Research Catalogue

Photography with sound and net art, drawing, found folk sculpture with digital drawing, readymades, 2012, 2020, 2021. Accompanied by archival material. The exposition exposes the question of what is artistic research. Usurping the mini-essayist format, which is traditionally associated with research in say the area of philosophy, the exposition formally operates on different levels. I selectively included visual art research material from my own artistic archive, as well as anonymous material that's readily available from the internet and in film archives. In this way, I wanted to emphasise the role of archiving and using archives in the artistic process, as an element of artistic research and artistic production that might involve remediation. Taking that we live in a largely theoretic culture, which means that we use external information systems for storage and retrieval of written, visual and other material, the implication is that art is part of this theoretical system. Moreover, I specifically problematise the notion of value in relation to the visual arts by using the popular media figures of the counterfeit and the impostor, with reference to the so-called "impostor syndrome", correlated with being a minority of some sort in one's field: "A different thought is that two people may be answerable to the very same standard of success or competence, yet be subject to different epistemic standards for reasonable belief in their respective success or competence. This would be an example of pragmatic encroachment." (Katherine Hawley, "What is Impostor Syndrome?", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 93, 2019). I use visual art and figurative examples as illustrations, adapting from methods, such as the example, used in analytic philosophy. I suggest that some artworks operate as philosophical provocations of the archive: "The artwork just exists", as Frank Stella argued. Artworks and archival artistic material are offered for aesthetic contemplation; they don't possess any "magical" qualities, they don't cause any phenomena or events in the world. In this view, I ordered this exposition as a design proposal for two independent, yet interconnected exhibitions: one for the final artistic exhibition show; and one as a general overview for the artist's studio, set up as a stand alone, if parallel, exhibition.

Although it is virtually impossible to formalize what ‘best practice’ on the Research Catalogue might be, it harbours by now numerous examples of expositions that ‘work.’ In this session, I want to introduce a small set of diverse expositions from JAR as a way to highlight successful choices people have taken. With a short explanation of expositionality and virtual witnessing, I aim to support an understanding of the effect that those examples have as a way of describing how media-rich articulations can productively engage with both academic and artistic expectations.

"New ideas might be conceived and developed more rapidly in disciplines that are more abstract. The inductive methods of experimental innovators in painting makes their enterprise resemble the more empirical disciplines considered by psychologists, while the deductive approach of the conceptual innovators makes theirs resemble the more abstract disciplines." David W. Galenson, "The Life Cycles of Modern Artists", NBER Working Paper Series, 2003. Artists and architects have been at times captivated by visionary ideological viewpoints, which they used as inspiration and to make suggestions for applications with their artworks and designs. My use of the diagram and the image aims to convey the simple message that art strives for evolution; meaning to strengthen the mind, to research capabilities, to communicate a disinterested, though not necessarily apolitical, view of social changes, to overcome banality and offer an alternative way of looking at the world. For many artists, this motivation has traditionally often gone hand in hand with political goals and motivations. The decline of the commercial art market in the 1980s gave rise to artists working mainly, but not solely, with ephemeral installations, including the ubiquitous video art, performance, and the broader range of conceptual art. Painting remained as an established fine art practice, with a renewed interest to conceptualism. The portrait is of the artist, myself, at a young age, dated 1993, when I was a student at the NTUA. Betty Nigianni is my name known as (aka), which I also used as my artistic pseudonym.

“Ocultismo Desapropriado”, é um ensaio que dá continuidade na investigação no ambto do doutorado em Artes Plásticas na Universidade do Porto. O presente ensaio volta seu interesse sobre os fenômenos perceptivos que decorrem desde a ação realizada com a obra "Congá Fora do Tempo, relacionando a experiência do fruidor presente nas duas obras. As instalações atraem o espectador para participar da obra e interagir com ela através da ação. Ambas as obras se relacionam ou são inspiradas em algum ritual de matriz religiosa, mas não repetem ou imitam esses rituais, tão pouco tendem à simulação dos mesmos. São ações de arte com o intuito de provocar o toque em seu íntimo através da brincadeira de fazer pedidos e desejos. Esta publicação compartilha das mesmas referências bibliográficas do ensaio "Congá Fora do Tempo". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ‘Disappropriated Occultism’ is an essay that continues the research carried out as part of the Doctorate in Fine Arts at the University of Porto. This essay focuses on the perceptual phenomena resulting from the action carried out with the work 'Congá Fora do Tempo', relating the experience of the viewer present in both works. The installations invite the viewer to participate and interact with the work through action. Both works relate to or are inspired by a religious ritual, but they don't repeat or imitate these rituals, nor do they tend to simulate them. They are artistic actions intended to provoke an intimate touch through the play of making requests and wishes. This publication shares the same bibliographical references as the essay ‘Congá Out of Time’.

Este ensaio faz parte da investigação em arte no âmbito do doutorado em artes plásticas na Universidade do Porto, e foi escrito com o intuito de registro de memória e debate sobre a obra artística "Congá Fora do Tempo" com lentes direcionadas ao ponto de vista filosófico e da investigação em arte, tentando compreender como uma instalação acompanhada de uma ação sutil pode proporcionar uma experiência sensível e espiritual ao espectador, à obra e às pessoas à sua volta. A espiritualidade aqui abordada não é a espiritualidade de Merleau-Ponty, em que a espiritualidade é um fenómeno enraizado na corporeidade e na perceção, mas a espiritualidade presente em cada pessoa, de maneiras diferentes. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This essay is part of the art research within the scope of the doctorate in fine arts at the University of Porto and was written to record memory and debate on the artistic work “Congá Fora do Tempo” with lenses directed at the philosophical point of view and art research, trying to understand how an installation accompanied by a subtle action can provide a sensitive and spiritual experience to the viewer, the work and the people around it. The spirituality addressed here is not Merleau-Ponty's spirituality, when it is a phenomenon rooted in corporeality and perception, but the spirituality present in each person, in different ways.

The creation of this artwork employs a practice-based research approach, exploring plastic waste materials and transforming them into interactive installations. The artistic approach in this creation utilizes media art to embody the conceptual ideas. The production process of the artwork is divided into several stages: field observation of everyday objects in the community of Dakar, design, electronic device study, and assembly of the artwork. Additionally, other artistic approaches include the use of readymade and plastic recycling. The result of this creation process is presented in a park near the residential area in Sicap Liberté.