Thinking through art does not describe a specific approach to practice research as such (as in practice-based or practice-led), but rather is a phrase used for reflecting more specifically on the nature and specificity of “thought” within artistic practice research, including the relation between art and theoria. Katy Macleod and Lin Holdridge ask, “How can we understand the relationship between art and thought? What kind of thought comes from art practice, and how do we define it?” The term relates to a wider debate about “art as a thinking process”, considered distinct and differentiable from (if still related to) other modes of thinking and cognition. Whilst drawing on practice research examples, this specific field of enquiry often draws upon and develops philosophical reflection on the nature of artistic or even aesthetic thinking; inviting exploration (in Dieter Mersch’s terms) on what ‘thought in other media’ might mean, where “thought is understood as a practice, as acting with materials, in materials, or through materials … or with media, in media or through media” (2015, 9 —10). Thinking through Art considers ways of thinking with and through different forms of art (film, sound, dance, literature, etc), as well as new forms of aesthetic research.
Aspects drawn from Macleod and Holdridge, Thinking through Art: Reflections on Art as Research, (London and New York: Routledge, 2006) and Dieter Mersch, Epistemologies of aesthetics, (Zurich and Berlin: diapanes, 2015).
Bibliography/links
Mara Ambrožič and Angela Vettese, Art as Thinking Process: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production, (Sternberg Press, 2013).
Paul Carter, Material Thinking: The Theory and Practice of Creative Research, (Melbourne University Press 2005).
Rebecca Fortnum and Elizabeth Fisher, On Not Knowing: How Artists Think, (London: Black Dog, 2013).
Bernd Herzogenrath, Practical Aesthetics (Thinking in the World), (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020).
Katy Macleod and Lin Holdridge, Thinking through Art: Reflections on Art as Research, (London and New York: Routledge, 2006).
Dieter Mersch, Epistemologies of aesthetics, (Zurich and Berlin: diapanes, 2015).
