Rolf Hughes

Sweden, United Kingdom °1963
en

Over two decades, Rolf Hughes has been at the forefront of developments in artistic research in Scandinavia, the UK and Europe. He has been an expert advisor to the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), a member of its Artistic Research Committee, twice elected Vice-President of the international Society for Artistic Research, Director of Research at both Konstfack University College of the Arts, Craft and Design, and Stockholm University of the Arts. Since completing the first PhD in Creative and Critical Writing, funded by the British Academy, in the UK (1994), Hughes has sought to both strengthen and extend expertise within and across artistic, design and Humanities disciplines. He is a member of the "Emerging Bio-Age" expert group (part of the Sustainability Accelerator at The Royal Institute of International Affairs), Chatham House, London (2021-today). In October 2023 he became Director of Education for EIT Culture & Creativity.

research

research expositions

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    Unspeakable Dialogues: Writ in Rock (last edited: 2024) author(s): Rolf Hughes This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
    Positioning the locus of writing beyond the human, this presentation questions our anthropocentrism by drawing on the notion that traces of worlds in motion create recognisable details (forms of writing) that can be read if we pay them the appropriate care and attention. Such issues are essential in our greater literacy for ecological thinking, and actions capable of engendering life-promoting practices. How we may read the writing of the more-than-human realm is not just essential for our own understanding but a communications issue in search of a better relating to a changing reality. Raising questions about the recognition of the “other,” the attention paid to atypical subjects and an ethics of care for those we do not easily understand, are subjects for broader discussion with respect to artistic research in assessing and deciding what kind of writing works and is valuable in artistic research undertakings. Writing is thus conceived as an ethical undertaking rather than a purely formal concern. Our chosen forms of writing direct questions to the critical objectives of artistic research that is ecologically focussed, de-centring the human subject, and inviting new engagements through writing that can be presented in artistic research contexts and publications. This video was presented at the CARPA 7 conference (2021) on "Elastic Writing" (for theme 2: Dis[guised] Writing).
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