Can Art-Technology Co-Operations Provide a Paradigm for Artistic Research?

Abstract

“Experiments in Art and Technology” shows how artists and engineers can create art and genuine technological innovation. With examples from art-technology collaborations I want to discuss the criteria of knowledge production within art. In these works, it is not “research for the arts” which transforms art into Artistic Research, but the specific artistic stance taken during the research process. This idea extends the philosophical concepts of artistic research. Borgdorff (2012a) as well as Mersch (2015) defend the position of art in academia but put artistic research in a solitary position, unable to relate to other disciplines. With art technology examples I want to present works that correspond with the requirements of Artistic Research but do not match the theory. They do not only have a proximity to (applied) mode 2 research, but show a new kind of knowledge which stays in the experimental state. The paper addresses the question of how collaborations between engineers and artists can be considered in the discourse on research in the arts, and if they could turn out to be useful for a new paradigm on the notion of knowledge in Artistic Research.