Research Catalogue

Med utgangspunkt i kunstneriske framstillinger av Arkadiamotivet, og med pastoralen som optikk, vil dette prosjektet utforske «utopiske» forestillinger om fortiden, gjennom arbeid i ulike kunstneriske uttrykksformer, i tekstil, skulptur og tekst.

The publication Paths of artistic research is a collection of interviews with artistic researchers - Andrea Buršová, assistant professor at the Nika Brettschneiderová Dramatic Acting Department, Faculty of Drama, JAMU, Jiří Honzírek, director, manager of the Feste Theatre and PhD student at the Theatre Faculty, JAMU, Barbora Klímová, head of the Studio of Environmental Design at the FFA BUT, Lenka Klodová, head of the Studio of Body Design at the FFA BUT, Lucia Repašská, researcher at the Cabinet for Theatre and Drama Research, Theatre Faculty, JAMU, Hana Slavíková, head of the Studio of Radio and Television Dramaturgy and Scriptwriting, Theatre Faculty, JAMU, Pavel Sterec, artist and former head of the Intermedia Studio at the FFA, BUT, and Lenka Veselá, researcher at the Department of Theory and History of Art at the FFA, BUT and PhD student at the FFA, BUT. These are artists who have been associated with art colleges in Brno, specifically with the Faculty of Fine Arts of the BUT and the Theatre Faculty of the JAMU. Through interviews with the artists, the reader will learn under what circumstances they began to engage in artistic research, how they perceive it, what meanings they attribute to it and the purpose it serves for them. The selected group of artists is very diverse and their creative and research strategies are different, as are the purposes for which they use artistic research. The publication does not aim to provide an exhaustive overview of the methods used in artistic research, but it does aim to show that there are many approaches to artistic research and to present the paths that have brought particular artists to artistic research.

The PD Arts + Creative Symposium takes place at LocHal in Tilburg (NL) on 20 June 2025. This year’s symposium will highlight the programme’s multidisciplinary character by zooming in on the diverse fields of practice that its researchers operate in, connect to, and impact. It asks where, how, and with whom does the PD-research resonate? And what is the contribution of artistic and creative research to societal challenges?

Wixárika crafts are a testament to resilience and adaptability, they have been preserved since pre-Hispanic times. The evolution of some of these over the past century, influenced by global movements in the 1960s, has created a niche for Wixárika art and craft. Influenced by tourism, new styles, colors, and symbols have been introduced, serving as a form of resistance against the erasure of traditional knowledge and practices 500 years after the colonial period. Tsik+ri has gained global popularity as a method to create decorative geometric yarn pieces, but this craft not only provides insights about Indigenous cultures, experiences, and embodied knowledge, but also raises discussion about land and cultural appropriation by non-Indigenous individuals. In this exposition, I present a series of workshops held in the region of the Arctic Circle, where a development project is taking place to improve and enhance the use of sustainable wool by revitalizing craft heritage in a multicultural way. The method of this study is Art-Based Action Research. The study makes visible an essential feature of this textile artifact: its ability to transcend geopolitical and cultural borders, embodying a unique fusion of heritage and contemporary design. Indigenous craft practices from the Mesoamerican Wixárika culture, such as the Tsik+ri, are rooted in the multicultural identity of Mexico. The workshops served as platforms to communicate the culture and challenges of Wixaritari to Arctic and international contexts. This research sustains that implementing craft practices in the context of contemporary art requires profound knowledge and respect for its origins.

AMASS–AMAS–WEIRD oli Utsjoella vuonna 2021 toteutunut yhteisötaideprojekti osana Euroopan Union rahoittamaa Acting on the Margins: Arts as Social Sculpture -tutkimushanketta (2020–2023). Euroopan reuna-alueiden vuorovaikutusta ja yhteistyötä lisäävä taideperustainen toimintatutkimus sisälsi yhteisötaiteen, sosiaalisesti sitoutuneen taiteen ja taidekasvatuksen kehittämistä paikallisyhteisöissä. AMASS–AMAS–WEIRD -toteutettiin Lapin yliopiston yhtenä vastuualueena ja osana delokolonisoivan arktisen taiteen viitekehystä, vaikkakin eurooppalaisessa hankejärjestelmässä, johon sisältyy Euroopan yhtenäisyyden taustatavoitteita. Tässä ekspositiossa tarkastelemme taidekäsityksen arktista dekolonisaatiota, yhteisötaidetta, kuvataidekasvatusta ja hankkeen tutkimusprosessia dekolonisaation näkökulmista. AMASS–AMAS–WEIRD vahvisti kulttuurisen moninaisuuden kunnioitusta ja tuki vuorovaikutusta saamelais- ja suomalaiskulttuurien sisällä ja niiden välillä. Jännitteitä ilmeni niin sanottuun tutkimusähkyyn, marginaalisuuden olettamaan sekä rahoitusinstrumenttiin liittyen. Johtopäätöksenä korostamme taiteen ja tutkimuksen kolonialististen rakenteiden ja eettisten periaatteiden kriittisen tarkastelun merkitystä kulttuurien dialogista kohtaamista tukevan ja yhteyksiä luovan toiminnan kehittämisessä.

Autistic people have six senses: taste, smell, touch, hearing, sight, and then words. Words are a sense that cannot be compared to other senses but allows them to leak in. Words have taste and smell, they are tactile, scratch the skin, bulge in the kidneys, they look: the shape of the letters in different writing styles, they have sounds, sounds when they sound inside the brain and when they say themselves, they are a movement a dance. But all these qualities still cannot define the words. For the words are their own. Their own mind.