RESEARCH
1. Research Policy 2. Transmedial Research 3. Transdisciplinary Research 4. Professorship Artistic Research 5. DARE: Dutch Artistic Research Event 6. EARN: European Artistic Research Network 1. RESEARCH POLICY The Utrecht Graduate School of Visual Art and Design (MaHKU) anticipates the expansion of research in the field of visual art and design. In its master programs, the school invites students to reflect on the vistas and horizons of their specific visual field and emphasizes key notions such as research, communication, and cross-discipline debates. In these series of notions, the concept of cross-disciplinarity is an important one. The broad scope of the Utrecht Graduate School with programs in interior design, urban design, editorial design, fashion design, and fine art in all its topical appearances, creates numerous possibilities for cross-discipline debate and encounters with neighboring disciplines. We believe that in the confrontation with other artistic fields, students will deepen their capacity for theoretical reflections in their own fields. The common theory workshops and their focus on discourse production and visual studies will help students in particular to develop novel forms of reflection as well as novel forms of terminology and perspectives that play a role in their artistic methods and disciplines. In the theory programs, the process of artistic communication and the context of presentation of visual work will also be investigated. 2. TRANSMEDIAL RESEARCH As a consequence, students are expected to produce experimental projects based on their own research in one-year master programs. An example of a research project is the exploration of the status and position of the artistic image in our contemporary, visual culture. That indeed correlates with the current research topic of the graduate school's fine art department stressing Transmedial Research. Departure-point is the creation of a form of visual art that produces environments that enable the exploration of novel forms of knowledge and experience in a topical visual culture. These novel forms of knowledge and experience also imply a transformation of medium-based and discipline-specific conceptual frameworks. The development of such research will be intensified the forthcoming years in a collaboration project with Casco Office for Art, Design and Theory (www.cascoprojects.org), Expodium (www.expodium.nl) and the University Museum. 3. TRANSDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH The research program of the MA Design department also focuses on questions pertaining to the specificity of design research. Is design research connected to an applied form of artistic research or is it linked to inherent, disciplinary conditions? If the latter is the case, does that mean that discipline-specific parameters determine the research in various design branches such as fashion, editorial design, and urban and interior design further or is there an additional, transdisciplinary design attitude? The development of such research will be intensified the forthcoming years in a collaboration project with the Utrecht Design Biennial (Biennial for Social Design www.utrechtmanifest.nl). 4. PROFESSORSHIP ARTISTIC RESEARCH The Graduate School's transmedial and transdisciplinary research intends to contribute to a professional practice of the artist/designer as researcher by means of a fluid, conceptual framework, flexible research methods, and a form of discourse production which is able to scan and transform topical forms of visuality in an experimental-methodological and critical-reflexive way. In that context, the Utrecht School of the Arts has established a professorship Artistic Research which stresses the specificity of (the methodology of) artistic research. Departure-point is the researching artist/designer with the capacity to theoretically contextualize the artistic process and to position him or herself as an artist. Prevalent research methodologies and potential links with visual disciplines and media are explored. In the professional practice, these methodologies could imply scientific-philosophical models of established forms of research. What is charted, though, is how artists/designers mould these methodologies in their autonomous research projects. The activities of the professorship are closely connected with the development of workshop encounters, research and development seminars, research coaching, reflection on PhD research in visual art and design, the organization of symposia and presentations (see also DARE), editing of publications (see also MaHKUzine, Journal of Artistic Research), and the development of new curricula. 5. DARE (Dutch Artistic Research Event) After a two-year period of a series of ad hoc projects, we became aware that, in the context of our two lines of research, we must develop a more structural program of presentation. In a political and strategic sense, it seemed more than urgent to put the notion of artistic research on the agenda. Therefore, we decided to concentrate our activities in the yearly Dutch Artistic Research Event (DARE). The 10-day DARE program consists of a series of MaHKU graduate research presentations (on various locations in the city of Utrecht such as Expodium, Casco, Academy Gallery, University Museum, Central Museum), research screenings, panel discussions, and an international symposium. DARE # 1: SYMPOSIUM 2006: CRITICAL METHODOLOGIES Centraal Museum, September 6, 2006. Since research has become by now a well-known method within art as well as within design, the proliferation of research approaches has led to a point where a distinction must be made between critical practices and practices limited to mediation of information. This symposium will seek to profile some of the currently more complex and critical positions, while attempting to highlight experimental and analytical modes of investigation connecting the fields of art and design to broader social and political arenas. Participants: Pauline Terreehorst, Henk Slager, Esther Cleven, Martin Beck, Daniel van der Velden, Emily King, Stephan Dillemuth, Florian Pumhosl, Dave Hullfish Bailey, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, and Emily Pethick. DARE #2: SYMPOSIUM 2007: THE POLITICS OF DESIGN Centraal Museum, September 7, 2007. This symposium looks at the role of design/designers with respect to the problems and issue that we face in the world today. In view of these issues, how can we define the role of a designer? Is design able to play a role in solving important (environmental, social, political) problems in the world? Does a designer have to deal with both an artistic and social responsibility, and how can we define that responsibility? Introductions by Emily Pethick (Director Casco) and Henk Slager (Dean MaHKU). Presentations by Guus Beumer, Petra Blaisse, Hein Eberson, Hella Jongerius, Fiona Raby and Roemer van Toorn. Moderators: Annette W. Balkema, Henk Oosterling and Louise Schouwenberg. 6. EARN (European Artistic Research Network) In cooperation with the Helsinki School of Art, HKU's Graduate School has established a European Network for Artistic Research (EARN) in 2004 in order to promote the emancipation of artistic research further. In collaboration with graduate programs in London, Dublin, Antwerp, Vienna, and Malmö, yearly seminars take place (Helsinki 2004; Istanbul Biennial 2005; Malmö 2006; London 2007; Dublin 2008; Vienna 2009) aiming at the exchange of ideas and research programs while international recognition for the contribution of artistic research to a general and critical knowledge debate is sought.