‘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