Abstract (concept):

This SIG will address the question of what role artistic research plays and could play in the context of contemporary, social-ecological transformation processes.

This refers in particular to the potential for shifting perceptual dispositives and regimes of relevance through artistic-research modes of thought and practice, and the associated opening up and activation of actionable futures.

The aim of the SIG is, on the one hand, to create a platform within SAR for the exchange of researchers interested in the topic and to network ongoing and planned projects in this field. On the other hand, it also aims at conceptual work: Here, fundamental questions are to be considered, such as the characteristics of an epistemology of transformation through artistic research processes in the context of debates about the future. But also, the question of the integration of artistic research into concrete research contexts such as transdisciplinary sustainability research should also be addressed - not least with a view to shaping suitable framework conditions and policies.

The SIG will also serve as an interface to ongoing initiatives such as the New European Bauhaus, the new, creative KIC: EIT Culture & Creativity (namely the Strategic Topic Group “Just innovation”), the European creative skills alliance Cyanotypes (namely the task force “Urgent skills needs”) and the COST Action "European Forum for Advanced Practices" and strengthen the importance of artistic research in these contexts.

"The central content of the meeting was to plan the way forward towards a concrete working framework for our SIG. We propose to pursue the idea of a glossary already discussed in Trondheim. The aim of this glossary would be to work with terms that, in the context of our overall theme "Co Agency - Artistic Research as transformative practice", lead us to interesting semantic terrain and possibly revealing associative contexts and enable us to develop new and specific ways of describing transformative practices.

In the first step, we would like to work prototypically with some terms in our existing group for a consolidation phase - impact, relevance, evidence, mission, emergence were mentioned - and in this way jointly concretise a suitable procedure for the work of the SIG, also to the effect that the conceptual work does not remain uncoupled from practices of artistic research. A wiki is to be created and used as a working medium, insofar as this is practicable in terms of costs and copyright issues."