February and March are exciting months for Art and Design students enrolled in Professor Natalie Loveless' seminar Debates in Art & Research, as the Research-Creation Symposium (February 27 and 28) and Think-Tank (March 23 - 26) draw near. Organized by Dr. Natalie S. Loveless and Dr. Gavin Renwick, these milestone events in the Art and Design calendar are timely given that research-creation is gaining increasing prominence across North America's universities, a movement within higher education that privileges research and creative practices equally and encourages interdisciplinary research between the arts and all faculties.
At the very forefront of research-creation are proponents Loveless and Renwick, organizers of the University of Alberta's Research-Creation Working Group who meet monthly with artists, educators, designers, scientists and scholars to explore the unique learning opportunities and knowledge production that can emerge when research and art converge. In doing so, Loveless, Renwick and the U of A's other advocates of Research-Creation not only excite possibilities for interdisciplinary research between faculties but open up opportunities to collaborate with other universities on a national level.
The impending Symposium (February 27 and 28) and Think-Tank (March 23 - 26) represent just such an opportunity to engage on a national and international level with thinkers, creators and innovators at the helm of exploring those possibilities and opportunities inherent to Research-Creation. The Symposium, Researching Research-Creation, will examine the various strains of Research-Creation, research led by practice, and research emerging from creative practice, amongst other dynamics of Research-Creation, and their co-existence with longstanding and progressive doctoral programs that provide a platform for Research-Creation to thrive.
Following February's Symposium, the Research-Creation Working Group's Think-Tank, Knowing and Knots: Methodologies and Ecologies in Research-Creation, will open up a forum to discuss the various forms of artistic research in the context of the Canadian University. Questions will be asked, including: What can the fields of digital humanities, interdisciplinary humanities, feminism and post-colonial research specifically contribute to our understanding of the capabilities of Research-Creation? How do specialists in these fields understand and respond to Research-Creation? And what is the influence of this burgeoning field upon the evolution of the Canadian University?
Attendees to the Symposium and Think-Tank will witness and have the opportunity to contribute towards a discourse at the cutting edge of theory surrounding Research-Creation. Attending speakers include luminaries from across multiple disciplines, including the Think-Tank's Keynote Speaker Donna Haraway, author of 2003's The Companion Species Manifesto and 2008's When Species Meet. These publications address an issue at the crux of the Think-Tank: how can interdisciplinary research best be facilitated? And what repercussions might this carry for the Canadian university and the future of Research-Creation? Joining Haraway will be specially selected paper authors and respondents who will discuss the issues raised in these papers as they pertain to Research-Creation, stimulating conversation and exchange between scholars, artists and artist-scholars renowned for their thinking and creation in the field.
Ahead of the coming Symposium and Think-Tank, Professor Loveless presented her paper Research-Creation, Practice-Led Methodologies, and Interdisciplinary Discourse on November 7th at the University of Alberta's Arts-Based Research Studio. Important questions were asked by Professor Loveless, including what new opportunities may arise for specific areas of research through exposure to new ways of researching and the questions we ask of our subjects. What's more, what new platforms for knowledge sharing might arise from this interface of the arts and sciences?
Dr Natalie Loveless.
Photo © Jowita Bydlowska.
Main top photo: Dr Natalie Loveless presenting at a panel in conjunction with Complicated Labors, a group exhibition surrounding feminism, maternity, and creative practice at the University of California Santa Cruz, in which she is exhibiting part one of a three part, three year, research-creation project. Photo © Sesnon Gallery.
About Natalie S. Loveless
Natalie S. Loveless is a conceptual artist, curator, and Assistant Professor of contemporary art and theory in the History of Art, Design, and Visual Culture at the University of Alberta. In addition to teaching her current seminar on Debates in Art & Research, Professor Loveless co-directs the Research Creation Working Group, supported by KIAS (Kule Institute for Advanced Study). The recipient of a doctorate in History of Consciousness from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Professor Loveless has exhibited internationally, and has been featured in multiple publications including The Canadian Journal of Communications, Aspect: The Chronicle of New Media Art and Journal of Performance Research. She is currently completing a book on research-creation as interdisciplinary methodology.
About The Research-Creation Working Group
The Research-Creation Working Group (RCWG) typically meet on one Thursday evening a month, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., in the INDI space of the University of Alberta's Industrial Design Studio (North Campus). For more details, please contact the organizers: rcwg@ualberta.ca
For more information on the Research-Creation Working Group, readings and resources related to Research-Creation, in addition to detailed schedules, travel information and a comprehensive listing of speakers pertaining to the upcoming Symposium and Think-Tank, visit: http://researchcreation.ca
The Research-Creation Symposium is being held with the generous support of the Arts Based Research Studio and Kule Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS) at the University of Alberta. KIAS also supports the Research-Creation Think-Tank, which has been made possible through the generous funding of the Killam Research Fund, the University of Alberta Faculty of Arts, the SSHRC Situating Science Cluster, the Canada Research Chair in Design Studies, the Canada Research Chair in Cultural Studies, the Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Gender and Sexuality, and the departments of Art and Design and Women and Gender Studies at the University of Alberta.