Conference report: Doctors in performance, Tallinn, 1-3 September 2021

This report chronicles the author’s participation in the Doctors in Performance (DiP) Festival Conference, September 2021, at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Tallinn. It is the fourth edition of DiP since its inauguration in 2014 at the Sibelius Academy, Uniarts Helsinki. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe in early 2020, most conferenceshave been either postponed, cancelled or held online. This Conference is one of the first to be held as an in-person event as Europe starts to move towards a post-pandemic period. Some participants gathered in person (including the author), while parallel online participation was also enabled as a hybrid event. This report records the conference events as DiP enters into maturity with a focus on artistic research and music performance. It also describes the author’s impressions regarding issues of ‘liveness’ in varied categories, including spoken presentations, music performances, their online equivalents, live or prerecorded presentations and online or live participations.

Poéticas em arte sonora: entrevista com Paulo Nenflidio

Paulo Nenflidio, in his biographic note, presents himself as an artist who works at the intersection between art, science and technology. A multiple and inventive artist, his works comprise sculptures, installations, objects, instruments and drawings in which sound, electronics, movement, construction, invention, randomness, physics, control, automatons, and workaround come together as elements of artistic expression. Paulo Nenflidio holds a degree in Fine Arts from the School of Communication and Arts of the University of São Paulo and is an electronics technician graduated from the Lauro Gomes Technical School in São Bernardo do Campo. Born in São Bernardo do Campo, the artist maintains his studio in this city. In this interview, we seek to deepen our study about the poetics of Paulo Nenflidio's works. How his creative trajectory developed, conceptual inspirations that guided the development of his creative processes and his artistic research, as well as the role of sound and silence as forms of poetic expression are issues addressed in this conversation. This interview was conducted by email, between the 20th and 24th of July 2021.

When arts and science meet: Digital technology in artistic research

In recent decades, advancements in digital technologies have become a rich source of inspiration for artists, who seek to leave the trodden paths and find novel ways of expression. In addition, digital technologies are increasingly implemented in the development of artistic skills, providing new means to develop the artists’ reflection on their own development. As such, they hold great potential to shape artistic research. Moreover, digital technologies offer possibilities to capture the learning process based on quantitative measurement, thereby becoming a potential interface between artistic and scientific approaches to investigating artistic growth. This contribution presents two artistic projects illustrating the potentialities of the art–science encounter. Embedded in the research paradigm of embodied music cognition, both projects explore the role of the body in music performance (interpretation and improvisation). The first project investigates the relation between gesture and interpretative intentions in a contemporary piano composition. The second project concerns the development of one’s musical language through kinemusical improvisation. A mixed methodology and the use of technology as ‘an augmented mirror’ to monitor artistic practice were applied. Both projects illustrate how the implementation of digital technologies may boost the evolution in artistic research and facilitate novel approaches to music teaching and learning.

Artistic research in processes of urban change

Can the figure of the city of knowledge be an inspiration to commissioning of artistic research in contexts of urban change? This article argues that it represents a way beyond the seemingly dead ends that have been forged by the temporary and creative city. This article presents some initial reflections on this subject and reflects upon how artistic research expands the roles ascribed to public art. The conceptual approach to understand the relations between knowledge and the development of cities applied in this article, draws on the idea that cities are learned developed by urban geographer Colin MacFarlane (MacFarlane, 2011). The article applies MacFarlane’s concept to artistic research in public space and argues that artistic research as public art can move divisions between what is extra-public and public, known and unknown. Drawing on public art projects that have relations to the urban development of Bjørvika, the article argues that artistic research of the city produces new ways to “learn the city” and conceive change.

Māksliniecisko pētījumu pieejas attīstība jauno mediju mākslas izglītībā Liepājas Universitātē 2007.–2010. gadā

