary art. Through the ‘performance and response’ model of exchange, participants will have the opportunity to respond to presentations, performances and articulations through presentations, performances and articulations. In this way we aim to establish a dynamic network of this activity, and to expand our collective horizons through the sharing of knowledge(s) and experience(s).

Model of Engagement for PSi#24

In Brief:

1. All participants make a submission prior to the conference gathering. The submissions can take a wide variety of forms, including text, video, audio, images, etc.
2. All participants prepare a response to another participant’s initial submission for presentation at the conference event in Daegu.

The Details:

Stage One: Each participant submits an artistic research project (at any stage of development) or performance documented in some manner, supported by images, audio, video, text, etc., together with a written description or abstract of 100-300 words. It should be possible to experience (read, view, or listen to) the submitted materials within a period of 60 minutes. All proposals must be received no later than 15 March 2018. Please send the abstracts (with links to the artistic research materials) in an email with the subject title “ARWG 2018” to the three Working Group conveners (emails below).

All accepted abstracts will be posted to a dedicated online folder. Participants will then be able to submit additional materials to individual sub-folders, either directly or via links to existing online platforms (such as Vimeo, Youtube, etc.).

Stage Two: Each participant is assigned another participant’s submission by 31 March 2018, and is invited to prepare a presentational response to that submission, using their own preferred mode of practice to critically engage with the submission. The response can take the form of a performance, a participatory research exercise, a written document to be read aloud, etc. The respondents will submit the title and duration of their response (from 5 min to 20 min.) to the group no later than 31 May 2018.

Stage Three: Participants present their responses at the working group sessions during the conference in Daegu. The 100-300 word abstracts are made available onsite for the other participants and for other attendees at the open session who have not had access to online materials.

Depending upon interest, a possible fourth stage will include the creation of a publication on the Research Catalogue (https://www.researchcatalogue.net) consisting of materials and documentation from both the original submissions and performed responses.

On behalf of the working group convenors:

Annette Arlander: annette.arlander@uniarts.fi

Bruce Barton: bruce.barton@ucalgary.ca

Johanna Householder: jhouseholder@ocadu.ca