2010 Biennial Conference | Nantes

Theme

(h)eART(h)

l’art au coeur du territoire

As art and culture move away from their role as tools in gentrification processes they become instrumental in the emergence of a new development model. The history of the city of Nantes is symptomatic of the transformations caused by globalization in the past three centuries. Today, the knowledge economy is central in the city's efforts to make art a driving force for the development of its territory.

Five perspectives on the role of the Arts and Higher Art Education could be addressed in the framework of the 11th ELIA Conference and feed the different symposia and discipline sessions:

1. Arts at the heart of the "way of living", questioning behaviours.
2. Arts encourage the emergence of contributors in place of consumers.
3. Arts name and identify territories.
4. Arts meet science and question environments.
5. Arts reinvent and "moralize" customs.

Participant profile

Professional practitioners from all arts disciplines, arts administrators, international officers, senior managers and representatives of higher arts education and the cultural sector are welcome to participate in the ELIA Biennial Conference.

Aims of the conference

• To be one of the major international forums for debate, exchange of ideas and best practice in higher arts education
• To renew and develop contacts and friends within a context of stimulating formal and informal presentations, symposia, workshops and cultural events.
• To serve as a good opportunity to build academic and social links with colleagues and students from international higher art education institution.

Speakers

Keynote speaker

Bernard Stiegler

Bernard Stiegler, President of Ars Industrialis, is a Director of the Institute for Research and Innovation at the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris, a Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmith College in London and a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Technology of Compiègne.

Before taking up the post at the Pompidou Centre, he was Programme Director at the International College of Philosophy (Ciph), Deputy Director General of the Institut national de l’audiovisuel (INA), and finally Director General at the Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique (IRCAM).

Bernard Stiegler has published widely on philosophy, technology, digitisation, capitalism and consumer culture. Among his various writings, his three volumes of La Technique et Le Temps (English Translation: Technics and Time), the book Acting Out (English translation by David Barison, Daniel Ross and Patrick Crogan), his two volumes of De La Misère Symbolique, three volumes of Mécréance et Discrédit, two volumes of Constituer l'Europe and Prendre soin. De la jeunesse et des générations (English Translation: Taking Care) are particularly well known.

Professor Stiegler has a long-term engagement with the relation between technology and philosophy, not only in a theoretical sense, but also situating them as practices in industry and society. He is one of the founders of the Ars Industrialis group, based in Paris, which calls for an industrial politics of spirit by exploring the possibilities of the technology of spirit in order to bring forth a new ‘life of the mind’. He has published extensively on the problem of individuation in consumer capitalism and he is currently working on the new possibility of an economy of contribution.

Closing Plenary Panel

Patrick Acogny

Choreographer, dancer, pedagogue and researcher, Patrick Acogny specialises in the techniques of contemporary and traditional African dances and has a solid background in the techniques of contemporary Western dance. He is Associate Artistic Director at Germaine Acogny’s École des Sables in Senegal as well as a teacher and a research fellow at Paris 8 University.

Dr. Shashikant Barhanpurkar

Professor & Head, Department of Dramatics, B.A.M. University (Aurangabad, India)

A commonwealth scholar, Ph.D, in dramatics from Manchester University U.K. Post graduate course in community theatre from Rose Bruford College of speech and drama UK. Ph.D in zoology from BAMU (Aurangabad, India).

Dr. Barahanpurkar is a theatre director of repute many of his plays were performed all over the India. Apart from contemporary theatre he is closely associated with Indian traditional theatre, as a founder president of Marathwada Lokotsav, a forum promoting Indian folk theatre. His major contribution in the public realm is the combination of forum theatre and Indian traditional theatre to effectively reach rural India and children.

Amina Dickerson

As President of Dickerson Global Advisors, Amina serves as coach, strategist, speaker and counselor to individuals and organizations in the philanthropic and not-for-profit sectors. This work builds on three decades of distinguished service in philanthropy, cultural programming, and arts management. She has held leadership posts with museums, theaters and in corporate philanthropy and holds a graduate degree in Arts Management.

Hanne Smidt

Senior Advisor at the European University Association (EUA)

Hanne Smidt is a Senior Adviser at the European University Association (EUA) and has been involved in a wide range of activities and projects such as Quality Culture, Joint Master, Doctoral Programmes, Creativity and the Master’s study, the European Universities Charter on Lifelong Learning, and most recently as the co-author of the comprehensive study Trends 2010: A decade of change in European Higher Education.
She runs an independent higher-education consultancy (Hanne Smidt Consulting), the main focus of which has been the Bologna process, inclusive and responsive universities and quality assurance.

Abstracts

Symposia

Artistic research in Europe 2010: A necessary dialogue of users and stakeholders

 

Ruxana Demetrescu, National University of the Arts, Bucharest
Aims, challenges and benefits of artistic research

Artistic research became in the last years a commune place (locus communis) all over the European countries. Under the pressure of the implementation of the 3rd cycle of the Bologna system, the artistic academic education has been confronted in Romania (in the last decade) with a compulsory PhD in the visual arts for all the professors involved. Otherwise, the practice of application for different grants has obliged the artistic academic community to revaluate the challenges and the benefits of artistic research.
In the first part of the presentation I’d like to focus on a case study concerning the main problems related to the PhD in visual arts in the University of Arts, Bucharest. I’ll comment on the number of PhD graduates (over a hundred since 2000), on the generations (from the maestros to the young artists), on the content imposed to a doctoral thesis and on the topics developed. The result of the retrospect demonstrated that the most reluctant were the maestros (a polite word for the old generation) who emphasised the lack of utility of a theoretical exercise and whose attitude was defined, in most cases, by an endemic presumption. The young generation adapted easily and regarded the thesis as a challenge and a chance (also related to scholarships). The most interesting part concerns the topics of the artistic projects: from different aspects of artistic research (involving theoretical items, as archive, fragment, or image in the post photographic era) to the auto referential aspects. Therefore I’d like to demonstrate that artistic research may be regarded as a new way of the artistic literature (Kunstliteratur). The imposed theoretical exercise involved in each doctoral thesis had – in my opinion – developed a most valuable amount of texts written by important contemporary artists. The challenge of a critical investigation was transformed in a benefit: a new image of the artist as a thinker, or a theoretical person (most unusual in the Romanian context) and an interesting link between word and image.


Timothy Emlyn Jones, Burren College of Art
Art Research as Creative Process

This presentation seeks to recontextualise the development of art research in the mainstream of C21st art on the basis of the following points:
• creative rationales in art PhDs have developed to the extent that intuition need no longer be considered intrinsically mysterious. An expanded view of intelligence including emotional and visceral intelligence alongside mental intelligence means that intuition can be learnt even if not taught.
• PhD art methods pave the way to an aesthetics of method as a contemporary alternative to the modernist aesthetics of style
• the language of art research to describe contemporary art practice is already well established in the culture of curating and museology and is normal within art museums internationally.