In 2007, first students started their studies at Liepāja University New Media Art bachelor level programme. It was the first programme in Latvia that was developed based on topical ideas about art as research and practice-based artistic research. This approach to art education can be described as strongly critical to neoliberalist treatment of art and, particularly in Europe, was also a part of reaction from the side of art educators and practitioners to changes started by the Bologna process in the field of higher (art) education. The approach was integrated purposefully into the philosophy of New Media Art studies and research at Liepāja University, first of all by establishing MPLab – a Laboratory of Art Research as a space for creative growth where every student has more freedom and independence but is required to be able to mobilise independently and think critically and creatively. In this article, the basic assumptions for programme development, main events, and results are presented and analysed, based on inner planning and implementation documents of the study process, as well as research papers discussing the basic assumptions of the philosophy of the study programme. In the centre of philosophy and content development of the bachelor and later master and doctoral level study programmes at Liepāja University was the idea of art as a research activity. It is connected to the recognition of the dimension of science in art, more concretely, that art does not need commentary to become “scientific”. Similar to the science where the goal and the product of the actions is the new, emerging knowledge, the art can also be oriented toward the development of knowledge, in the process of artistic creativity, through experimentation, observation, reflection, and abstraction that influence the following process of art-making. The inquiry and experiment, as well as collecting and presenting data about materials and environment the artist works with, is an essential part of the artistic activity, especially in contemporary art. Based on practice, an artist is driven to the questions and hypotheses that later can change the course and result of his/her artistic work. The art based in practice is also becoming more and more interested in life and involvement in social processes, practical issues, and the critical discourse of the art. An element of the philosophy of artistic research is also an orientation to change and active action. Artistic research tends to the new, but it is planned not only as a performative but also transformative action; therefore, it is important to think about social responsibility and social engagement in the context of artistic research. Activity, engagement, orientation towards the change, and thought-through practice-based training are the most important elements of contemporary art to encourage social and cultural sustainability development. That is why in the education of young artists, a special place should be reserved for understanding society, its risks, and the economic and political contexts in which the artist is working. However, the issue of sustainability has to be treated in connection to local communities. Socially responsible art – art as research – is possible only by studying and integrating into the artistic research process the human needs in the place where they emerge and in active dialogue with local communities. All these elements were integrated into the philosophy of the research and studies when the programmes of new media art were started at Liepāja University. The aim of the article is to discover what and how theoretical thinking on practice-based artistic research programmes in the space of higher education of art was implemented in practice, involved in the development of New Media Art programmes at Liepāja University in the period from 2007 to 2010. The methods used include document analysis and analysis of secondary literature; however, in general, a descriptive approach was used. Conclusions show that by purposeful integration of the topical and in-depth view on art education at university and new approaches to art in society invented in the active discussions within the network of international experts, it was possible to create a contemporary centre of critical creativity at Liepāja University able to engage into artistic research of reality and virtuality in the contemporary technologically saturated cultural environment.

Eksplorasi Mandala dalam Seni Drawing

Penelitian ini merupakan pengamatan dan eksplorasi aspek-aspek dalam mandala untuk dijadikan ide dalam menciptakan karya seni. Penelitian bertujuan menghasilkan karya seni yang inovatif dan eksploratif yang bisa memicu pentingnya menjaga pikiran serta hubungan antara manusia dan Penciptanya. Metode penelitian artistik ini adalah penelitian berbasis praktik. Peneliti menyatu dengan benda-benda yang diamati dengan imajinasi secara timbal-balik; serta merujuk pada metode kreasi yang diterbitkan dalam jurnal-jurnal untuk membuat penelitian yang bebas dari subjektivitas dan guna menghasilkan paparan yang lebih rinci. Hasilnya dalam bentuk beberapa karya seni sebagai representasi kreatifitas dalam mendefinisikan mandala dan filosofinya. Karya ini secara teknis merupakan hasil amatan atas berbagai referensi visual dan paduan berbagai teknik dan mendigitalisasi sebagai sentuhan akhir. Karya juga diterapkan dalam bentuk wallpaper gawai untuk menghadirkan makna baru atas mandala.This artistic research is an effort to observe and explore aspects in mandalas to be used as ideas in creating artwork. The purpose of this art creation research is to create innovative and exploratory works of art to spark the importance of taking care of our minds and maintaining the relationship between man and his Creator. This artistic research method is practice-based research. The researcher fused with objects observed by imagination reciprocally; he has also referred to the methods of published creations in current journals to make the research free from subjectivity and exposure is more detailed. The results are in the form of works art as representations of how the researcher creatively defines the mandala and the philosophy of mandalas. This work is technically the result of various visual references, blending techniques between Drawing-painting and digitization as the finishing touch. This work is also applied in the form of gadget wallpaper to present a new meaning over mandalas.

Artistic Research: A Cuckoo’s Egg in Other Bird’s Nest or an Epistemologically Justified Strategy of Research?

In the broader context of other types of research, the authors of this article seek to analyse the epistemological status of artistic research. Because of its transdisciplinary character, artistic research is interpreted ambiguously: on the one hand, it might be treated as an unjustified and illicit intervention into the scientific field, on the other hand, despite its peculiarities artistic research still might be capable of creating knowledge commensurable with the knowledge produced in other (scientific) disciplines. The major question the article seeks to answer is the following: is it possible to justify artistic research applying ready-made arguments in the philosophy of science?