Remaking Research Symposium Emily Carr University of Art + Design 1399 Johnston Street, Vancouver, BC Hosted by Emily Carr University of Art + Design and the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design, Remaking Research is a “working symposium” centred on the pragmatics and possibilities…
The fields and practices of art and design research represent a distinct array of alternative and critical approaches to the production of knowledge. Such contextualist, experimental, and practice–based traditions have profound implications for research in other fields and for our understanding of the cultural and aesthetic basis of research activity. From this perspective: What are the forms and methods of research that currently prevail within art and design contexts? How do they build on, or distinguish themselves from, other academic models and structures? What are the (real and practical) grounds for reconvening the conversations between fields of research practice that were separated by the academic movements of the 20th century? - Reverse Engineering: Towards a Taxonomy of Art Practices, Adelheid Mers, School of the Art Institute of Chicago - Current Design Research Journal, Celeste Martin and Deborah Shackleton, Emily Carr University of Art + Design - Pratt’s Laboratory for Scientific Study of Art, Cindie Kehlet, Pratt Institute - Digital Ceramics Archive Research, Paul Mathieu, Emily Carr University of Art + Design - The Single Most Important Criterion for Reconfiguring Research Theory and Practice in the 21st Century, Anne-Marie Oliver, Barry Sanders, and Marie-Pierre Hasne, The Pacific Northwest College of Art; the University of California, Santa Barbara; and Oregon Health & Science University - Wait a minute…, Gareth Jones, Rhode Island School of Design
Graeme Sullivan is Director of the School of Visual Arts, Pennsylvania State University and Professor of Art Education. He is the former Chair of the Department of Arts and Humanities, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. He received his PhD and MA from The Ohio State University, Columbus Ohio. Graeme trained as a high school art teacher, graduating from Alexander Mackie College of Advanced Education, Sydney in 1974. He is a former teacher and art consultant with the NSW Department of Education and taught as the College of Fine Arts, UNSW, Sydney, from 1988, before taking up a position at Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1999. Since the early 1990s Graeme’s research has investigated the critical–reflexive thinking and forming processes in visual arts and studio–based research practices. These ideas are described in his groundbreaking 2005 book, Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in Visual Arts, with a revised and expanded edition published in 2010. Graeme has authored numerous book chapters and articles on practice–based research published in the USA, UK, Europe, Asia and Australasia. He has received several awards, including the 2007 Lowenfeld Award from the National Art Education Association (USA) for significant contribution to the field of art education, and the 1990 Manual Barkan Memorial Award for scholarly writing. Graeme is also the author of Seeing Australia: Views of Artists and Artwriters (1994). He has taken on many professional roles and is the former Senior Editor of Studies in Art Education, and editor of Australian Art Education. He is currently Associate Commissioner of the NAEA Research Commission. Graeme maintains an active art practice and his Streetworks have been installed in several international cities over the past twenty years. He uses materials retrieved from the streets to create artworks that are exhibited and later installed at local sites. Graeme explains, “I’m not sure what happens to most of my Streetworks. But even if the life of the artwork is short, or the encounter brief, one never really knows the outcome, nor where the experience of art happens. I like that.” Graeme’s most recent streetwork project was participating in an exhibition, Art is Me, Art is You, held at the Korean Cultural Center in Los Angeles. This group exhibition celebrated community engagement on the anniversary of the LA (Rodney King) riots of 1992 and included a public art walk performance where the artists ‘wore’ their artwork as a gesture to emphasize that the creative impulse originates within an individual yet its significance needs to be seen and felt within the community. His piece was later installed in a vacant allotment in southside Los Angeles.