This presentation pursues the argument by addressing five of the engagingly controversial questions identified in the call for presentations for Symposium 2, responding in the same animated spirit:

• “is this academisation of artistic practice a new form of control?” – this question will be discussed in relation to the conservative anti-intellectualism and complacency found in a number of art institutions – we need to recognise and celebrate the ways in which art is intellectually different from other spheres of intelligence. Is it really suggested that art is not intrinsically intelligent and intelligible?
• “...control over subjectivity and over 'free art'?" – this question will be discussed in relation to the apparent duality of subjectivity and objectivity and a broader view of artistic consciousness based on difference will be proposed
• “will the 3rd cycle prevent [the recruitment of non doctoral artists]?” – the credentialisation of art teachers will be discussed in an international perspective with reference to the radical conservatism of many American academics, and the gradualism of academic change. A larger view of professionalism in art teaching will also be discussed.
• “Do managers and politicians at all understand...?” - this will be discussed through the need for artists and art academics to be explicit about how our subject is different within the academy, rather than abandoning the theory of art to critics, theorists and historians
• “is it excluded that criticism and and self-reflection are alien to creativity...?” - this point will be discussed in relation to praxis and more recent theories of creativity which recognise the interdependence of divergent and convergent strategies.


Kerstin Mey, University for the Creative Arts, Surrey
‘It takes two to Tango’– Artistic research and impact assessment under the new Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the UK

Addressing the theme of ‘Artistic Research in Europe 2010: a necessary dialogue of users and stakeholders’, this proposal takes as its point of departure the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) that is going to replace previous Research Assessment Exercises. A new feature of REF, which will be implemented by the end of 2012, is the introduction of the evaluation of impact of research. The impact assessment will replace indicators of peer esteem and asks institutions to provide impact statements as well as a selected number of impact case studies relating to the research outputs and based on the capacity (as full-time equivalent) of the submitting subject-specific research units.

The currently proposed menu of impact indicators for REF orientates primarily towards qualitative measurements of the benefits of research for society at large and favours primary and secondary economic effects. Whilst considerable work on impact for the Arts and Humanities has already been undertaken by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), REF necessitates a continued critical debate on the specific qualities, processes, purposes and applications of artistic research in society and its dynamic and complex relationships with potential and actual users and stakeholders. This necessarily includes a discussion on how its effects can be evidenced.

This paper will draw out key issues for user engagement and stakeholder dialogue by drawing on ‘Towards a Pedagogy of Curiosity’, a recent collaborative research initiative with Susan Benn, which incorporates a number of distinct but interrelated projects, as a case study. ‘Towards a Pedagogy of Curiosity’ is an emerging body of engaged and interdisciplinary research on the role of sensory and embodied perception in stimulating creativity in and beyond every day life and in promoting imagination as a life-long learning tool. Through a range of issue-driven and site-specific exchanges and collaborations between artists, scientists, educationalists and a wider public of all ages, diverse social and ethnic backgrounds, the project aims to promote resilient yet enhanced qualities of life.

The case study serves to critically and creatively address the tensions between the process-based, often speculative and dynamic nature of artistic research and the outcome driven focus of policy makers, many funders and commissioning models. From the current lack of thinking imaginatively about ways to evidence the qualitative benefits of artistic research and to deal with the assessment of complex and dynamic categories such as ‘qualities of life’ and their underlying value hierarchies it aims to propose alternative ways forward.


Klaas Tindemans, Erasmushogeschool Brussel
Artistic research on theatricality and reality

“The document as performance / The performance as a document”

Since 2003 the RITS, the Brussels school for audiovisual and performing arts, invests in projects of artistic research. Both in its processes and in its output, artistic research at the RITS forms an integral part of a continuous pedagogical renewal. And for artists it creates a possibility to ‘reboot’ their artistic work in protected environment.
The Drama Department, in collaboration with the Department of Audiovisual Arts, worked on research themes such as ‘the tragedy, the tragic and the political’ and ‘subversion and subversivity’. Today, artistic research is done under the header ‘The document as performance. The performance as a document’. This project is representative for the specific research policy of the RITS.
A theoretical starting point is provided by The Return of the Real (1996), art historian Hal Foster’s essay on the meaning of avant-gardism today. Foster explains the way contemporary art deals with problems of representation. Contemporary art, Foster says, runs parallel with two types of ‘counter-science’ developed in the 20th century: psychoanalysis and ethnology. Art thematizes, since the beginning of the 1990’s, the traumatic effects and affections of the unrepresentable ‘real’. Or artists record, document and (re)present, as ethnographers in an urban environment, the (dis)continuities in social constructions.
The research project of the RITS focuses on four clusters:
(1) The development of ‘artistic-scientific’ concepts of (documentary) radio, starting from the ‘paradox of globalisation’: the omnipresence of ‘the world’ as a mediatised entity, and the near absence of artistic – let alone ideological – answers to that challenge.
(2) The relationship between document (archive), documentary (journalism) and theatricality in contemporary performance practices. The nature of the ‘truth claim’ and the ‘reality check’ of these practises is the central research question.
(3) The translation of the theoretical paradigm into concrete issues of the historiography of art today. How can we take into account the notion of ‘deferred action’ (Freuds Nachträglichkeit), when making a ‘back up’ of our performances?
(4) We resume these issues and redirect them to a theme of repressed history: Congo, Belgium’s ex-colony – a part of our collective subconscious. Both this repression as the almost cliché-like ethnographical/anthropological connotations of this theme, make it suitable to serve as the meeting point of the aforementioned issues.
This contribution wants to demonstrate how a specific research project on essential issues of representation can clarify more general questions of artistic research in contemporary urban contexts.

 

Art Schools in Relation to Creative Enterprises 

Stephanie James, Arts University College Bournemouth
The role played by the Higher Education Art and Design sector in the development of ‘value’ and ‘quality’ in association with the cultural industries

This paper interrogates a much-debated but complex issue of current and future significance to the practice and dissemination of contemporary visual arts: what constitutes ‘value’ and ‘quality’ in this context? Further, how are these terms understood both individually and in relation to each other by stakeholders, including the public who visit the contemporary art gallery and engage with the work exhibited there?

In September 2008, the Arts Council England (ACE) published the findings of its two-year-long ‘Arts Debate’, concluding that ACE will ‘create most value for the public’ by enabling people to ‘experience high quality art’. However, the ACE policy document does not engage with what is understood by ‘value’, nor does it offer a range of criteria for an evaluative approach to what constitutes ‘high quality art’.

This paper discusses the generation of new insights and the role played by the Art & Design higher education sector in the development of value and quality in association with the cultural industries. This paper brings academic researchers into dialogue with those interested in the trends that have shaped/are shaping the practice of, and critical context that informs, the contemporary visual arts - artists/practitioners, gallery directors, representatives of funding bodies and other stakeholders.

Audience research reasons that the main criteria for ‘high quality’ relate to the crafting of the art work, the display of skills and virtuosity by the artist, in relation to the professed intent or meaning of the work. The measures of ‘high quality’ relate to the audience’s experience of the work and their satisfaction with the value of the experience. Contemporary art galleries struggle to find the appropriate criteria in order to identify ‘public value’.

The way the price of artwork influences its cultural value sits uneasily with Art & Design education and the success of Art Fairs such as Frieze has a significant impact on the expectations of students in determining their futures.

Emergent Social Media and New Educational Narratives

John O’Connor, School of Art, Design and Printing, Dublin Institute of Technology
Finding life hard? Start over!

