[-empyre-] January on empyre: Research in Practice

[Simon Biggs]

Research in Practice

Over the past two decades there has been significant growth in the numbers of creative arts practitioners undertaking research degrees. Given the divergent epistemologies that underpin the creative arts, humanities, social and physical sciences it is perhaps not surprising there has been an ongoing debate considering the pro's and con's involved, and whether the PhD is an appropriate framework for creative practice. In the book Artists with PhDs (Elkins, 2009), James Elkins questioned the basic logic driving the development of the artist's practice-based research degree, arguing we should be wary of art practice being subsumed by the academy and its associated discourses and economy. Published the same year, Practice-led Research, Research-led Practice (Smith & Dean, 2009), included a text titled New Media: the 'First Word' in Art? ( http://www.littlepig.org.uk/texts/practiceresearch.pdf ), by myself, based on interviews with a range of practitioners across the media arts who had particular engagements with research methods and environments. The primary objective of this survey was to gain insight into how practice was affected by this engagement but also to ask why these artists had made the choices that led them to that engagement. What was the relationship they sought with the academy? What were the outcomes?

The debate concerning the value of the research degree for the creative practitioner seems no closer to resolution now than then, although the steady growth in the number of artists with PhDs indicates something. Although the creative disciplines that are seeing such growth are diverse, including visual art, media, film, performance, dance, theatre, music, sound, creative writing and design, it is often the case that it is where practitioners are engaged in hybrid practices, often involving non-artistic and more academic subjects (whether from the social and physical sciences or the humanities) that we can see the most activity. It has been observed that areas of hybrid creative practice, such as new media, which by definition is medially experimental and bound to reflect upon its means, see particularly high levels of engagement with research and research environments (Michael Naimark - 'First Word Art/Last Word Art', http://www.naimark.net/writing/firstword.html ).

It might now be a fruitful moment to inquire as to how current and recent graduate research students undertake their research and practice in the context of academic environments? What rewards and problems do they encounter in such contexts? Do academic environments support and foster their practice or demand adaptions to their working methods that can compromise their preferred models of practice? What are the respective positives and negatives subsequently offered to the practitioner? Is it possible to balance the seemingly unreconcilable demands of professional arts practice with those of academic research and its intellectual and financial economy?

This month on empyre a number of recent and current post graduate students will discuss their experiences and address the above questions. Many are practitioners who have chosen to situate their practice in a research environment whilst others are researchers who have chosen to incorporate creative practice in their activities. Many, but not all, work with new media. A small number were also respondents for the 2009 essay mentioned above. They are Keith Armstrong, Cécile Chevalier, Laura Cinti, Maria Gade Godinho, Sue Hawksley, Wendy Kirkup, Mike Leggett, Donna Leishman, Talan Memmott, Maria Mencía, Anne Sarah Le Meur, Bronwyn Platten, Daniela Alina Plewe and Miguel Santos. The month's discussion is moderated by Simon Biggs.

during week one, January 7-13

Maria Gade Godinho is a natural scientist, strongly interested in interdisciplinary practices. Her academic qualifications comprise a Licenciature in Biology from the University of Evora, Portugal, which included a research thesis on bacterial genome sequencing, and a doctorate from the University of Western Australia, awarded for research on peripheral nerve regeneration. As a scientific collaborator Maria contributed to the development of several biological artworks and has taught on interdisciplinary courses. These engagements have led to current research investigating the causes and effects on contemporary scientists and their practice of collaboration with art practitioners.

