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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00712
- Thesis Title
- Subjectivity and Synchrony in Artistic Research
- Author
- Johanna Schindler
- E-mail
- schindler.johanna AT gmail.com
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- PhD
- Year
- 2018
- Number of Pages
- 180
- University
- Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen / Germany
- Thesis Supervisor
- Prof. Dr. Martin Tröndle
- Supervisor e-mail
- martin.troendle AT zu.de
- Other Supervisor(s)
- Prof. Dr. Claudia Mareis, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Krohn
- Language(s) of Thesis
- English
- Department / Discipline
- Cultural studies
- Copyright Ownership
- Johanna Schindler
- Languages Familiar to Author
- English, German, French, Spanish
- URL where full thesis can be found
- www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-4447-0/subjectivity-and-synchrony-in-artistic-research/
- Keywords
- artistic research, epistemic practices, ethnography, affordance, boundary objects
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- Artistic research has become an established mode of inquiry and knowledge production in many fields. This ethnographic long-term study examines the collaborative practices of two artistic research projects in the fields of digital musical instrument design and responsive environments. How are individual research modes organized? Which forms of knowledge are at stake? And what sort of influence do institutional settings and spatial arrangements have on the emerging research dynamics?
To explore these questions, I carried out participant observation and qualitative interviews in different project phases of the two cases over the course of one year. Specifically, I focused on the design and development processes of boundary objects in relation to their affordances. The main function of boundary objects is to translate between the different disciplines involved in research projects. Therefore, the material manifestation of boundary objects usually carries traces of diverse competences, subjective motivations, and individual working patterns. One of the examined cases focused on the creation of an object – a digital musical instrument – which turned out to hinder collaboration among the researchers involved. Over the course of its creation, institutional conflicts and stereotypic ideas about ‘artistic‘ or ‘scientific‘ researchers rigidified rather than being used productively. The other project in case, which was created a boundary object strongly tied to a topic (“affective, responsive atmospheres”), managed to integrate the subjective backgrounds and interests of the researchers into synchronous research dynamics, allowing for negotiation and collaboration along distinct aesthetic and thematic ideas.
Based on these findings, the study suggests concrete measurements that can be utilized to create artistic research environments that foster the integration of different structures, practices, ideas, and motivations on the one hand, and to adapt the settings, funding structures, and evaluation criteria of artistic research projects to the specific needs of this emerging field on the other.