For all of us working in the creative industries it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the creeping invasion of online social media. Indeed, it would be foolhardy not to acknowledge the ubiquity of 'always on' communication channels and the potential they offer.

Nevertheless, this brave new world has changed the playing field for designers: whether or not we yet realise it. Bruns identifies the emergence of 'produsers' - those who are both producers and users of content. Bloggers, facebook users, those who post to sites such as YouTube, Flickr, etc are all part of this new world where we are all becoming creative individuals comfortable with originating material for our own and others' consumption. The notion of the designer as conduit for a client's message is no longer the full story. For example, blogging tools make it possible for anyone to self-publish to a fully professional looking standard. Selecting from a amazing range of professionally designed templates a novice can produce a professional looking website in a very short time.

Online virtual worlds take the phenomenon even further and residents, as those who inhabit such places as Second Life are known, design and build not only their own houses but entire cities that are living breathing communities. Inevitably, as these communities become bigger and more complex those with creative skills become sought after.

'Virtual Environments: Is one life enough?' is an accredited third level module for designers delivered entirely in Second Life. The module ponders these issues and seeks to understand their impact on the design profession, the opportunities for designers and the wider impact on society.


Lynda Devenney and Laurence Riddell, IADT,Dun Laghaire

Lynda Devenney and Laurence Riddell (School of Creative Arts, Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire) will be presenting a site-specific project from the 1st year BA Hons Visual Arts Practice programme in collaboration with The Irish Museum of Modern Art. The project incorporates online mapping tools for reflection and critique and the creation of a visual dynamic archive of project work completed off campus.

In support of research autonomy and self-direction students are given an opportunity to cultivate strategic thinking and processing and to transfer strategies to other problems and contexts. Effectively students become authors off their own learning experience. Web technology and to be more specific the Wiki site was adopted as a tool to assist students in self-direction and self-evaluation and as part of the project outcomes students were asked to publish online research material. This presentation will show how online mapping tools and online publishing enriched the learning experience through sharing knowledge and creating dialogue and feedback with a wider audience.


Hyunjung Bae, Columbia College Chicago
The Wikiest Link: Intentionally informal use of SNS for post class discussion

Substantial social science research has explored the relationship between the structure/design of Social Network Sites (SNS) and the effectiveness of communication (e.g. Boyd and Ellison, 2007; Donath, 2007, Ellison et al., 2007). Among many emerging SNSs, Facebook is of particular interest because it embodies a variety of the social utility of emerging technologies (Paparcharissi, 2002). This study is particularly interested in the latent function of Facebook as a learning tool rather than for its utilitarian functions (e.g. submission of assignments, grading, sharing supplemental materials). Two related research questions are (1) Does/ How does having an exclusive (classmates only) FB page help students understand the material? (2) How do less structured interactions within a closed Facebook page influence/ facilitate learning?

Simply having more time to discuss the subjects that are not fully explored during the class time may increase student’s understanding either via direct participation in the discussion or even merely as an audience to such discussion. Students who are less extroverted may find it easier to participate in online discussions rather than vocalizing opinions within the classroom setting. Perhaps more importantly, having an arena where they can propose new topics, ideas, and material may increase student’s sense of ownership of the material, hence facilitating the understanding and the retention of the subject matter. While these findings may be conventional in their value, the working of the interaction itself is of more interest. Casual contacts with the classmates with whom they may not have interaction outside of the class on SNS fosters a sense of belonging and community, which in turn enhances teamwork and promotes participation.

A critical point for the instructor to consider is that the contacts among the members of the class Facebook page must not be staged or orchestrated. The sense of belonging and community building is an organic outcome rather than a goal. The challenge for the instructors is quite similar to that of the conventional managers of large corporations: let go of control. Highly controlled, prefabricated corporate messages have lost their efficacy and have been replaced with consumer (often called prosumer) - generated messages. Class Facebook pages resemble a company R&D centre (e.g. Yet2.com, InnoCentive, Legoworld) that is open to the interested, involved, and qualified consumers. Prosumers of such Facebook pages learn networking, peering, and sharing critical to the development of arts students.

(h)eART(h): Regeneration of cities and the role of the art schools

Kevin James Henry, Columbia College Chicago
Craftivism: reconnecting art and design education through the social act of making

The split between craft and art was accelerated in the fifteenth century due in part to Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Painters a cohesive narrative that elevated art above craft despite the fact that many of the artists described had apprenticed as artisans. Craft provided a foundation for broad-based approaches to solving problems while creating communities of shared knowledge. Brunelleschi, a goldsmith by training, used empirical methods to complete the dome of the Florence cathedral as well as validating his nascent theory on perspective- an experiment that spawned centuries of refinement and innovation. As author Malcolm McCullough describes it: “Towns created guilds- and guilds made towns- in order to instigate commerce.” Art thrived on this commerce as artists and artisans plied their skills and imagination to glorify their merchant benefactors. Vasari, according to historian Richard Goldthwaite, was amongst the first to use the word competition (concorrenza) in the economic sense to describe the intense struggle amongst individual artists for commissions.

Fast forward to the 21st century and we are witnessing new forms of collaboration based around social networking and open sharing of resources and knowledge- dynamics that traditionally bind craft culture. Does this represent a significant shift away from the individual and back to the collective or merely a temporary trend? Sociologist and urban historian Richard Sennett, author of The Craftsman, greatly expands craft’s definition to include ‘social capital’ accumulated through social interaction which includes medical practitioners, opensource programmers or any individual or community devoted to the acquisition and shared use of ‘skilled’ knowledge. Citing the 10,000 hour rule, Sennett connects craft to process (trial-and-error persistence) as opposed to specific outcomes only. Craft, in Sennett’s definition, is helping redefine the idea of design/studio practice as a collaborative process.

In this presentation I will discuss the complex and multifaceted ways in which artist and artisan/designer can converge once again in the knowledge economy and embrace ‘craftivism’- localized problem solving/making with an activist sensibility to improve the greater social good of communities (urban and small town alike). I will examine historical ties (social, cultural, and economic) between art, craft, and commerce and present case studies of current work to propose ways of re-thinking arts education to leverage the power of social networks and opensource knowledge exchanges that deal directly with the impact of passive consumption and environmental degradation to create stronger and more sustainable cities and towns.


Meltem Yılmaz (Hacettepe University, Faculty of Fine Arts Department of Interior Architecture & Environmental Design)
Lessons Learnt from Vernacular for Sustainable Cities

Vernacular buildings are human constructs that result from the interrelations between ecological, economic, material, political and social factors. If the vernacular makes up 90 per cent of the world’s buildings and consists of approximately 800 million dwellings, it can not be ignored within the context of future architectural research (Paul Oliver, 2003). Despite this statistic, the vernacular is often ignored in both architectural education and from within the architectural profession.
Once the vernacular is seen not as a static building form, but as constantly evolving, reacting to changes in the communities that shaped its form, it will become higher on the agenda in architectural education and more considered in the world of the practitioner concerned with conservation and the sustainability of the built environment.
Many cities are subject to the danger of commercialization and cultural uniformity, which destroys their own individuality and identity. This includes, real estate speculation, infrastructure projects which are out of scale with their environment or mass tourism. These factors frequently combine to cause serious damage to the social life of towns and cities and to reduce their potential as attractive locations for living. The different lifestyles of inhabitants of towns and cities have to be viewed as a part of the cultural heritage within vernacular architecture. The research of vernacular is important for learning the natural way of solving problems; without using any mechanical equipment hence not giving any damage to the natural environment.

