Art as Research, Expanding the Ideas of Visual Complexity

I received an email this week announcing that a video archive for the following symposium was available:

Remaking Research - Emerging Research
Practices in Art and Design

Remaking Research was hosted by the Emily Carr University of Art + Design and the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) and took place in Vancouver, Canada, in November 2012.


What I find fascinating is that, given the profound visual nature of much of research today, combined with the challenges of information management and overload, artists are becoming more and more viable as partners in the research process.


Here is what their announcement said:
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Remaking Research was an AICAD 'working symposium' centered on the pragmatics and possibilities of creative practice as research, both within art and design institutions and in the context of interdisciplinary, inter-institutional and partnered relations. This gathering was organized with the intent of sharing existing knowledge, showcasing new projects and contemporary methodologies, and addressing practical and ethical concerns involved in building successful research partnerships. Presentations, featured projects, and dialogue addressed three themes:

• The Production of Knowledge in Art and Design 
• The Political Economies of Art and Design Research
• Networked and Partnered Research

The outcomes of this gathering, which brought together practitioners from over 40 institutions, include the publication of an exhibition catalogue on research methodologies developed and employed by artists featured in the exhibition that accompanied the symposium.  

A complete video archive of the symposium's content is now available online, including the keynote and plenary addresses, given by Graeme Sullivan, Director of the School of Visual Arts, Pennsylvania State University and Carol Strohecker, Director, the Center for Design Innovation, University of North Carolina. 

Panel discussions and presentations on current research practices include contributions from Joanna Berzowska, Associate Professor and Chair, Design and Computation Arts, Concordia University, member, Hexagram Research Institute; Anne Burdick, Chair, Media Design Graduate Program, Art Center College of Design; Sara Diamond, President, OCAD University; Lisa Grocott, Associate Dean, Parsons, New School; Pamela Jennings, Director, Brenda and Earl Shapiro Centers for Research and Collaboration, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Debera Johnson, Academic Director of Sustainability, Pratt Institute; Sanjit Sethi, Director, Centre for Art and Public Life, California College of Art; Rosanne Somerson, Provost, Rhode Island School of Design; Ezri Tarazi, Head of Industrial Design, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem; and Laurene Vaughan, Nierenberg Chair, Distinguished Professor of Design, Carnegie Mellon University.