This opening address from the 2020 Arts Research Africa conference at the Wits School of Arts in Johannesburg approaches ‘artistic research’ as a speculative project. It suggests that in conditions of various historical developments – in the sciences as well as in the arts – a future, shared bases cannot be anticipated. Rather, it may need to be suggested by each research articulation individually thus doing justice to the specificities of contexts. Such an approach, so the suggestion, might allow to link developments in artistic research with those of decolonization, and also, deal with the complex urgencies that we are faced with on a global scale.