Technological developments suggested an alternative world against the natural one in which we inhabit and by which we are embodied. It attempts to establish new mode of existence by setting its own notions of space, time, reality, community and identity. Locally determined identities are no more valid in the global theoretical, representational and artistic movements.

Architecture as being one of the ancient disciplines to shape an identity was influenced from the new mode of information and its borderless circulation. The computerized technology became the medium to receive and transfer this information throughout the world regardless the local conditions. The world, now, has begun to live simultaneously as a condition of the great global market . One of the consequences of this development was the loosing of local identities and their transformation according to the market demand. In this paper we will attempt to encourage the research of vernacular and derive lessons from the vernacular to apply the current cities as principles.


Petr Oslzlý (Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts Brno (JAMU), Theatre Faculty)
The role of theatre and theatre schools in the creation of the human dimension of a city home institution

Culture, including theatre, is the offspring of the community, its vision and foresight, shaped and named and seen by the selfsame group. Culture is the fertile soil of the community, developing and defining its relations, forming both its face and soul. So every artistic act places its brand on community life, and can only be truly comprehended through its community.
Every aspect of art, for good or ill, is rooted in the community, and thus every product of art reflects both the community and the times. Theatre lives and breathes the moment, and therefore any “theatrical act”, irrespective of performance space, should be seen as the face and fundament of the community, coming into being only in that given time and place through the interaction of performers and audience.

In our investigation we must address the matter of “the social responsibility of theatre”, which is the base-line of pedagogical elements in theatre schools, and, with students, explore:-

1/ The position of art and artists in society. The relationship of society towards what is termed living culture.

2/ When, and by what medium, is a feeling of community introduced into society. Which art forms and what cultural activities can evoke this feeling.

3/ The relationship of an artistic fiction to reality. The issue of authenticity in an artistic work. The resonance of the specific theme of theatre (and other artistic) “evidence” in relation to the material, legal or judicial, and intellectual or spiritual state of affairs in society.

4/ The mission of art in society. Under what sort of political (judicial or economic) conditions does art begin to substitute for some other of society’s functions?

5/ The relationship of art and ethics. Can the supreme quality of an artistic work protect it against having unclear ethical ramifications? Under what circumstances is the ethical quality in a work of art more important than the aesthetic? Does catharsis exist in contemporary theatrical (or other artistic) work? What can evoke a feeling of catharsis in the present day?

6/ The issue of the theatricality of contemporary public life, especially politics.
These objectives of intellectual solution however must rest on cultural anthropology and performance studies, and must move to interdisciplinary frontiers, and are thus the rightful remit of theatre schools.

Writing the Story: Narrative Trails in Academic Writing

Franziska Nyfenegger, Luzerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts
Becoming friends with the ABC
Reflections on writing across the design curriculum

Writing is not a favourite subject of art and design students; yet academic writing is still less popular (Clarke, 2007; Francis, 2009). Often art and design students perceive writing as opposite to creative work (Orr & Blythman, 2002) and academic writing as a useless burden imposed by Bologna reforms (Nyffenegger, 2009). As well in other study fields like pedagogy, history or social science students perceive academic writing as a hard and difficult task (Kruse, 2007). How to teach academic writing in a motivating and successful way has therefore been widely studied and discussed in the last decade (Bean, 2001; Björk et al., 2003; Ehlich & Steets, 2003; Girgensohn, 2007; Kruse, Berger & Ulmi, 2006; Ruhmann, 2008). In many disciplines, writing centers and writing programs have been established. In the UK, the teaching of writing skills in art and design disciplines has become an own research field (see http://www.writing-pad.ac.uk and Journal of Writing in Creative Practice). All the same, most european design faculties – except for the UK, Ireland and Norway – ignore these experiences and lack a systematic, research-based debate about writing in and across design curricula. Writing and especially academic writing are poor cousins to design students as well as to design lecturers.

This paper examines in the first part results obtained in the frame of writing research in general and of writing research in art and design. It then presents current teaching practice using blogs as learning instruments. Blogs allow to establish a narrative in a class and along a course. Blocking search engines, they offer a semi-public and safe space to overcome writing problems. They suit the interweaving of creative and academic writing. They promote discourse among students and among teachers and students. And they allow students to experience the core of writing: sharpening thoughts by sketching with the alphabet. Selected examples illustrate what has to be considered when using blogs as a learning environment and as a tool for assessment. Success as well as failure are considered and evaluated. The final discussion focuses on the narrative qualities of blogs (Pachler & Daly, 2009).

The Training of an Artist as an Intervener

Serge von Arx, Norwegian Theatre Academy
training art guerrillas

A workshop in the fall 2009 with the 3rd year scenography students at the Norwegian Theatre Academy focussed on the role of the “art intervener”: in Østfold a new Science Center is about to be built. The architectural project and its functions is largely defined. Its scenography needs to be elaborated which was the task for my students. They approached this topic in a way which may only be imaginable within the safe intellectual compounds of the Academy. The students developed a scenography reflecting all parameters of a Science Center and merging the arts with science by questioning all common understandings of this relationship. Their project was not an art work serving science, but an encounter of art and science on the same level. The notion of disciplines became obsolete. The work being more tactics than a concrete design was presented by the students to the Science Center’s executives as well as regional politicians.

Artistic work is about asking questions and not giving answers. In any art discipline the students should first acquire skills and knowledge which allows them to artistically reflect the world surrounding us; at the same time they put into question the knowledge and skills they have obtained. We train our students as intervening artists on the BA level. A paradox lies in my conviction that the students first should have a solid foundation which they can build their work on, while at the same time I am aware of the “cultural socialisation process” this inevitably entails. The true art guerrilla should be educated more openly, more freshly, unbiased. This development is similar to our children growing up in the Western society: by learning and acquiring “our” knowledge they loose the ability of thinking abstractly. Only few keep the childlike spirit which is a key aspect for any distinct “creator”, be it in the arts, science or any other field.

Facing the paradox mentioned above I try to teach my students in these two tracks running parallel; constantly building a theory and skill based knowledge while challenging their artistic approach to any given task or topic. The practical side as well as the interdisciplinary reflection are the key elements in this training. And since the interdisciplinary precedes the “disciplines”, it becomes a contradiction in terms. In this sense the “intervener” is defining his or her very discipline while researching and implementing it.


Karin Fleming, University of Ulster
Does my S3 look big in this?

Usually when scientists work with artists, the scientist tells the artist about science, and the artist finds some way of presenting that to the public as an artwork. A team of textile artists has reversed that trend, by helping their science project partners develop new understandings of the human body – using, amongst other things the medium of a pair of jeans!

