Research Catalogue

an international database for artistic research

• 2024. ACPA ACPA 2024

• Alverata, hedendaagse Europese letters met wortels in de middeleeuwen (last edited: 2023) author(s): Gerard Unger connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
  This research of Gerard Unger is only available in Dutch. De kern hiervan is een letterontwerp, gebaseerd op de combinatie van een middeleeuws en een hedendaags concept. Het middeleeuwse deel betreft de elfde en de twaalfde eeuw, de romaanse periode, en in het bijzonder de epigrafie van die tijd: romaanse kapitalen in inscripties. Deze kapitalen werden gedurende tweehonderd jaar in een groot deel van Europa toegepast. Hiernaast zijn velerlei typografische en culturele ontwikkelingen in de twintigste en de eenentwintigste eeuw de bron voor het nieuwe letterontwerp. De Alverata toont enkele middeleeuwse kenmerken die wonderwel met de modernste typografische software en voor hedendaags gebruik is toe te passen. Bovendien kan de Alverata het uitgangspunt zijn voor vernieuwend leesbaarheidsonderzoek.
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• Typeface design for visually impaired children (last edited: 2023) author(s): Ann Bessemans connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
  Due to the low quality level of visual input they receive in the form of printed text, beginning visually impaired readers are at a disadvantage in comparison to their peers. In the past, typography has often been looked upon as a useful instrument to improve the legibility of the printed reading material that is being offered to children with low vision. However, the legiblity research efforts that were at the base of this conception were not always of good quality. In cognitive science for example, many efforts were made that were methodologically correct, yet the test material (the used typefaces) had little to do with reality. Many typefaces that were supposed to improve legibility were also suggested by typographers themselves, but the reasoning behind them was hardly ever sufficiently methodologically supported. Moreover, most legibility research focused on people with low vision in general, ignoring the fac t that visually impaired children constitute a very particular group with specific issues. This doctoral research project by in design, by Ann Bessemans, seeks to shed a light on legibility in the context of visually impaired beginning readers. Starting from these findings and from a legibility research a first step is given to design a typeface that will be able to provide support for the target group of visually impaired children in the first stages of the reading process.
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• The conflict of the faculties : perspectives on artistic research and academia (last edited: 2023) author(s): Henk Borgdorff connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
  The thesis, written by Henk Borgdorff, is about artistic research – what it is, or what it could be. And it is about the place that artistic research could have in academia, within the whole of academic research. It is also about the ways we speak about such issues, and about how the things we say (in this study and elsewhere) cause the practices involved to manifest themselves in specific ways, while also setting them into motion. In this sense, the thesis not only explores the phenomenon of artistic research in relation to academia, but it also engages with that relationship. This performative dimension of the thesis is interwoven with its constative and interpretive dimensions. If the thesis succeeds in its aims, it will not only advance knowledge and understanding of artistic research, but it will further the development of this emerging field.
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• Reading Arabic : legibility studies for the Arabic script (last edited: 2023) author(s): Nadine Chahine connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
  What is the cost of visual complexity? This dissertation of Nadine Chahine sets out to determine the effect of the complexity of word formation on the legibility of Arabic and the role that vocalization plays in reading. This is carried out via a holistic approach to legibility research that combines the visual culture with eye movement in reading and legibility studies. To do this it looks at the transition of Arabic manuscript letterforms into typographic ones, the anatomy of the Arabic script, and the predominant typographic styles in use today. It presents the design process of the specially designed Afandem typeface family, a review of eye movement findings, and a new definition of legibility that is rooted in the models of eye movement. The experiment used eye tracking to test 72 subjects in Beirut to determine the effect of the complexity and vocalization on reading measures. The results show that the increased complexity of word formation has a negative effect on the legibility of Arabic typefaces and that the short vowels add a cost to word processing even though they bring with them extra clarity that results in a reduced number of regressions. These results are discussed within the scope of the Arab world today, its cultural and educational setup, and avenues for further research are explored.
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• Bruno Munari and the invention of modern graphic design in Italy, 1928-1945 (last edited: 2023) author(s): Alessandro Colizzi connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
  This study of Alessandro Colizzi examines Bruno Munari's work as a graphic designer from the late 1920s to mid-1940s, with the aim of understanding the emergence and characteristics of the modernist trend in Italian graphic design. Taking shape in Milan, an original 'design culture' eclectically brought together two quite different strains of Modernity: a local tradition represented by the Futurist avant-garde, and a European tradition associated with Constructivism. Munari (1907- 1998) worked simultaneously as painter and as advertising designer. Concentrating on Munari's stylistic development, the study seeks to explore the interaction between the Futurist visual vocabulary and conceptions coming from architecture, photography, abstract painting, and functionalist typography that trickled in from central and northern Europe. The discussion positions the designer in his time and place, concentrating as much on the artefacts as on the broader cultural framework. Secondly, the study attempts to assess Munari's reputation against a body of exemplary work, based on firsthand documentation. It is the first extensive, detailed record of Munari's graphic design output, and as such provides a substantial base for a full understanding of his œuvre.
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• Word and Whetstone: Perspectives on Writing at the Intersection of Art and Academia (last edited: 2023) author(s): Maya Rasker connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
  This research of Maya Rasker in only available in Dutch. The English version will be ready later in 2023. The position of writing within the domain of artistic academic research is not self-evident. In academia, standard practice is to use writing for the transfer of knowledge: it is a means of communication. In the practice of (nonlinguistic) artistic research, the outcome is also often contextualized in a written argument. This leads to the paradox that, if writing as an art form is to be relevant in and for artistic academic research, it must relate discursively to itself in its own medium in order to achieve that relevance. This paradox has been embraced in this dissertation and research.'Word and Whetstone. Perspectives on writing at the intersection of art and academia' is the outcome of inquiry into the epistemological possibilities and characteristics of writing. The question is whether and how writing as a communication vehicle and as an art form can also serve as a knowledge generator. To investigate this, the practice of writing is thought of as an experimental system, analogous to the scientific experiment. Processes of narrating and annotating generate a dialogical encounter for new insights as well as providing a structure. The material is both the object of research and method.
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