Guest Lecture by Chris Salter

Art, Research and the Future Imaginary: Histories, Examples and Stakes

Over the past ten years, the concepts of art as research, research-creation and artistic research have gained remarkable steam internationally. Indeed, each day, the literature in areas as diverse as sociology, anthropology, art education, STS and art history, to name a few disciplines, grows exponentially. Rather than conducting a genealogy of these terms, this talk explores what the notion of artistic practice as a form of research, that is, the making of new knowledge, does both in academic, cultural and political contexts. More specifically, is there a difference conducting research through creative practice versus turning creative practice into research? What are the political and socio-technical stakes to claim artistic practice as a form of knowledge making, particularly within the contemporary neo-liberal agendas of academic institutions worldwide? Do such ways of knowing through experimentation, speculation and "just playing around" suggest alternative futures at a time of immense societal upheaval?