Dermatomes are areas of skin supplied by a single spinal nerve. These are important in illness - when you get shingles, a dermatome area gets infected. They are also important in anaesthetics, if an area of skin needs to be numbed for an operation or procedure. There are standard maps of dermatomes in medical textbooks, dating back generations. However when artists and medical educators worked together and began painting the dermatomes on the living human body, they found that things weren't as simple as they seemed. The maps show front and back views, not the sides. "As a textile artist I was used to thinking about the seams at the sides of garments, so I was particularly interested in the side view. We were surprised to find that the text book pictures just didn't work - the front view and the back view didn't join up".

This has both significance, in terms of how the conventional views came to be represented in text books, but could also have clinical significance, leading perhaps, to new understanding of the maps which are currently found in most doctors' surgeries.

It can also lead to new fun ways of teaching that have impact upon engagement, learning and professionalism. The team was already exploring the use of haptic and craft engagement in a truly memorable way through body painting with medical students and radiography students in two UK universities. As a quicker version of getting the message across, three pairs of jean were created, showing different aspects of the dermatome maps. These strategies have been well received in the medical teaching environment, for example at Association for Medical Education in Europe conference and at international anatomical meetings. Here we will outline how art can enhance induction experience and promote deep learning, developing essential professional and communication skills through cross disciplinary research.

And the title of the presentation? Your rear end is supplied by the third sacral nerve - so the title of the talk in Nantes is "Does my S3 look big in this?"

Discipline Sessions

Architecture

Johan Verbeke & Adam Jakimowicz, St. Lukas School of Architecture
Artistic Research and Research through Designing

This contribution “Artistic Research and research through Designing” originates from the observation that there are plenty of similarities to the current developments in artistic research and what is happening in the field of architecture in relation to ‘research through designing’. These issues have been discussed during many international conferences including ‘The unthinkable doctorate’ (2005), ‘Communicating (y) Design’, ELIA Conference (2008), the Sensuous Knowledge conferences, ‘The difference of art and art research across the disciplines’ (2009) and many others.
The authors intend to first discuss developments in the field of architecture and report on the developments in their own School. The School of Architecture is currently in the process of forming a faculty of Architecture and Arts allowing to discuss synergy and differences between artistic fields (eg. music, visual arts, design, architecture).
The authors then intend to explore this field by introducing to and discussing with the audience statements which intend to trigger and provoke debate between the participants.

The statements/citations will include:
• Basic research is what I am doing when I don’t know what I am doing (Wernher von Braun);
• The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before (Thorstein Veblen);
• If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it? (Albert Einstein);
• Creative work is play. It is free speculation using materials of one’s chosen form (Stephen Nachmanowicz);
• The core characteristic of knowledge is the ability to recognize new elements of what is named via the name (Gerard De Zeeuw).

These will be complemented by some other citations of leading researchers in the field of artistic and architectural research (eg. Henk Borgdorff, Halina Dunin-Woyseth). They will be visually strenghtened with carefully chosen images – synergically supporting the content and introducing the parallel thread of understanding.
Moreover, this contribution will introduce some running PhD projects in the arts and in architecture to function as tangible cases to support and illustrate the more abstract discussions.
Based on the previous statements, the authors intend to start a discussion on the specific characteristics and differences on developments in the field of artistic research and (architectural) research by designing.

Fine Art and Curating

Lucy Renton, University of the Arts London
Rob Flint, Nottingham Trent University
The Curriculum is Out There

"…the mechanisms of contemporary art, rather than the results, could be a field of academic knowledge... Instead of studying works and canons, we would study processes and strategies”
(Elkins 2007)
The expansion of networked sources of information, entertainment and educational content is forcing the University to redefine its role. No longer the privileged source of information held for, and accessed by, the elite few admitted within, the institution now has to define itself as other than the repository of content, since content is everywhere.
The discipline of Fine Art is uniquely positioned to provide a pedagogical model for this change. Why? - Because the discipline is formed by a practice which is led from outside the institution itself. Perpetually mutating, self-critical and non-teleological, the practices of art in the present century have willfully sought to evade incorporation into purposeful (and therefore ideological) systems of meaning production.
A concise history of art practices since the last century shows a development from the creation of artworks for a pre-existing context (the collection, the gallery, the museum) toward a closer critical examination of the context itself. Increasingly, the artist engages in the production of concepts rather than objects, even when objects are being produced.
This has necessitated a change in the older model of the studio as training, via emulation and mimicry, in the requirements of a sub-discipline or pathway (painting, sculpture, etc) towards a model which is social, largely self-determined, but consisting of experiences which foster independent critical practice.
Amid the current discussions of qualification in terms of equivalence, this paper urges us to maintain focus on the student experience as something distinct from, and not reducible to, a certificate. Using instances from the 'open curriculum' or non-pathway model of Fine Art learning and teaching at English art schools including Nottingham Trent University, and case study projects supported by the Higher Education Academy Art Design and Media Subject Centre, this paper shows how professional practice ‘outside’ may be delivered as curriculum content, and how student employability is enhanced by independence, rather than technical skills.
While UK HE faces massive cuts, and existing funds are directed towards ‘STEM’ (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) subjects, this paper argues unfashionably against the Skills agenda for a non-teleological art education that emphasises the experience of education over the qualification, and the context of production over its content.


Sissel Lillebostad, Bergen National Academy of the Arts
The daily practice of imaging things differently

For the practice of a curator, an essential question is related to the position of the curator as placed inside the existing division of art. The freelance curator that emerged in the late 1950’s, like Harald Szeemann and Seth Siegelaub, were quite aware of the gap described by Marcel Duchamp – the creative act. Duchamp claims that the work of art is not the sole making of the artist. The artist just delivers the raw material. The audience is playing the part of the finishing creator, the maker of the end result. A work of art therefore exists only in relation with a public and in public.
The creative act serves here as a hypothesis – which has to be tested. And artists and curators, in a mutual relationship where the border between these professions gets merged, do the testing. Curators play (in this ideal functions) the role of the mediator, putting the hypothesis in contact with an audience, which then function as the responder, maybe even as a testing ground for critical self-awareness. In this model the curator take part in the production line of art – on the same side of the creative gap as artists. They – as collaborative curators – are not the judgers of art anymore. They will also be working in a state of doubt and insecurity, where the exhibitions as such are depending upon the transformation from raw art (testing ground) to a completed work being performed by an audience.

Curating moved in this period from being a post-production work towards developing a dynamic formula where the exhibition consisted of fragments, processes and a site-dependency that also included time as a frame. The exhibition turned into a vehicle where critical thinking about and through art is investigated.

This also means that the curator does not take a hierarchical stand, every work has the same weight, the relationships between works are open-ended and in a state of flux. This might be an answer to the quest for coming-into-being as posed by Deleuze and Guattari, but we can also trace the same thinking in the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty. As long as the object/event is not fixed and finished, it is still alive – in the meaning it can still change.

Design

Andrew Kulman, Birmingham Institute of Art & Design
Authorial Practices in Graphic Art Education: Empowerment and Communication through Words and Image.