Carol Strohecker directs the Center for Design Innovation (CDI), a multi-campus, advanced-technology research center of the University of North Carolina (UNC) system. In this capacity she serves multiple roles, including Professor at Winston-Salem State University and Chief Research Officer of the UNC School of the Arts. She is also a co-Principal Investigator of the internationally expanding network for Sciences, Engineering, Arts, and Design (SEAD), created in 2011 through funding from the US National Science Foundation. Previously, Dr. Strohecker led the Everyday Learning research group at Media Lab Europe, the European research partner of the MIT Media Lab. Prior to joining MLE, she worked in the United States at Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories and in the Human Interface Group of Sun Microsystems. Dr. Strohecker earned the PhD of Media Arts and Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1991 and the Master of Science in Visual Studies from MIT in 1986. She has served MIT’s Program in Media Arts and Sciences as a Lecturer and as a Presidential Nominee on the MIT Corporation Visiting Committee. She continues to serve boards and advisory committees for the international research and design community. In addition to four US patents for her collaborative work in interactive media tools and methods, Dr. Strohecker’s awards include fellowships with the Artists Foundation of the Massachusetts Council for the Arts and Humanities, the US National Endowment for the Arts, and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
November 2, 2012 With Sara Diamond and Pamela Jennings In a broad sense, agendas for research development are often shaped by political and economic forces external to art and design institutions. Criticisms of the arts and humanities, policies geared toward economic development, and evaluations based on the instrumental value of research create familiar tensions and fault lines within our faculties and research communities. We are interested in investigating both the present state and the future possibilities of this political–economic landscape with a focus on its implications for the advocacy and funding of research in art and design. Sara Diamond is the President of OCAD University, Canada’s “university of the imagination”. She holds a PhD in Computer Science and degrees in new media theory and practice, social history and communications. She is an appointee of the Order of Ontario and the Royal Canadian Society of Artists. While retaining OCAD University’s traditional strengths in art and design, Diamond has guided the university in becoming a leader in digital media, design research and curriculum through the Digital Futures Initiative, new research in Inclusive Design, health and design, as well as in sustainable technologies and design. She also played a leading role in OCAD University’s establishment of the unique Aboriginal Visual Culture Program. These initiatives have built strong partnerships for OCAD University with science, business and communities, in Ontario and abroad. Sara was the Artistic Director of Media and Visual Art and Director of Research at the Banff Centre, where she created the Banff New Media Institute (BNMI) in 1995 and led it until 2005. Her book (with Sarah Cook) Euphoria & Dystopia: The Banff New Media Dialogues, a history of the boom, bust and reset years of the first wave of digital media is currently available; published by Banff Centre Press and Riverdale Architectural Press, University of Waterloo. Pamela L. Jennings is the Director of the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Centers for Research and Collaboration at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). The Shapiro Center was established to support the development of sponsored research opportunities and partnerships with civic, academic and corporate entities. Jennings is a former National Science Foundation Program Officer. She managed the NSF CreativeIT and co-managed the Human Centered Computing programs. Jennings’ research in cyberphysical systems for new game, learning, and design platforms includes the development of mixed-reality systems using wireless sensor networks. Her projects are informed by critical theories of technology, discourse analysis, and theories of the public sphere with the premise that advanced technologies and complex systems can be the anchor of interactive experiences that are catalyst for discourse, discovery, and change. Pamela received funding from the National Science Foundation; Alberta Informatics Circle of Research Excellence; Rockefeller Foundation; New York State Council on the Arts, Carnegie Mellon University and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She completed her Ph.D. in Human Centered Systems Design and Digital Media, University of Plymouth, UK; M.F.A. in Computer Art, School of Visual Arts, NYC; M.A. in Studio Art, International Center of Photography/New York University Program; and B.A. in Psychology, Oberlin College. Pamela is enrolled in the Executive MBA program at the University of Michigan anticipated completion in 2013.
