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