My current research has looked at new developments in authorial practice in the fields of Graphic Art and Visual Communications. Through drawing processes visual language is being able to communicate across an ever widening arena by means of self authored publications/ ‘zines’ or simply Artist’s Books. New applications of traditional print making alongside developments in digital technology have meant that the process of self publishing has never been easier and is being used as an opportunity to communicate across cultural diversity as well as maintaining individual expression and values.
With the ever increasing pressure where art and design becomes an amalgamation of varied intentions, compromises and adaptations it seems very timely that more artists and designers are re staking their ‘territories’ and taking control of the whole publication process. In the Faculty of BIAD at Birmingham City University there have been several worthwhile initiatives that have promoted the opportunities for university students to become self publishers. As a result of this we have been able to consider cross-school/ faculty collaborations with both the School of Art and School of English. I would like to expand on the collaborative engagement of self authored works and the opportunities that can be developed from these.
The practice of storytelling both aural and written is very current in contemporary teaching practice and this is something that was the basis of the ELIA Teachers' academy held earlier this year in Sofia. This presentation seeks to build on some of the ideas and findings from that workshop and to consider further developments. The participatory aspect of self authored work that involves visual thinking and dialogue allows accessibility for greater numbers of artists/writers from different backgrounds. A wider participation from culturally diverse groups encourages different views and identities to be empowered with a personal, visual voice. When these authorial projects are most successful the participants have been able to express ideas that are not so easy to be verbalised, sometimes they are social often political.


Ezgi Hakan, Anadolu University
Focusing on 2D Software Aid in Tile Design

Computer aided design is a new technology and spreading approach in the product and surface design fields beginning from the end of 20th century all over the world. In the 21st century it is inevitable to use digital equipments as new generation design tools in terms of time saving time and shortening the process of design, production and manufacturing processes.
In addition these developments bring together the advantages of creating alternatives of design to choose the best version of all, to change easily and correct the details and to ease the use and keep of DATA base.

constructed on the demand of new era’s technological systems of the date., 2D and 3D soft wares are being used to practice new possible design resources that incites to develop creativity in ceramics design on the level of university education which is a necessity in accordance with the progress of market and industry evolution.

Focusing on 2D Software aided ceramic surface design at the 1st and 2nd classes, as starting point of design procedure, the students are enabled to develop their base of basic design skills, while using basic design principles and improving methods of creativity, working on free hand drawings and sketches and hand building to learn the production process of artistic and functional ceramics during this hand making centered education.

Being aware of every step of ceramics production, in the 3rd and 4th years the students begin to get familiar with soft wares of 2D modelling, besides working continuously on hand based applications as well.

This application dealing with computer generated 2D designs, while contributing to collaboration of industry and university contributes the students to be familiar with new era design and production systems, criterion while creating a new work area for them in the industry when they graduate.

Through these experiences they gin the opportunity to work as free lancer designs that produce designs for companies and production units of different scales or start to work to become expert at the product development departments of factories that are based mass production.

Film and New Media

Per Zetterfalk, Memoria Productions
Directing as Research

Last year, I was the first doctoral student to graduate from the University College of Film, Radio, Television and Theatre in Sweden. The result consists of a thesis, Inter esse, and a documentary film, Norén’s drama, on the internationally acclaimed playwright Lars Norén’s direction of a new work for the theatre.

My focus is the originator’s way to the finished work. From my perspective, artistic research has its main focus in praxis-based, problem-solving reflection. It is about creating an awareness of the extremely inaccessible modes of artistic choice.

What is the difference between being a subject, doing something oneself, and observing? In this research I assume both positions, in a double role. I am a registering and documenting researcher as well as a filmmaker.

Norén’s drama is both a tool of interpretation in the study of Norén and an intensifying of the overall research result. With the film I try to chisel out the unutterable creative subject and in so doing I attempt to widen a limit within science. This brings about a discussion of the process, the work and criteria for the meeting place between knowledge objects that my work attempts to create.

Norén himself, author of more than 70 plays and among the most produced living playwrights in Europe, has said that he can go on as an author in his directing, but that he foremost is an author.

With this study I hope to shed light on the author’s process indirectly, through the directing, through the way Norén captures the tone in what isn’t said and how his view on the text relates to the physical language of the actors.

The play itself was not finished when initial rehearsals began and as a result became more of a basis for something, a kind of search instrument. The intention was for the actors to participate, to have an influence on the script. My description of the process is about his work with the actors, and how the text is developed parallel to the direction.

Also, I describe my position as researcher thoroughly: both in the context of my developing relationship with Norén and in how I myself work as a filmmaker. With Norén’s drama I was able to both observe and manifest an experience of the process of creating meaning. It is a filmic essay on the creative subject seen through a process.


Tim Middleton, Bath Spa University
‘Where’s the timetable?’
Hot housing entrepreneurship in creative students
 
What happens when you take students from a range of creative subjects off campus and hothouse them together in a commercial studio setting? How does immersion in a collaborative and commercially oriented studio setting shape the work of students from a range of creative disciplines? Why do traditional patterns of study leave students ill-prepared for the collaborative creativity required in today’s creative industry employment settings? How does a timetable-free approach to teaching creativity enable the development of an entrepreneurial approach to practice? Do incubation units create entrepreneurial creatives?

This paper seeks to open up debate on these topics by presenting a case study of the first 18 month’s work at Artswork Media, Bath Spa University’s 320,000 Euro studio space housed in the Paintworks media park in Bristol. The studio was developed in the light of a 5-year programme of pedagogic research associated with the University’s Artwork centre for creative industries - www.artsworkbathspa.com. Artswork’s innovative Learning in the Arts project collected data enabling the University to learn about its creative industry students, their pre-disposition to creative traits, their expectations of their course, their motivation for studying, and their career aspirations. The research tracked students from over four years, and the data reveals much about students’ experience of their course compared to their expectations and picks up shifts in their perceptions, attitudes and aspirations. The multi-disciplinary experiential learning ethos behind Artswork Media was framed by this research.

At Artswork Media students from a range of Bath Spa’s creative programmes – including creative writing, media production, film, publishing and graphic communication – have the option to spend their final year off campus in the studio where they work collaboratively on live briefs and their own projects. For the University the project seeks to accelerate students’ entry into the world of work by immersing them in an entrepreneurial setting removed from the familiar campus environment and its routines. The presentation will present examples of the work created during the first 18 months of operation, and reflects on the wider implications for curriculum design in creative subjects by reference to the design ethos and pedagogic thinking behind the project.

International Relations

Philip Courtenay, University of the Arts London
Virtual encounters, and the constructions of memory

The first reference point is the history of the city of Nantes, and the way “centres” are the products of complex histories of communication and exchange. Paul Virilio, an inhabitant of Nantes during WW2, experienced the aftermath and devastation of the bombing of the city, but says ”when it comes down to it, only re-construction could really disorient me by destroying the constructions of my memory. In the research environment of e-space lab the connection of people and places, using easily accessible web-based digital technology, is a live project mapping existing urban and social fabric as it slips from “the constructions of memory” into re-construction. Through the engagement of artistic documentation, and the creation of situations of encounter, memory survives in a process of exchange based in the practice of everyday lives in Liverpool, Shanghai and Gdansk, cities in flux.