With Joanna Berzowska, Anne Burdick and Lisa Grocott; moderated by Laurene Vaughan. The fields and practices of art and design research represent a distinct array of alternative and critical approaches to the production of knowledge. Such contextualist, experimental, and practice-based traditions have profound implications for research in other fields. Moving beyond the foundational question of how knowledge might be produced in art and design this panel is framed by an exploration of how we might account for the contribution the research we undertake produces. The projects presented seek to collectively make visible the ways the speculative, action-oriented and material practices make a contribution to the scholarship of art and design while also complementing and amplifying the research of other disciplines. From this perspective the discussion will consider: What are the affordances presented by the forms and methods of art and design research? How do they build on, or distinguish themselves from, the practices and values of other fields? How might this these insights help to advance research into art and design as well as our interdisciplinary collaborations? Joanna Berzowska is an Associate Professor and Chair of Design and Computation Arts at Concordia University, as well as a member of the Hexagram Research Institute in Montreal. She is the founder and research director of XS Labs, where her team develops innovative methods and applications in electronic textiles and responsive garments. A core component of her work involves the development of enabling methods, materials, and technologies – in the form of soft electronic circuits and composite fibers – as well as the exploration of the expressive potential of soft reactive structures. Her art and design work has been shown in the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum in NYC, Electronica Center in Linz among others. Anne Burdick is Chair of the Media Design Graduate Program, Art Center College of Design, and is a regular participant in the international dialogue regarding the future of graduate education and research in design. In addition, she designs experimental text projects in diverse media, for which she has garnered recognition, from the prestigious Leipzig Award for book design to I.D. Magazine’s Interactive Design Review for her work with interactive texts. Lisa Grocott is an associate professor at Parsons where her teaching and research are framed by her interest in designing as a research methodology. Lisa’s current teaching builds on the work of her PhD in design research where she teaches graduate students in the MFA Transdisciplinary Design and the MFA in Design and Technology. Lisa’s undergraduate education majored in communication design and American studies, with graduate degrees in Painting and Communication Design as well as a project-based PhD from RMIT University, Australia. Laurene Vaughan is the Nierenberg Chair, Distinguished Professor of Design, Carnegie Mellon University, 2012 – 2013. She was appointed as Associate Professor Design and Communication, in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University, in Melbourne, Australia in 2008. Since 2009 she has been Research Leader within the RMIT Design Research Institute, leading a community of inquiry into the Mediated City.
Friday, November 2, 2012 Reflections on Memory Marathon, Simon Pope, University of Oxford Darwin, Justin Novak, Emily Carr University of Art + Design The Evolution of Silence, Rachele Riley, The University of the Arts, Philadelphia National Security Garden, Shannon McMullen and Fabian Winkler, Purdue University, Art and Design Building Narratives: Installations for Transitional Space, Maria McVarish, California College of the Arts
e_Motion Research Lab, Barbara Rauch, OCAD University The Artistic Animation of Research, Will Garrett Petts, Thompson Rivers University CadLaboration, Matthew Hollern, Cleveland Institute of Art Spandrel, Jesse Jackson, OCAD University RAW DATA, Ingrid Koenig, Margit Schild and Elvira Hufschmid, Goethe Institut, TRIUMF, Emily Carr University of Art + Design
November 3, 2012 With Debera Johnson, Sanjit Sethi, and Ezri Tarazi; moderated by Rosanne Somerson. Within art and design institutions a variety of models for inter–disciplinary, industry–sponsored, and community–based research have emerged that hold great potential for building infrastructure and “best practices” to support collaborative and partnered research. At the same time, these approaches raise a range of practical and ethical questions regarding, for instance, the educational benefits and ethical challenges of collaborating with industry, and broader concerns regarding the ways in which creative research is used, credited, and (occasionally) monetized within these “partnered” relations. Rosanne Somerson received her BFA from RISD in 1976 and joined RISD’s faculty in 1985. After serving as interim provost for the 2011–12 academic year, she has been appointed provost effective July 1, 2012. In addition, she served as interim associate provost for Academic Affairs from 2005–07. After a sabbatical in 2007–08, Somerson resumed her position as professor and head of Furniture Design. From 1985–95 she ran the MFA Graduate Program in Furniture Design in Industrial Design, and from 1995–05 was head of the newly formed Department of Furniture Design at RISD. In addition to her academic roles at RISD, Somerson has