3rd CfP: Art of Research Conference: Authorship and Responsibility, Aalto University, Dec. 3-4 2020

Art of Research VII: Authorship and responsibility

 Third Call for Papers, including information about keynote speakers

 3-4 December 2020 at Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Espoo, Finland

 

We are glad to inform you that Associate Professor Monika Bakke, Professor Jonathan Hill and Professor Julia Lohmann will be the keynote speakers at the 7th Art of Research conference, to be held on Dec. 3-4, 2020 at Aalto University.

 

Monika Bakke is Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland. She writes on contemporary art and aesthetics with a particular interest in posthumanist, trans-species and gender perspectives. She is the author of Bio-transfigurations: Art and Aesthetics of Posthumanism (2010, in Polish) and Open Body (2000, in Polish) co-author of Pleroma: Art in Search of Fullness (1998), and the editor of Australian Aboriginal Aesthetics (2004, in Polish), Going Aerial: Air, Art, Architecture (2006) and The Life of Air: Dwelling, Communicating, Manipulating (2011). From 2001 till 2017 she was working as an editor of the Polish cultural journal Czas Kultury [Time of Culture]. Her curatorial work includes art exhibitions: Bio-Reminiscences (Poland), Seeing the Forest Through the Trees (UK) and Boundless Objects (Portugal). Currently her research focuses on nonlife forces and new articulations of mineral presence in contemporary art and natural history museums.

 

Jonathan Hill is Professor of Architecture and Visual Theory at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, where he directs the MPhil/PhD Architectural Design programme and tutors MArch Unit 12. Jonathan’s current research has two aims. First, to investigate historical understanding as a stimulus to design and thus the ways in which architects learn from each other and other disciplines. Second, to study the interconnected histories of architectural design and climate research so as to acknowledge the interdependence of multiple authors—human, non-human and atmospheric—as an appropriate model for architecture in an era of increasing climate change. Jonathan is the author of The Illegal Architect (1998), Actions of Architecture (2003), Immaterial Architecture (2006), Drawing Research (2006), Weather Architecture (2012), A Landscape of Architecture, History and Fiction (2016) and The Architecture of Ruins: Designs on the Past, Present and Future (2019); editor of Occupying Architecture (1998), Architecture—the Subject is Matter (2001) and Designs on History: The Architect as Physical Historian (2021); and co-editor of Critical Architecture (2007).

 

Julia Lohmann is Professor of Practice in Contemporary Design at Aalto University and founder of the Department of Seaweed, a transdisciplinary community of practice investigating the potential of macro algae as a design material. She uses her artistic practice as research through design to explore the ethical and material value systems underlying our relationship with flora and fauna. Lohmann is developing empathic, collaborative and co-speculative approaches to design. She promotes more-than-human-centric, regenerative practices benefitting socio-ecological systems. On this subject she co-curated the exhibition Critical Tide at the Design Museum Helsinki in 2019, focussing on the ocean. In Aalto ARTS, Lohmann teaches the courses Critical Design Practices and Design Practices in Social Context, the latter in cooperation with KTH Stockholm and Kristineberg Marine Research Station in Sweden. Lohmann is also researching natural dyes on biodegradable materials as part of the BioColour research project funded by the Academy of Finland.

 

Please note that the submission system will open on May 1, 2020.

Deadline for all submissions is June 15, 2020.

 

 

Over the past two decades, the Art of Research conferences have had a significant role in promoting continuous dialogue and fruitful convergence between art and design related research practices. The conferences have contributed to the development of rapidly growing and spreading contemporary discourse on artistic and practice-led research – acknowledging and engaging in multiple notions of research where diverse modes of creative practice are used as context for enquiry.

 

The theme of the seventh Art of Research conference "Authorship and Responsibility" addresses the varied collaborative and individual working situations of researcher artists, designers and architects. The theme connects to questions of singular authorship, shared authorship, lost authorship, invisible or uncredited authorship, participatory conditions, co-creation, inclusion and exclusion—that is, with the potentiality of one's individual or shared praxis. These questions intertwine with the essential questions of power, control and responsibility, which accompany the acknowledgement that we inhabit this planet with other people, species and materials.

 

The conference seeks discussion on the potentiality of co-existence and its relationship to singular methods of working within artistic, arts-based, and practice-led research. We invite submissions to the conference that are original proposals on various forms of the arts that significantly contribute to praxis and research through art and design. This conference brings together researchers from different fields of arts, design and architecture, while also extending a warm welcome to related presentations coming from other fields.

 

The theme of the conference can be addressed in three interrelated subthemes:

  1. The planet. Human and non-human relationships

  2. Singular/collective authorship and individual/joint responsibility

  3. Inclusiveness, co-existence and the related participatory and empowering practices

 

We seek conversations around the questions: How does artistic research embrace the enmeshed relationship between humans and environment, including its different non-human actors?