In “art in the cities” e-space lab is linking with Shanghai University School of Fine Arts and Liverpool School of Art and Design
Art and Design Academy at John Moores University, exploring the way art projects and processes affect sense of place, meanings, connecting the present with memory and so avoiding amnesiac futures. The learning benefits occur in both directions in encounters with different practices, city-to-city, locale-to-locale (and local to local, rather than local-global), and the possibility of generating entirely new concepts through mutual misinterpretations. This “catalytic” process opens up the notion that in art academies challenging the autonomy of art has potential pedagogical value in thinking more about art as a way to discover the world in all its particularities, rather than generally finding more about art in order to make new art. This connects to the theme of arts capacity to identify territories in a live and fluid process of activities.

Referencing the way e-space lab is constructing a theoretical framework will include the value of discourses such as Actor-network-theory and Non-representation theory, a world made up of diverse networks of association constituted by that association - by links rather than nodes of the network and by the traffic through the links. Looking at the city with its urban fabric as essentially an environment of hardware, we can see that the work of the artist is often about looking at the city as a software environment, a social fabric of ideas and fashions and connections, a context that can be shaped and re-shaped without the usual destructive consequences.


Tanya Power, University of Limerick
City Patterns: The Role of the Arts in Urban Regeneration

This presentation examines practice based research projects within the urban regeneration environment. In the presentation I will explore responsible commissioning and the potential for sustainable communication strategies within a context for creative exchange between partners.
Core aspects of the presentation will look at the environment of urban regeneration and arts based integration for social collusion/interaction and sustainable partnerships. To illustrate what constitutes environments of urban regeneration and creative partnerships I will look at models of good practice and why particular art programmes are successful in creative exchanges and why others are not.
I will look at strategies used in certain projects and how the communication and design of the art work was developed through a series of mediations into social and cultural relations – of people to place, of design constructions within the urban landscape and the connection of citizens to urban architecture and public spaces.
As part of the presentation I will outline how my professional experience of collaborative art exchange projects informed my thinking in respect of the commissioning process and the expectations of the artist, the community and the artwork. The “City Patterns” project* charts the effects of the linear landscapes within a modern urban context through an examination of dystopic spaces, regeneration, identity and communication.
The paper chronicles the re-evaluation of my own perceptions as an artist, in defining the brief, the design of the project and the re-contextualisation of the final art work. The artistic process employed posed larger questions in addition to the more immediate reflections after the project. Should the artist’s role within urban regeneration projects be as a researcher or as a mediator of social or cultural change? Or is the artists role as an agent of social and political commentator/activist?
The paper charts the role of the arts (the artwork and artist) within the area of urban regeneration in the context of the commissioning process, the funding partners and the rationale for commissioning arts based projects within areas designated as disadvantaged. The presentation examines the “collaborative” partners, the functions of art and the expectations of what art can deliver and for whom.

Music

Henrik Frisk, Malmö Academy of Music
Musical improvisation and computers: Real-time composition and in-time performance

One of the perhaps more obvious differences between composed and improvised music is the fact that the latter unfolds in real-time whereas parts of the former is constructed outside of real-time. This is not to say, however, that improvised music is void of compositional strategies but that the in-time aspect of improvisation—the way it is embedded in time—is important and significant and that this property makes it particularly interesting for artistic research. To improvise with computers further complicates the picture as the temporal properties of a machine is in every respect different from those of a human. In this short paper it is discussed how the temporal aspects of musical improvisation with computers influence both the practice and the research performed through the practice.

In-time actions are actions where the time taken matters, where time is a factor whose value is decisive. For example, when I walk it is not just that my leg is moving that matters but also the time it takes to move it. Musical performance and improvisation are typical in-time operations. As for actions that occur over-time, the time consumed by the action is of little significance to the result. Computation is a typical example of an over-time operation: The primary interest is the result itself, and as such it will not be affected by the amount of time it takes to arrive at it. In other words, and in general terms: to combine musical improvisation and computers means to combine different temporal modes of operation.

It is argued here that research in and through the practice of musical improvisation should resist the temptation of objectifying the in-time performance (through transcription, recording, etc.) and instead embrace the possibilities and the great challenges that lies in investigating the in-the-moment, unfolding, real-time, processes of creative and interactive activities. Furthermore, such inquiries performed on musical improvisation with computers may provide related practices and more general fields of research, such as Human-Computer Interaction research, with interesting insights.

Papers and presentations

We are in the process of receiving and processing all papers from the 11th ELIA Biennial. If your paper is not yet there, please contact us.

Symposia

1. Upheavals in the landscape of Higher Arts Education in Europe

Frans van Vught:
U-map and U-multirank: Two new transparency tools

2. Artistic research in Europe 2010: A necessary dialogue of users and stakeholders

Klaas Tindemans:
The document as performance

Kerstin Mey
It takes two to tango

Timothy Emlyn Jones
Art research as creative process

 

5. Emergent social media and new educational initiatives

Laurence Ridell and Lynda Devenney:
New learning spaces

Hyunjung Bae
The wikiest link: Intentionally informal use of SNS for post class discussion

 

6. HEARTH - Regeneration of cities and the role of art schools

Kevin Henry:
Craftivism: reconnecting art and design education through the social act of making

Petr Oslzly
The function of theatres and theatre schools in creating the human dimension of the city

7. Writing the story: narrative trails in academic writing

Franziska Nyfenegger
Becoming friends with the ABC

Maziar Raein et al.
Narrative trails in academic writing

Discipline sessions

Architecture

Johan Verbeke and Adam Jakimowicz
Designing a prime

Fine Art and Curating

Sissel Lillebostad
The daily practice of imagining things differently

Rob Flint and Lucy Renton
The Curriculum is Out There
presentation

Isidro López-Aparicio
Mapping and naming Oriental Sahara
Paradoxia, created by ILA (presentation of Paradox)

Design

Andrew Kulman:
Authorial practices in graphic art education

Music

Henrik Frisk:
Time and reciprocity in improvisation

Gérard Pape:
A “polyagogic” approach to the use of the computer in music pedagogy

Film and New Media

Andrea Braidt
Why feminist film theory should matter to art students

Per Zetterfalk
Seven remarks on artistic research

Tim Middleton
Where's the timetable? making space and the dissolution of discipline boundaries
presentation

International Relations

Philip Courtenay
Move photons not people

Symposia

There will be four parallel symposia on Thursday morning and four parallel symposia on Thursday afternoon, each with a different theme which is related to the overall conference theme.

The steering committee would like to pay special attention to the current worldwide economical and environmental crisis in the Biennial Conference Nantes 2010. Therefore we ask you kindly to use the themes Responsibility, Sustainability and Environment as underlying inspiration for submissions for papers and presentations.

