Art as research? The epistemic culture of artistic research and its justification
(2024) SOCM05 20241Sociology
- Abstract
- This thesis is a social study of “artistic research”, a field of activity that has emerged from the world of art, where the process of artistic creation is simultaneously seen as a process of knowledge production. The research problem motivating the thesis is that artistic research overturns conventional understandings of art and research as two opposing entities by actively combining the two. In light of this overturn, this thesis explores the meanings that artists working with artistic research share as members of a common field of activity, as well as how they justify their shared meanings both to outsiders in relation to this field – for whom art and research may be opposed to each other – and to insiders in relation to it – for whom... (More)
- This thesis is a social study of “artistic research”, a field of activity that has emerged from the world of art, where the process of artistic creation is simultaneously seen as a process of knowledge production. The research problem motivating the thesis is that artistic research overturns conventional understandings of art and research as two opposing entities by actively combining the two. In light of this overturn, this thesis explores the meanings that artists working with artistic research share as members of a common field of activity, as well as how they justify their shared meanings both to outsiders in relation to this field – for whom art and research may be opposed to each other – and to insiders in relation to it – for whom this opposition is not true in the first place. The thesis is based on five semi-structured interviews with such artists, who were contacted through repeated visits to an organization in Sweden that acts as a platform for artistic research. In terms of the theoretical tools chosen for the analysis of the interview material, this thesis draws on the conceptual frameworks of “epistemic cultures” (Knorr Cetina, 1991, 1999, 2007, 2008) and “justification” (Boltanski & Thévenot, 1991/2006, 1999, 2000). After introducing its topic, the thesis reviews the pertinent literature, details the aforementioned concepts, considers methodological issues, offers an analysis of the empirical material, and closes with a discussion of the conclusions drawn. Regarding the meanings artists working with artistic research share with each other, this thesis concludes that these meanings are both a product of their epistemic culture and an inherent part of said culture. Regarding how the aforementioned artists justify their shared meanings both to insiders and to outsiders in relation to their epistemic culture, the thesis concludes that the process of justifying artistic research results in the elaboration of these meanings when it refers to cultural insiders and in the condensation of these meanings when it refers to cultural outsiders. (Less)
- Popular Abstract
- In this thesis, I research the phenomenon of “artistic research”. Having emerged from the world of art, artistic research is a field of activity where the process of artistic creation is simultaneously seen as a process of knowledge production. To the extent that artistic research subverts conventional notions of art and research as two opposite entities by actively combining the two, it represents an interesting phenomenon to study from a social point of view. In particular, I focus on two distinct but interrelated points of interest. First, I look at the meanings that these artists share with each other as members of the same field of activity. Second, I look at how artists working with artistic research justify their shared meanings... (More)
- In this thesis, I research the phenomenon of “artistic research”. Having emerged from the world of art, artistic research is a field of activity where the process of artistic creation is simultaneously seen as a process of knowledge production. To the extent that artistic research subverts conventional notions of art and research as two opposite entities by actively combining the two, it represents an interesting phenomenon to study from a social point of view. In particular, I focus on two distinct but interrelated points of interest. First, I look at the meanings that these artists share with each other as members of the same field of activity. Second, I look at how artists working with artistic research justify their shared meanings both to outsiders and to insiders in relation to their field of activity. On the one hand, I look at how artists working with artistic research justify their field of activity to outsiders, because they may conceive of art as opposed to research due to their status as outsiders, and that makes me interested in seeing the ways in which these artists justify what they do to people who are not familiar with it. On the other hand, I look at how these artists justify artistic research to other insiders, because the opposition between art and research certainly does not apply to them, which makes me interested to see what the process of justification looks like when it involves people who, as members of a common field of activity, share meanings with each other. To try to explore these two points of interest, I interviewed five artists working with artistic research. I managed to come into contact with them by repeatedly visiting an organization in Sweden that acts as a platform for artistic research. As far as analyzing my interview material goes, I draw on two different conceptual frameworks. Without going into technical details, I use the first framework to approach artistic research as a culture that produces knowledge in a unique way and is animated by its own characteristic meanings, while I use the second framework to focus on situations where people justify their actions to other people, approaching their justifications as broad forms of argumentation. Regarding the meanings artists working with artistic research share with each other, my analysis concludes that these meanings are both a product and an inherent part of their culture. Regarding how the aforementioned artists justify their shared meanings both to insiders and to outsiders in relation to their culture, my analysis concludes that the process of justifying artistic research results in the elaboration of these meanings when it refers to cultural insiders and in the condensation of these meanings when it refers to cultural outsiders. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9175133
- author
- Kaounas, Georgios LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SOCM05 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- artistic research, epistemic cultures, justification, cultural insiders, cultural outsiders
- language
- English
- id
- 9175133
- date added to LUP
- 2024-09-23 11:45:47
- date last changed
- 2024-09-23 11:45:47
@misc{9175133,
abstract = {{This thesis is a social study of “artistic research”, a field of activity that has emerged from the world of art, where the process of artistic creation is simultaneously seen as a process of knowledge production. The research problem motivating the thesis is that artistic research overturns conventional understandings of art and research as two opposing entities by actively combining the two. In light of this overturn, this thesis explores the meanings that artists working with artistic research share as members of a common field of activity, as well as how they justify their shared meanings both to outsiders in relation to this field – for whom art and research may be opposed to each other – and to insiders in relation to it – for whom this opposition is not true in the first place. The thesis is based on five semi-structured interviews with such artists, who were contacted through repeated visits to an organization in Sweden that acts as a platform for artistic research. In terms of the theoretical tools chosen for the analysis of the interview material, this thesis draws on the conceptual frameworks of “epistemic cultures” (Knorr Cetina, 1991, 1999, 2007, 2008) and “justification” (Boltanski & Thévenot, 1991/2006, 1999, 2000). After introducing its topic, the thesis reviews the pertinent literature, details the aforementioned concepts, considers methodological issues, offers an analysis of the empirical material, and closes with a discussion of the conclusions drawn. Regarding the meanings artists working with artistic research share with each other, this thesis concludes that these meanings are both a product of their epistemic culture and an inherent part of said culture. Regarding how the aforementioned artists justify their shared meanings both to insiders and to outsiders in relation to their epistemic culture, the thesis concludes that the process of justifying artistic research results in the elaboration of these meanings when it refers to cultural insiders and in the condensation of these meanings when it refers to cultural outsiders.}},
author = {{Kaounas, Georgios}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Art as research? The epistemic culture of artistic research and its justification}},
year = {{2024}},
}