Aesthetics, Art, Art Therapy, Participatory Action Research

Call2_Project Rendering the Real

by Sireita Mullings

Project Rendering the Real, is calling for participants for an interactive symposium and exhibition by project titled the “Fourth Moment”.

March 22nd – April 27th 2012.

www.renderingthereal.com

The intention is to interrogate the visual representations of art practitioners and their project participants, by way... more The intention is to interrogate the visual representations of art practitioners and their project participants, by way of papers, presentations, workshops and artwork.

The exhibition and symposium will run between
March 22nd – April 27th 2012.

Visit www.renderingthereal.com for more information.

Research Framework for Evaluating the Effects of Artistic Interventions in Organizations

by Ariane Berthoin Antal

research report, 81 pages
TILLT, Gothenburg 2009

The past decades have witnessed the emergence of a multitude of ways to stimulate innovation and organizational... more The past decades have witnessed the emergence of a multitude of ways to stimulate innovation and organizational learning in response to changes in society and economic pressures. Among these are “artistic interventions” - when some form of art is brought into an organization for several hours, days, or months, to trigger or support a learning and change process at the individual, group, or organizational level. The underlying assumption of practitioners is that bringing people, processes, and products from the “foreign culture” of the arts into the workplace helps to stimulate new ways of thinking and acting by irritating routines, challenging established mindsets, and developing new skills. Artistic interventions in organizations are
conducted with high expectations of a multitude of positive outcomes. Research has not kept pace with these developments in practice. Very few empirical studies have been conducted to establish whether the high hopes placed on these interventions are justified. This report presents a research framework designed to start closing the gap between research and practice by enabling an analysis of the values that artistic interventions add in organizations. It is based on our past
research, on existing literature, and on a series of three “Artful Research” workshops conducted in Berlin in September 2009, at which thirty three artists, people from companies and from intermediary organizations, consultants, and researchers shared their knowledge about the effects they have observed in connection with artistic interventions in organizations. The report answers two questions: 1) Where should attention be
directed to find the kinds of value that artistic interventions add in organizations? 2) And how should the research be conducted?

Action Research; Applied Research, Intervention Research, Collaborative Research, Practitioner Research, or Praxis Research?

by Olav Eikeland

Published in International Journal of Action Research (IJAR), no. 1, 2012

Abstract: This article relates common ways of conceptualising action research as “intervention”, “collaboration”,... more Abstract: This article relates common ways of conceptualising action research as “intervention”, “collaboration”, “interactive research”, “applied research”, and “practitioner research” to a number of different ways of knowing extracted from the works of Aristotle. The purpose is not to disavow any of these practices but to expand the philosophical, methodological, and theoretical horizon to contain the Aristotelian concept of praxis. It is claimed that praxis knowing needs to be comprehended in order to realize the full, radical potential in action research providing real “added value” in relation to more conventional social research approaches. Praxis knowing radically challenges the divisions of labour between knower-researchers and the known-researched. Thereby it also challenges both the epistemologies and institutionalisations dominating both conventional research and conventional ways of conceptualising action research.

Existentialism as precursory to performance or action-based art

by Clare Adams

I will be exploring the philosophical notion of existentialism, its impact on Post-War society and its effects on the... more I will be exploring the philosophical notion of existentialism, its impact on Post-War society and its effects on the art world. I will be discussing throughout this dissertation how such a philosophy or way of thinking can be regarded as precursory to making artwork, whether existentialism is manifested in the process or the finished piece; whether it is the intention or simply a by-product.

Predominantly I will be drawing upon artists such as Giacometti, Pollock and more recent performance artists such as Beuys and Abramovic, comparing how their individual interpretations of process and action based art has been informed by existentialist thought and perhaps how it is existential in its complexity.