Sue Hawksley is an independent dance artist, bodywork therapist and artistic director of articulate animal. This interdisciplinary performance company undertakes collaborative projects focused upon movement, identity and territory which have been presented internationally. She has previously performed with Rambert Dance Company, Mantis, Scottish Ballet and Philippe Genty among others, as well as on many freelance projects as performer, choreographer or educator. Sue holds a practice-led PhD from the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh College of Art. Her research critically examines concepts of embodiment through choreographic and somatic practices, philosophy, and mediation. She is Senior Lecturer in Dance (Performance and Choreography) at the University of Bedfordshire. http://www/articulateanimal.org.uk

Donna Leishman ( http://6amhoover.com ) is a researcher and media artist based in Scotland. She has presented in museums, galleries, conferences and festivals around the world and lecturers in Communication Design at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee. Her critical writings cover the social reception of digital media and narrative, interactivity and more recently identity. She is currently working on a special edition for the Leonardo Almanac titled: ‘Without Sin: Taboo And Freedom Within Digital Media’ which explores the notion of the moral economy of human activity and how this is translates (or not) within digital media.

Bronwyn Platten is an Australian artist, based in the United Kingdom since 2001. She has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Australia and internationally. Bronwyn’s installation-based work engages sculpture, film, and performance to explore the influences of sexuality, identity and gender upon perceptions of body image and experiences of embodiment. Since 1985, Bronwyn has also worked extensively on creative projects with diverse community groups including people with multiple disabilities and psychiatric illnesses. She was awarded her doctorate in 2012 from The University of Salford for, Mouths and Meaning, a collaborative multi-sensory arts in healthcare project that explores the experience of embodiment for people who have been affected by an eating disorder.

during week two, January 14-20

Cécile Chevalier is a French artist and practice-based doctoral student (2009-2013) at the University of Sussex. Cécile works with lens-based media placed in tangible and embodied interactive installation works. Her work has been shown in festivals and exhibitions across the UK and she has contributed to various media research projects. Her research and art work focus on memory, reminiscence & technology. Cécile also teaches animation, photography and digital media at Sussex.

Laura Cinti is an artist working with biology and co-director of C-LAB, an art-science collective. Recent activities include exhibiting living synthetic biology artworks at Techfest 2012 (Mumbai) and curating public art exhibitions for the EU funded 'European Public Art Centre' (2010-2012). Her artworks have been presented and exhibited internationally. Laura has a PhD from UCL (Slade School of Fine Art/UCL Centre of Biomedical Imaging), a Masters in Interactive Media: Critical Theory & Practice (Distinction) from Goldsmiths College and BA (Hons) Fine Art (First Class) from University of Hertfordshire. Recently she was awarded the 'Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Award' (2012-2013).

Talan Memmott is a Lecturer in Digital Culture at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden. He holds an MFA in Literary Arts/Electronic Writing from Brown University and a PhD in Interaction Design from Malmö University. Memmott is a practicing artist, an academic, and a media theorist. His creative work has been presented at numerous conferences and festivals, and been the subject of a number of critical articles and books. He is currently working on a digital performance piece titled Huckleberry Finnegans Wake. Memmott is Vice President of the Electronic Literature Organization and during 2010-2013 an investigator on the European research project ELMCIP.

Maria Mencía is a media artist-researcher and Senior Lecturer in Digital Media at Kingston University, London, UK. Her doctoral research (2000-2003) in Digital Poetry and Art was one of the first in the field. Mencía’s research is at the intersection of language, art and digital technology. It explores the area of the 'in-between' the visual, the aural and the semantic by experimenting with the digital medium with the aim of engaging the reader/viewer/user in an experience of shifting ‘in’ and ‘out’ of language by looking ‘at’ and looking ‘through’ transparent and abstract landscapes of text and linguistic soundscapes. It draws from avant-garde poetics, exploring digital media grammars. It is trans-disciplinary bringing together different cultural, artistic and literary traditions such as: linguistics, fine art, visual, concrete and sound poetry. http://www.mariamencia.com/

