Introduction to Artistic Research

What distinguishes one maddening, incoherent artwork from another? What makes a certain fiction or a made-up world appear instantly relatable and truthful while another seems self-indulgent and foreclosed? If so, how can it live, or even be born? Which frameworks can we use to establish the value of a world which is made up? During this course the students will learn how to identify the underlying methodologies that constrain and define contemporary works of art, design, cinema, and literature. They will learn how to transplant methodologies from different disciplines and tweak them to fit their specific artistic practices. We will also learn how to develop, buttress, and implement relevant methodological approaches from scratch.

The particular focus of this course is dedicated to the thinking of fictions with other entities and beings that are not traditionally recognised as artistic producers whilst employing speculative and hypothetical practices. This module is consciously interdisciplinary and based on a combination of theory and practice. It is governed by the dictum philosophy must be lived’, meaning we will be looking for a way to reflect what we are reading directly and in practice immediately. The course include a number of fascinating guests (and fabulous prizes) and topics, including thinking along with the algorithm, molecular ideas, living fungi networks, and how to develop an approach to snail architecture.