Excess and Abundance of Artistic Research

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Performance Studies international #23 / Hamburg, Germany / 8 – 11 June 2017

Excess and Abundance of Artistic Research

A project of the Artistic Research Working Group of PSi

Inspired by the announced theme for PSi #23 – “OverFlow” – the Artistic Research Working Group proposes to build upon but also exceed the ambitious but contained model of the “Porous Studio,” its established practice over the past several conferences. An open invitation to PSi member artists and local practitioners from the shifting conference locations, the Porous Studio has always been seen as a space of intermixing, contamination, and multiplicity. For 2017 we propose overflowing the fixed spatial and temporal zones of PSi #23 through extended sessions in Hamburg and pre- and post-conference online (and, potentially, actual) exchange and collaboration via the international Research Catalogue database (https://www.researchcatalogue.net/portal).

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-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 overflow of orientations, perspectives, and approaches to research in contemporary art. Through presentations, performances, articulations and conversation, we aim to showcase vital examples of this activity internationally, and to expand our collective horizons through the sharing of knowledge(s) and experience(s).

The Artistic Research Working Group invites proposals from past, current, and prospective members. Participation can take one of two forms:

• Ten-minute reports of on-going artistic investigations or artistic research projects, presented onsite in Hamburg and augmented by material shared online in advance of the presentation.
• Thirty-minute project presentations or participatory workshops, performances or events, conducted onsite in Hamburg and augmented by material shared online in advance of the event.

All contributors will be invited to register on the Research Catalogue and establish an individual page on the Artistic Research Working Group site within the database. This will be a closed forum for exchange prior to and following the conference, and we can explore the option of publishing some materials after the gathering as a form of public conference proceedings. Members who will not be able to attend in Hamburg can also submit online presentations or contributions that will be uploaded on the Research Catalogue and shared with the other WG members on an on-going basis.

The theme of “OverFlow” will be served by the very diversity of our collected approaches, but members may also choose to address it directly through some aspect of their conference participation.

All proposals should contain the following:

•  participant’s name;
• title of contribution;
•  type of contribution (i.e., which of the three above categories);
•  institutional affiliation (if applicable);
• a 150 word description of the project/activity being showcased;
•  any technical or production requirements.

Please send proposals by 15 October 2016 to

Annette Arlander: annette.arlander@uniarts.fi

Johanna Householder: jact@sympatico.ca

Bruce Barton: bruce.barton@ucalgary.ca

THE POROUS STUDIO Climates in, of, and for Performance A Project of THE ARTISTIC RESEARCH WORKING GROUP

Proposal for PSI #22 Melbourne

THE POROUS STUDIO
Climates in, of, and for Performance

A Project of
THE ARTISTIC RESEARCH WORKING GROUP 

The Artistic Research Working Group (ARWG) of PSi proposes the fifth incarnation of the Porous Studio for PSi #22. A primary concern of the ARWG is to encourage and expand artist participation on the ground in PSi and to expand and integrate a spectrum of discourse strategies into the PSi environment. In accordance with the conference theme we will focus our activities on “Climates in, of, and for Performance” as they intersect with issues of artistic practice and research. To this end, we propose a Porous Studio to invite, include, and engage artists from Melbourne and the neighbouring region in addition to members of the Working Group. 

ABSTRACT
Among Artistic Research’s primary characteristics is its potential to expand traditional epistemological frameworks for the discovery, creation, and dissemination of knowledge and experience. Artistic Research provides rich and robust contexts for investigations of both tangible events and the affective ambience that they generate. The PSi #22 CFP notes that “Climates [...] are both the general conditions in which events take place, and the ambience produced as a result,” and that “innovative research methodologies and new conceptual paradigms offer ways of re-thinking this radically inter-connected world.” Fittingly, the Porous Studio is designed to realize a productive laboratory of experimentation at the permeable borders of theory, philosophy, pedagogy, practice and research—one that underscores the notion of annual continuity and the practical/symbolic significance of studio/site/process at the PSi annual conferences. We are a constantly mutating social network of artists, which over successive years maps itself onto sites in different cities, countries and continents. Porousness thus indicates both an opening of the traditionally private domain of the artist’s studio to the public nature of performance research and practice, and a determination to engage with local artist-researchers to explore the specific climates iof performance in the region.

PARTICIPANTS
Annette Arlander is an artist, researcher and pedagogue, one of the pioneers of Finnish performance art and trailblazers of artistic research. Professor of Artistic Research at University of the Arts Helsinki. Visiting professor at Stockholm University of the Arts. For artworks and publications, see annettearlander.com.

Bruce Barton is a creator/scholar whose practice-based research and teaching focuses on physical dramaturgies in devised and intermedial performance. He is the Artistic Director of Vertical City, an interdisciplinary performance hub located in Toronto, and the Director of the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary.

Johanna Householder has been working in performance, dance, video and intermedia art practices since the late 1970s. Co-author of Caught in the Act: an anthology of

performance art by Canadian women, 2005, she is currently editing Volume Two. She is a Professor in the Faculty of Art and Graduate Studies at OCAD University, Toronto.
The final determination of participants and presentations will depend upon group discussion and development over the next few months, as well as the final composition of the Working Group at the conference this year. Connections with local collaborators will be determined with our contacts in the region over the intervening months.

SPACE REQUIREMENTS
A large open studio/performance/classroom with ample floor space of at least 80 Sq Metres (large classroom size). As our objective is the integration of a variety of discourses with practice, we prefer a space and time proximate to and not divorced from the paper-session venues. While most participants will probably want to work indoors, one or two may also opt to work outside. Because we wish to combine our event with local artists, we are somewhat flexible in regard to site and timing. As we hope for expanded local participation, the room should be able to hold about 30 people comfortably.

TIME REQUIREMENTS
One 4 hour session. The session will have participatory works, presentations of works in progress, exercises, screenings, and, most importantly, discussion. Part of the session will be devoted to the annual planning meeting of the Working Group.

PUBLICITY
In order to attract local participants for past ARWG meetings, Nicholas Johnson has made posters (see attached). We plan to produce a poster again this year to be distributed through email/web.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
A studio/classroom: Audio amplifier and speakers, video projector, one or two tables, wifi access, and about 10-15 moveable chairs.

CONTACTS
Convenor: Johanna Householder, Chair ARWG jhouseholder@ocadu.ca 
Annette Arlander annette.arlander@uniarts.fi
Bruce Barton bruce.barton@ucalgary.ca