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PSi Artistic Research Working Group: Summer Session 2021

 

PERFORM/RESPOND/EXTEND

Constellations of Engagement Through Artistic Research

Part of the PSi Constellate Program

7-9 July / On Zoom / Shifting Time Zones (to accommodate international participation)

 

Focusing on new modes of research and artistic practice made necessary by the Covid 19 pandemic, the Artistic Research Working Group is further extending a model of engagement that it has been developing over multiple years. This summer, this engagement, entitled PERFORM/RESPOND/EXTEND, will take the form of an intensive three day online session, 7-9 July, 2021.

The PERFORM/RESPOND/EXTEND event builds upon an evolving model of interactive engagement that included 2018’s “Perform/Respond” and 2019’s “Perform/Respond/Extract.” These approaches carry forward and continue to refine what originally began, in the form of the “Porous Studio,” as an invitation to PSi member artists and local practitioners to join the Artistic Research Working Group in a space of intermixing, contamination, and multiplicity.

While these recent frameworks have spanned extended periods of time, this year’s model compresses these processes into three consecutive days, foregrounding spontaneous, intuitive, and embodied analysis and engagement. In PERFORM/RESPOND/EXTEND, participants will have the opportunity to both respond to presentations, performances and articulations through presentations, performances and articulations, and then extend the examination of a key concept (problem, principle, provocation…) that they find evocative for further discussion—all within the span of 76 hours. Ultimately, we hope these three phases will effectively foster a rigorous yet generous and playful engagement with the most urgent issues emerging out of the ARWG members’ research practices.

 

EVENT DESIGN

  • Day 1: Perform. Each participant will offer an artistic research presentation/performance. The presentations can take a wide variety of forms, including performances, text, video, audio, images, scores, etc. In order to allow for the maximum number of participants, presentations will be no more than nine minutes in duration.
  • Day 2: Respond: Each participant will present a response to another participant’s abstract and presentation/performance from Day 1. The response can likewise take a variety of forms, and will be no more than eight minutes in duration.
  • Day 3: Extend: Each participant will presentan extension to another participant’s response from Day 2, further extending a specific idea, question or problem of interest to them. The extension should include a shareable object (such as a document, recording, etc.) that can be disseminated and archived online at the ARWG blog. Presentations will be no more than seven minutes in duration.

EVENT SCHEDULE

We propose a 5 hour session each day: two 2 hour sessions with a one hour break. In principal, the start time of each successive day will shift by six hours.

Day 1: 04:00 GMT

Day 2: 10:00 GMT

DAY 3: 16:00 GMT

Modest adjustments to this schedule may be made, based on the global locations of the participants. However, the basic model of accommodating broad international participation will be maintained.

 

PROPOSALS

Proposals should include a written description or abstract of 200-300 words that establishes the conceptual context of an original artistic research project or performance (at any stage of development). The abstract should be accompanied by online access to documentation for the project. This material may involve a wide range of formats (images, audio, video, text, etc.). It should be possible for another participant to experience (read, view, listen to, etc.) the submitted materials within a period of 60 minutes.

  • The 200-300 word abstracts and accompanying URL(s) for all selected proposals will be shared with the other participants approximately one week before Day 1. The abstracts will be distributed to all others in attendance on the day of the presentation.
  • At the beginning of Day 1, each participant will be assigned another participant’s presentation to respond to on Day 2.
  • On Day 2, each participant will be assigned another participant’s Day 2 response to extend on Day 3.
  • On Day 3, each participant will submit the shareable object included in their extension presentation.

Please send the abstracts, along with the URL(s) for the artistic research materials and a brief bio (max. 200 words), in an email with the subject title “ARWG 2021” to the convenors at the address given below. Please do not send the materials as documents or audio/visual files. If you don’t have access to online storage capacity (such as Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.), please contact us directly and we will try to advise/support you in this regard.

A total of 12 proposals will be selected for full participation in the Working Group session. Selection will be based on demonstrated levels of theoretical innovation, methodological reflection, and critical engagement of the artistic research project.

All proposals must be received no later than 15 May 2021. The selection of participants will be announced by 30 May 2021. All members of PSi are invited to attend the Working Group session and to contribute questions and reflections via the Zoom platform “Chat” function.

 

PARTICIPATION

While we understand that unanticipated obligations may make it impossible for all individuals to attend all three sessions, the integrity of the Perform/Respond/Extend framework relies upon continuity of participation. We therefore ask that all individuals explicitly confirm their intention to participate in all three days with submission of their proposal.

All participants in the ARWG Summer Session must be current members of Performance Studies international. PSi membership rates remain both tiered and modest. In addition, due to the unique pandemic circumstances of 2020-21, PSi is offering a Pay-What-You-Can annual membership option for individuals who are unable to afford the fee that usually applies to them.

Full membership information can be found here: https://www.psi-web.org/membership/

 

ARTISTIC RESEARCH is meant as an elastic umbrella concept that includes a range of approaches that use art, creative practice or performance as a primary means and method of inquiry. These include the distinct approaches ‘performance as research’ (PAR), ‘practice as research’ (PaR), ‘practice-based research’ (PBR), ‘practice-led research, ‘creative arts research’, ‘research-creation’, ‘arts-based research’, and numerous other associated practices. In many cases, the subject of study is artistic practice itself, as in ‘artistic inquiry.’ In others, creative practice is used as a way of investigating non-artistic (or not exclusively artistic) subjects. Our aim is to invite a broad spectrum of these approaches, drawn from within and beyond academic and institutional contexts, to reflect the diverse and vital abundance of interrelated orientations, perspectives, and approaches to research in contemporary art.

We encourage submissions from all interested individuals, and are eager to engage with brand new members, as well as the rich ongoing community of ARWG members.

An archive of the past decade of activities of the Artistic Research Working Group can be found here.

 

Annette Arlander / Bruce Barton / Johanna Householder
Convenors, Artistic Research Working Group
Email: arwgPSi@gmail.com

 

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