Anne Sarah Le Meur (France) received her Ph.D. in Aesthetics, Science and Technology of Arts in 1999 from Paris 8 University. Both her theoretical (Ph.D, articles) and practical research dealt with the influence of 3D programming languages on bodily expression/representation. Her works play with 3D visual 'unconventions' and the heritage of abstract painting. This work includes still images, recorded and generative animations and real-time performances. Her latest work is an interactive installation based on the viewer's desire to perceive (Interface-Z, LeCube, ZKM residency). After lecturing at the University-Bauhaus-Weimar (1995-1997), Germany, she has been Assistant Professor for the Arts Department, Paris 1 University Pantheon-Sorbonne, since 2000. http://aslemeur.free.fr/index_eng.htm

during week three, January 21-27

Keith Armstrong has specialised for 18 years in collaborative, hybrid, new media works with an emphasis on innovative performance forms, site-specific electronic arts, networked interactive installations, alternative interfaces, public arts practices and art-science collaborations. His ongoing research focuses on how scientific and philosophical ecologies can both influence and direct the design and conception of networked, interactive media artworks. Keith's artworks have been shown and profiled extensively both in Australia and overseas and he has been the recipient of numerous grants from the public and private sectors. His work Intimate Transactions (with the Transmute Collective) is held in the permamnent collection of ZKM. He was formerly an Australia Council New Media Arts Fellow, a doctoral and Postdoctoral New Media Fellow at QUT's Creative Industries Faculty and a lead researcher at the ACID Australasian Cooperative Research Centre for Interaction Design. He is currently a part-time Senior Research Fellow at Queensland University of Technology Brisbane, and a practicing freelance new media artist. 

Wendy Kirkup is an artist and PHD candidate at the University of Edinburgh. Her past work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including Tate Modern, London, ZKM, Karsruhe Germany and Princeton University Art Museum, USA. Her current PHD study investigates, through the methods and methodologies of drawing and filmmaking, notions of place-making, considered as a set of temporal, material and sensual practices.

Mike Leggett has been working with moving image across the institutions of art, education and television since the late-60s. He has film and video work in archives and collections in Europe, Australia, North and South America and has curated exhibitions of interactive multimedia, including for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney. He writes and lectures about computer mediated art, contributes regularly to journals (Leonardo; Continuum) and magazines (RealTime, World Art). He has a PhD from the Creativity & Cognition Studios, University of Technology Sydney and an MFA from the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales and is currently a Fellow in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Wollongong.

Daniela Alina Plewe received a PhD from the Sorbonne on a thesis introducing the concept of “Transactional Arts” referring to art, where interactions become transactions ( http://transactional-arts.com ). Previously she acquired a B.A. in Philosophy (Aesthetics, Philosophy of Science, Artificial Intelligence) and a M.A. in Experimental Media Design from the University of Arts Berlin. Since 1992 she developed media art projects which were internationally exhibited and won several awards. Exhibitions and collaborations include MIT Media Lab, Harvard Law Lab, Ars Electronica, Canon Art Lab Tokyo, ZKM Karlsruhe, University of California LA, School of Visual Arts NY, ISEA, Transmediale, ACM Multimedia, Fraunhofer Institute and others. In 2010 she was nominated for the Transmediale Vilem Flusser Theory Award.

Miguel Santos is a transdisciplinary artist and researcher, born in Portugal and living somewhere out there. He is interested in intersecting perspectives in Fine Arts, Philosophy and Cognitive Science, and employs those findings in the production of installations, videos and photographic works that have been exhibited across Europe. In 2011, he received a PhD in Fine Arts from Sheffield Hallam University for the research project: ‘Poetics of the Interface: Creating Works of Art that Engage in Self-Reflection’. The project's main objective was to understand the value of artists employing noise (disturbances) in the formulation of interfaces (i.e. films, videos, photographs, sculptures, etc.) and its implications for the observer’s interpretation.




Simon Biggs
simon at littlepig.org.uk http://www.littlepig.org.uk/ @SimonBiggsUK skype: simonbiggsuk

s.biggs at ed.ac.uk Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/edinburgh-college-art/school-of-art/staff/staff?person_id=182&cw_xml=profile.php
http://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/simon-biggs%285dfcaf34-56b1-4452-9100-aaab96935e31%29.html

http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/  http://www.elmcip.net/  http://www.movingtargets.org.uk/  http://designinaction.com/
MSc by Research in Interdisciplinary Creative Practices
http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/degrees?id=656&cw_xml=details.php