Description and Criteria
The University of Calgary Artistic Research Award celebrates outstanding contributions of artist-researchers to the annual conference of Performance Studies international (PSi). The prize of $500.00 USD is awarded to a conference program contribution that exemplifies the huge potential for artistic research to not only create new knowledge but also to expand epistemological horizons—specifically within conference programming and, more generally, within broader academic and professional contexts and discourses.
Given the broad and fluid parameters of artistic research practices, the assessment criteria for this award are elastic and inclusive. Eligible conference contributions include papers, media-based presentations, workshops, and performances. This is an incomplete and open-ended list of possibilities, and the award adjudication will strive to expand and adapt as alternative formats emerge within any given conference environment.
To facilitate this assessment flexibility while providing applicants with a baseline of relevant criteria, the selection committee will maintain focus on several, broadly accepted characteristics of artistic research.
Enactive: artistic research is primarily practice-based and conducted through action and experience.
Process/product: artistic research is often process-oriented, in which artistic processes are understood as legitimate project outcomes, and in which artistic practice is a primary mode of investigation, analysis, documentation, and dissemination.
Situated: artistic research is often a directly reflective expression of a specific context, set of participants, and environmental conditions. (This does not, of course, exclude the transmission of the project’s discoveries and benefits; but it does resist attempts towards repeatability and/or direct transplantation to altered contexts.)
Emergent: both the knowledge created and the means by which this occurs emerge out of the research practice, requiring of both the researcher and the project design a heightened responsiveness and adaptability.
The award is open to all participants within an annual conference program. To be considered, participants must self-identify and request inclusion in the assessment process no later than 5 days prior to conference date. In 2024, this deadline is Saturday, June 15th.
All interested participants should forward their name, contact information, and conference abstract to psi2024awards@gmail.com no later than 11:59 pm on June, 15th.
Please put ‘Calgary Award Application’ in the subject line.
Elvis Bendana Rivas