How can artist-researchers contribute to this discussion with their diverse actions and use their power in the domain of different praxes? Are we currently facing such complex issues that we need to team up and co-act to reach proper contribution and novel perspectives? When is it important to focus on working solo? What might this mean in relation to larger contexts and realms of art, politics and society?

 

Through these questions, the main aim of the event is to engage in a shared exploration of bold and visionary thinking across different entangling practices. Historically, the Art of Research conference has been widely appreciated as an unconventional and interactive format for discussing, exhibiting and performing different modes of discourse.

 

The Conference is interested in proposals drawing from the full spectrum of artistic, arts-based and practice-led research today. We invite submissions from academics and scholars (including doctoral students) and from artist-researchers and practice-led researchers representing different art forms e.g. contemporary art, film, photography, scenography, craft, design, media and architecture. The conference themes encourage a diversity of perspectives and research orientations, and productive challenges to established ideas are also most welcome.

 

Please, address your contribution to one of the following categories:

 

(1) Full papers (5000 words max.) and presentations (20 min +10 min Q & A). These contributions will be double-masked peer reviewed. To facilitate the review process, authors are responsible for removing any identifying information from their submissions that might lead a reviewer to discern their identities or affiliations. The author’s name in self-citations must be replaced with “Author” in in-text citations, reference entries and footnotes. The paper template can be found at the conference web site at https://artofresearch2020.aalto.fi

 

 

(2) Explorative presentations (15 min + 5 min Q & A) with an extended abstract (800 words max.)

 

(+) In addition to your submission to either category you may propose related artworks, artefacts, design components, or documentations of artistic projects, to participate in the exhibition that will be organized concurrently with the conference. Your submission for the exhibition must include a separate description of the artwork and possible equipment requirements (80 words max.) and visual material such as photographs or a video (password protected to a Vimeo or Youtube link). Please note that the transportation of the artwork(s) is on the author's responsibility. The submissions will be reviewed by the organizers, and the exhibition based on these submissions will be curated by the organizers.

 

Please note that the submission system will open later in May. More information to follow.

 

Publication options
We are happy to announce that the AOR2020 conference will collaborate with two Journals. The conference committee will edit special issues around the conference theme ”Authorship and responsibility” to both Synnyt/Origins: Finnish Studies in Art Education and RUUKKU. Studies in Artistic Research.

 

Synnyt/Origins is an international journal that serves as a platform for critical comprehension of theory and practice in art and design. Thematic scope of the journal includes, but is not limited to, the questions of art & design practice and production, criticism, pedagogy, curriculum and instruction. The journal grants an open access to all the publications and it is ranked in the publication forum of Finnish academic research. All the accepted full papers will be given an opportunity to be published in the journal.

https://wiki.aalto.fi/display/Synnyt/Home

 

The special issue based on AOR2017 conference papers can be found here:

https://wiki.aalto.fi/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=145123907

 

RUUKKU. Studies in Artistic Research is a multidisciplinary, multilingual, peer-reviewed journal on artistic research. It is based on the Research Catalogue (RC), an international artistic research platform and database that enables multimedia publication. The primary languages of publication are Finnish, Swedish and English. The journal is ranked in the publication forum of Finnish academic research. All the authors of accepted full papers and explorative presentations will be invited to develop their ideas further and submit their proposals to RUUKKU. The special issues edited based on AOR2017 conference can be found here:

http://ruukku-journal.fi/fi/issues/10

 

 

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Any questions, please contact aor2020@aalto.fi 

 

This is the seventh in the Art of Research conference series, the first of which took place in Helsinki in 2005. The conference is co-organized at Aalto University in School of Arts, Design and Architecture: the Department of Design, the Department of Film, Television and Scenography, the Department of Art, the Department of Media and the Department of Architecture.

 

KEY DATES

15 June 2020: Deadline for all submissions

31 August 2020: Notification of acceptances and reviewer feedback

15 September – 20 October 2020: Registration and payment

15 October 2020: Submission of final papers

12 November 2020: Submission for exhibits (with photos & description)

3-4 December 2020: Conference 

 

REGISTRATION AND FEE

The conference fee includes conference registration, lunches and refreshments. In order for an accepted submission to be included in the conference program and proceedings, at least one of the submissions’ authors has to register and pay the conference fee and present the paper in the conference.

 

◦ Early bird (before 20th October 2020): €250

◦ Regular (after 20th October 2020): €300

◦ Students, including doctoral students (with valid student ID): €150

 

 

 

 

Kirsi Rinne

Advisor, research and artistic activities

Doctor of Arts

School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Dean’s unit & RES

Aalto University

+358405929466