July-August 2023
I have presented a paper at the Experiential Cognition in Artistic Research Symposium for the Nordic Sumer University in Palanga, Lithuania.
Paper title: Artistic practice research and experiential cognition: FLOW
Abstract: This paper will investigate artistic practice research ‘flow’ as a method where experience informs experience and the experiential changes the researcher and the practice as it unfolds.
Focusing on experience as a fluid process places artistic practices in a vantage position to create change and imagine alternative futures. As Mika Hannula states, “artistic research is a way in which experience reflectively changes itself” (Hannula et al, 2005, p. 39). As such, it is different from other types of research as it merges subject, researcher and process in the experiential as a way of advancing practice. These unstable conditions will be analysed using the idea of flowing as a way of remaining open to change in the creative process.
These ideas will be considered from the relevance of the “not yet” (Rogoff, I. 2021) in the artistic research process, as artists work from conditions rather than from inherited knowledges, positioning practice research towards the not yet known or the not yet articulable. The idea of the not yet will be considered in relation to time as fluid, meeting the future as it emerges in a learning-by-doing that artistic practice research can activate through the experiential.
Theme of the symposium: Experiential Cognition in Artistic Research
Using as a starting point the idea that artistic research can provide other knowledges and other ways of cognising the world and each other, this symposium proposes a collective exploration of how the experiential in artistic research can help in making sense of the world around us. To that extent, we will be considering the relevance of the ‘not yet’ (Rogoff, I. 2021) in the artistic research process, as artists work from conditions rather than from inherited knowledges, positioning practice research towards the not yet known or the not yet articulable. Thus, based on the idea that artistic experience is an active process, which differs from other knowledge-making processes (Dewey 1934), we intend to create spaces for exploring artistic methodologies with the aim to develop understanding of cognitive processes. This is done in the belief that critically investigating the artistic research process will promote understanding of the role of the experiential in artistic practices and will provide a framework from where to explore other forms of cognising.
Research Questions:
How do knowledges emerge in artistic research practices through the experiential?
What kind of knowledges are they?
What methods and methodologies are employed in this work/paper/seminar/collaborative project?
How is experiential learning and learning-by-doing significant for art practices and artistic communities?