Simo Kellokumpu & Leena Rouhiainen: Zoom discussion in two parts on worldmaking and contemporaneity, #2

3.10.2023 0 Like 0 kommenttia

S: Yes. I will now take this to the issues of education, because this opens up a rich terrain for thinking about it as well. The five-year process of doctoral education was for me an introductory traversal of such terrain, in which the concepts, themes and ideas that emerged had time to permeate and materialize in the body and in practice. During the post.doc project, the masses of the doctoral process have moved so that I am able to articulate more precisely, for example in my teaching, what my process has been about. What does this evoke in you?

L: Generally speaking, doctoral education is guided by the possibility of tackling the problematic of art and practice that is troubling you… You froze, I wonder if you’re still there, can you hear me?

S: (frozen screen): yes, I can hear you fine

L: …and let it guide and provide an environment and a support structure in which to immerse oneself deeply in such a process. Based on feedback, this has been the most important contribution of the doctoral education in artistic research.

S: (screen unfrozen)

L: I think you described how concepts are embodied. Practice can give rise to concepts, but other concepts are also embodied in practice. It’s a two-way relationship. In doctoral education, through reflective practice, you are supposed to develop the field of art in which you are working.

S: I notice and recognise this in the way that my own sense about this very dynamic has changed, becoming more focused and rooted. 

L: And it’s relevant to note that not just any conceptual interlocutor is appropriate for a practice, but it invites a particular theoretical interlocutor. When the dialogue then takes place, it deepens both sides in a reciprocal way.

S: In my doctoral project, reading-theories emerged as key dialogue partners and this was somewhat surprising to me. In fact, from the viewpoint of a person belonging to a certain cultural context, my attention is also now focused on how my eyes move from left to right when reading this text and what is actually happening when I read.

L: Text also has an affective effect, so language is embodied in that way too.

(Silence. S is looking for the next question)

S: I would like to hear your thoughts on the challenges and opportunities for artistic research education and how you see the future of it at the University of the Arts?

L: A fairly likely challenge on the university level is that the Ministry of Education will at some point set a target graduation time of 3-4 years. The curriculum for doctoral studies now includes 1-3 artistic components to be examined, plus a written commentary. As doctoral students are very ambitious in their work this potential timeframe may pose challenges. A further challenge is the links between artistic research and the art world and the rest of academia. This involves a joint reflection on how artistic research in the field of art could engage in dialogue with artistic research in the university and how they support each other. There is still a need for a more public lobbying of the specificity of artistic research and perhaps a more vigorous search for collaboration with the rest of the academic world.

S. From my experience a lot of good things have already happened, if you look at the last 10 years. There is already a much better recognition of artistic research in the art field and the events of artistic research are accessible to those involved in it in the art field. 

L: One positive aspect is that artistic research is already part of the overall discussion at TeaK, i.e. already at BA level students are getting acquainted with artistic research. The capacity to apply for doctoral studies is further built up at MA level and in many cases doctoral candidates are already well advanced in their doctoral research processes. Interestingly, conceptions of knowledge are shifting more strongly towards the recognition of affective, embodied, collaborative and situational ways of knowledge formation. These are the areas where artistic research has a contribution to make. Collaborative research processes have the potential to create space for collaborators to contribute to knowledge production, especially if and when they are situated in multiple social contexts. Such a move also changes the perception of what a researcher does and who a researcher is. I will follow with interest where such a thread may develop.

S: I think the same goes for the artist. We are constantly thinking about what kind of work-life skills should be included in an artist’s education. From that perspective, what kind of world will the artist enter after the studies? I felt that the doctoral education gave me a very broad set of skills to work. For example, it gave me the skills to work in responsible expert positions, which require the ability to think about complexities from many different perspectives and to identify relevant information.

L: The doctoral training strengthens the skills of structuring and reflection also outside the artistic medium.

S: Yes. Hmm, time is running out (looks at the clock on the screen). Well, lastly, I would like to ask what is involved in developing artistic research activities at TeaK?

L: At the beginning of the year, a new unit was established at the University of the Arts, called the Research Institute of the University of the Arts. Its mission is to develop the University of the Arts’ multidisciplinary research in cooperation with the university’s management, and the research and doctoral education units of the academies. Its specific objective is to strengthen the research community and to provide resources for research. The three research centres of our university’s former Research Hub will continue as thematic research networks of the Research Institute and we are developing a range of measures to support the university’s research activities, including regular joint meetings and a process to promote thematic research networks.

S: It sounds necessary that this could also be used to strengthen the research community. I felt after my doctoral studies that I was falling out of a certain kind of research community, and this led me to apply to become a visiting researcher. Related to this is the fact that for me, making artistic research and art is linked to a sense of hope. The dynamics of hope is present in the activity, perhaps unnoticed. What do you think?

L: In different times, we always have to struggle in different ways to keep art alive and relevant in society. It is by no means clear to everyone that we need art, but for some social actors it is, of course. We need art, artists, artist-researchers, and art scholars to reorient the social meaning and role of art and to strengthen and sustain the role of art.

S: The way you describe this also translates for me as an artist to the examination of social hope and its possible maintenance as a dimension of research.

L: Good word, that hope. I wrote it down.

(L and S smile. Zoom closes.)