maintained her own studio since 1978, where she designs and makes furniture for exhibitions and by commission. She is also a partner in DEZCO llc, a production furniture company whose projects include design and manufacture of the furnishings for the 500 bed living quarters in 15 West at RISD. Debera Johnson leads Pratt’s commitment to integrate sustainability into academics in her role as Executive Director of the Center for Sustainable Design Studies (CSDS). Founded in 2008, the CSDS interdisciplinary thesis lab supports industry based research projects in design, architecture and urban planning. The CSDS is the campus resource for sustainable design and has published open source evaluation tools and programming, workshops for faculty development, and documented case studies by students, faculty and alumni. Sanjit Sethi’s work focuses on issues of trauma, culture and community collaboration and the ways that art, design, and architecture can be utilized to address this complex topic. Of particular interest to him is the ways institutions of higher education can redefine themselves through the process of greater community engagement at the local, national, and global level. Sanjit received a BFA in 1994 from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, an MFA in 1998 from the University of Georgia, and an MS in advanced visual studies in 2002 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently Director of the Center for Art and Public Life, Chair of the Community Arts Program and Barclay Simpson Professor of Community Arts at the California College of the Arts. Ezri Tarazi is an industrial designer and the head of the Industrial Design department at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. During the past 15 years, Ezri has been active as a designer, realising a large body of experimental and practical work for a number of clients; as a writer; and as a curator, a participant, and the subject of a range of exhibitions. Host Organizations
Throughout Remaking Research, graduate students in the Master of Applied Arts Program at Emily Carr University of Art + Design will be holding a parallel event in response to the content of the symposium. Listening Works will be facilitated by visiting educator David Gersten. David Gersten is an architect, writer and educator based in New York City. He has been a Professor in The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union, since 1991, where he has served as Associate Dean under Dean John Hejduk and Acting Dean of the School of Architecture. He has taught studios and seminars at every level of the School’s five-year program, as well as a series of seminars titled ‘The House of Poetry’ in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. He has held the Ellen and Sidney Feltman Chair and is a former Chairman of the School’s Administrative, Curriculum and Admissions Committees. Professor Gersten currently heads Architectonics, the first-year Design Studio and teaches an Advanced Concepts seminars entitled; ‘A Material Imagination of the Social Contract’. David has been a visiting professor in the U.S. and abroad at City University of New York; Rhode Island School of Design; Universidad Politecnica de Valencia in Spain; Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark; Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar and Universidad Privada de Santa Cruz in Bolivia; and Universidad Catolica de Cordoba in Argentina. He is currently a visiting professor in the Graduate Studies division at RISD teaching seminars and studios across sixteen Masters of Fine Arts, Design and Architecture departments. He regularly teaches workshops and lectures in academic and cultural institutions though-out the world, including: The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, (Denmark), McGill University (Canada), Cranbrook Academy of Art, Harvard University, Yale University, The Canadian Center for Architecture, the National Science Foundation, the Círculo de Bellas Artes, (Madrid, Spain), The University of Puerto Rico, and the United Nations International School. Gerstens’ drawings, stories and constructions have appeared in numerous international exhibitions, and are held in the collection of the Canadian Center for Architecture, the New York City Public Library’s print collection and many private collections. He has published widely in national and international publications including: RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, the Peabody Museum; Ineffable; Architecture Computation and the In-expressible; The Making Of Design Principles, RISD; Critical Digital, Harvard; Boulevard, Saint Louis University; Making Science Visible, National Science Foundation; Nacho Criado, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid Spain. The Paris-based publisher Editions Firmin-Didot will soon release “Hunting Life: A Forever House”, a collection of Professor Gersten’s drawings and writings. Gersten has published and lectured extensively on diverse areas of research including: The financial markets, ethics and technology, the poetic / material imagination and social justice and the linkages between: memory, perception, language and space. David Gersten is a graduate of The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union. He has also pursued studies in phenomenology at the New School for Social Research as well as Islamic Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary.