Keynote presentation
Weaving Threads of Knowledge: Artistic Research as a Living Tapestry
| Carolien Hermans
[location: Refter]
In this presentation, I will explore two distinct yet interconnected artistic research topics, focusing on their underlying methodologies and potential for communication and dissemination.
The first topic stems from my PhD research on dance improvisation and physical play as unique forms of participatory sense-making. I will analyze my creative process by exploring three artistic methods that I used: a living archive, re-enactment, and photography. Drawing on Michael Schwab’s concept of expositionality, I will discuss how these performative practices function as embodied, living forms of communication, where the act of creation itself becomes a crucial avenue for knowledge dissemination.
The second topic marks the beginning of my current research: a mapping of Amsterdam’s musical initiatives through a multimodal lens. This project explores how music and its spaces can be understood not only as geographical locations but as interconnected cultural, social, and political experiences. I will explore how multimodal artistic methodologies—including sound, graphic design, and narrative—capture the fluidity and complexity of the city’s musical networks. I will illustrate how these methodologies bridge theoretical reflection and artistic practice, intertwining them into a cohesive and dynamic tapestry.
In both cases, I will emphasize that artistic methodologies are not merely research tools but integral to the dissemination process itself, blurring the line between artistic production and knowledge-sharing. These methodologies interweave theoretical insights with creative practice, fostering a rich, multidimensional exchange of knowledge that goes beyond conventional research dissemination. The expositional nature of these practices opens up new ways of sharing knowledge—offering embodied, interactive forms of communication that allow research to be experienced, rather than merely presented.
Biography
Carolien Hermans is a researcher, educator, and artist with a background in choreography and pedagogy. She is an associate professor of ‘Musical Learning Cultures’ at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where she works to bridge the gaps between diverse music learning environments across the city, promoting a more inclusive and equitable approach to music. She is also a senior lecturer in the bachelor’s program ODM (Music Teachers Department) and the master’s program Musical Leadership at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. She holds a PhD from the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) at Leiden University, where her artistic research focused on embodied cognition, dance improvisation, and physical play.
Workshop
Other Images of the City | Jaap Knevel
[location: C1.10]
This workshop (or ‘walkshop’) guides participants on how to map their individual ways of navigating the city and how to use poetry to visualize/communicate that way of looking.
In a broader sense, the workshop offers participants a critical view towards established methodologies in wayfinding design, the practice that deals with the production of maps, guides, and signs. Historically, colonial expansion has erased, replaced, and marginalized many indigenous and local forms of navigation. Historic social norms meant that many groups of people were excluded from public spaces. Moreover, the process of international standardization operates from the ideology that a singular graphic language must be used in the entire world. Navigating, I would argue however, is a deeply personal and emotional experience.
Other Images of the City originates from that idea: to capture the individual ways in which people navigate the city and to re-establish wayfinding design as a practice that represents otherness.