21 Dec 2017

University of the Arts Helsinki: Futures of Artistic Research

Futures of Artistic Research is a collection of essays that brings into focus and explains the actual significance and future possibilities of the experimental exercises and critiques emerging across the field of artistic research. The book is structured around seven main questions and topics that are, at the moment, of interest to a wide interdisciplinary field of scholars, curators, and artists.

The starting point for this book is a questionnaire that was sent to writers that the editors consider significant within the field of artistic research. The editors (Jan Kaila, Anita Seppä and Henk Slager) asked them to either provide a separate answer to each question, or to write a short text as a reaction to the set of questions.

The Research Pavilion in Venice, hosted by the University of the Arts Helsinki, (Uniarts Helsinki) has been important as a setting influencing the selection of writers as well as the topic of the book. Jan Kaila and Henk Slager acted as curators, and Anita Seppä as the commissioner, of the Research Pavilion in 2015 and 2017.

Many participants of this book project have taken part in the exhibitions or in the so-called 'Camino Events' – spanning a wide variety of cross-artistic events; discussions, interventions, performances, screenings, and concerts – of the Research Pavilion. In addition to them, the editors have invited a number of people not connected with the Research Pavilion to discuss similar issues.

Contributors: Andrea Phillips, Basak Senova, Behzad Khosravi Noori, Cecilie Broch Knudsen, Darla Crispin, Florian Dombois, Jan Svenungsson, Joasia Krysa, Julian Klein, Lars Hallnäs, Leena Rouhiainen, Maiju Loukola, Melanie Bouteloup, Mick Wilson, Mika Elo, Nikita Yingqian Cai, and Renate Lorenz.

By presenting the responses of these internationally acknowledged specialists, the collection shows how the artistic research discussion reworks older definitions of experimenting, knowledge, methodologies, materials, and purposes of art, and how it also advances new ethical and political insights in the field of research.

Futures of Artistic Research – At the Intersection of Utopia, Academia and Power.

Writings from the Academy of Fine Arts (5), 2017.

Editors: Jan Kaila, Anita Seppä, Henk Slager

Graphic design: Marjo Malin

Publisher: The Academy of Fine Arts of Uniarts, Helsinki

ISBN 978-952-7131-42-8

Shop the book online: shop.unigrafia.fi/tuote/futures-of-artistic-research/