A. Thursday morning

1. Upheavals in the landscape of Higher Arts Institutions in Europe
   Organiser: Ulf Dalnäs, University of Gothenburg
2. Art Schools in relation to Creative Enterprises
   Organiser: Gerald Bast, University of Applied Arts Vienna
3. Emergent Social Media and New Educational Narratives
   Organiser: Kieran Corcoran, School of Art, Design and Printing, Faculty of Applied Arts, Dublin Institute of Technology
4. (h)eART(h); Regeneration of cities and the role of the art schools
   Organisers: Emanuelle Chérel, Ecole supérieure des Beaux arts de Nantes métropole (esbanm); Laurent Devisme, laboratory for languages, urban actions and otherness (LAUA-ENSA Nantes)
   

B. Thursday afternoon

1. Artistic research in Europe 2010: A necessary dialogue of users and stakeholders
   Organiser: Johan Öberg, University of Gothenburg
2. Creativity: reclaimed!
   Organisers: Klaus Jung, Academy of Media Arts Cologne; Steve Kapelke, Columbia College Chicago
3. Writing the Story; Narrative Trails in Academic Writing
   Organisers: Susan Orr, York St John University; Margot Blythman, CLTAD, University of the Arts London
   
4. The training of an artist as an intervener
   Organiser: Thera Jonker, Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU)
   ["Intervene" is a warrior ability trained at level 70 for 6 gold and 50 silver (World of Warcraft) ]

Discipline sessions

There will be seven parallel discipline sessions on Friday morning. The aim of each discipline session is to stimulate dialogue, sharing good and/or innovative practice on specific art disciplines in relation to the overarching theme for the conference.

The steering committee would like to pay special attention to the current worldwide economical and environmental crisis in the Biennial Conference Nantes 2010. Therefore we ask you kindly to use the themes Responsibility, Sustainability and Environment as underlying inspiration for submissions for papers and presentations.

1. Architecture
   Organisers: Christian Dautel, Ecole superieure des beaux-arts d'Angers; Philippe Bataille, Ecole nationale supérieure d’Architecture de Nantes
2. Film and New Media
   Organiser: Anna Daucikova, Academy of Fine Arts and Design Bratislava
3. Theatre/Dance
   Organiser: Francesco Beja, ESMAE – Escola Superior de Música e das Artes do Espectáculo, Instituto Politécnico do Porto
4. Fine Art and Curating
   Organiser: Etienne Bernard
5. Music
   Organiser: Marje Lohuaru, Estonian Academy of Music
6. Design
   Organiser: Jacqueline Febvre, l'IAV Higher School of Art and Design
   
7. International relations
   Organiser: Mark Gaynor, The European League of Institutes of the Arts

Funders

With the support of

Ville de Nantes
Nantes Métropole
Région des Pays de Loire
Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication

Partner institutions

Le Lieu unique
Estuaire Nantes - Saint-Nazaire
École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Nantes
École supérieure des beaux-arts d’Angers
École supérieure des beaux-arts du Mans
Institut d’études avancées, Nantes
Centre national de la danse contemporaine d’Angers
Musée des beaux-arts de Nantes
Fonds régional d’art contemporain des Pays de la Loire
Conservatoire de Nantes
Association nationale des directeurs des écoles d’art

Symposium A1

Upheavals in the landscape of Higher Arts Institutions in Europe

The impact of Classification and Ranking

Organiser: Ulf Dalnäs, University of Gothenburg

2010 is the year when the European Higher Education Area was targeted to be established and hence for the Bologna process to have reached its goal. One major task was to make higher education in Europe more mutually compatible and transparent. To do so we need a tool that describes profiles on an institutional level – hence the classification initiative www.u-map.eu . The strive for mapping and promoting diversities has also lead to a fairly new European initiative www.u-multirank.eu with the aim of challenging the global ranking lists available today. U-multirank is in a feasibility phase right now and will be tested on 150 universities on a global scale. This is an important development that our sector must handle in one way or another. A good start is to have an open and critical discussion about it and hence this symposium.

Program:

• Presentation of the projects U-map and U-multirank
• Keynote by Frans van Vught
• Panel (including Frans van Vught):
  • Christian Guellerin, President of Cumulus
  • Martin Prchal, Chief Executive AEC
  • Marc Nicolas, President of GEECT (Groupement européen des écoles de cinéma et de télévision) - european part of CILECT
  • Chris Wainwright, ELIA

Some questions to be discussed in the panel:

• How do we maintain the strength of a diverse institutional landscape in the Higher Arts Education sector?
• How do we contribute to the transparency of Higher Education Institutions in Europe?
• In what way can these initiatives damage our sector’s autonomy ?
• What are the arguments to make a stronger contribution in classification and ranking (or the opposite)?
• Can we join forces to make these initiatives more suitable for the arts in the European Higher Educational Area?

Symposium A2

Art Schools in relation to Creative Enterprises

How to change classic patterns of limited interaction between art

How to change classic patterns of limited interaction between art schools, universities and creative industries is at the heart of any future-oriented debate on how to develop the teaching of arts. Hence, the call for papers on the following topics and questions:

• Where does the sometimes sharp dividing line between art schools and creative industries derive from?
• Where is innovation being produced and why do art schools often tend to mainly "educate", leaving the realization of ideas to exponents of Creative Industries?
• Should art schools aim at better involvement in the field of creative industries in order to make innovation go full-circle - from ideas to realization - and use their students' full potentials in theory, as well as in action? What positive, as well as negative outcomes could be linked to such an approach?
• What will art schools and universities look like in the future, if they perpetuate their self-perception as sub-contractors, merely providing "human capital" to the creative industries, and what potentials could be released, if art schools and universities formed a new self-esteem as creative powerhouses, able to directly attract clients?
• How could Art-Schools and Universities bind their most creative students in a way, which makes University-based employment an alternative to Creative-Industry-based work?
• How would University-structures have to- be changed in order to enable graduates follow University based careers without reducing their creative and economic potentials compared to employment in Creative Industries?
• How can Art-schools and Universities protect themselves from destructive market-forces, maintain intellectual, scientific, creative and political autonomy while trying to become players in a field heavily influenced by merely economic ratio?
• Could art schools help to form a better society - something inherent to arts - by shaping the market of creative industries through a mindful combination of theory and practice, rather than delivering "human tools" ?

Symposium A3

Emergent Social Media and New Educational Narratives

Organiser: Kieran Corcoran, School of Art, Design and Printing, Faculty of Applied Arts, Dublin Institute of Technology

This symposium will explore the role that emerging social media such as blogging, facebook, text messaging, twitter, 2nd life etc. can have in developing new pedagogical approaches in higher level arts education. New social media present a challenge to the traditional Academy by providing students with many different ways of taking control of how they develop and integrate the knowledge and skills acquired during formal education. These technologies allow students to become more active as contributors to their educational formation and provide new opportunities for rethinking what their role as artists, designers, filmmakers, actors etc. might be in the future. This inevitably has led to new ideas and initiatives about the type of work which students are producing and has opened up new avenues for creative expression across all disciplines. New relationships between teachers and students are also beginning to emerge which will need to be addressed by Higher Arts educational institutions.

Presentation abstracts

John O’Connor, School of Art ,Design and Printing ,Dublin Institute of Technology
Finding life hard? Start over!

For all of us working in the creative industries it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the creeping invasion of online social media. Indeed, it would be foolhardy not to acknowledge the ubiquity of 'always on' communication channels and the potential they offer.

Nevertheless, this brave new world has changed the playing field for designers: whether or not we yet realise it. Bruns identifies the emergence of 'produsers' - those who are both producers and users of content. Bloggers, facebook users, those who post to sites such as YouTube, Flickr, etc are all part of this new world where we are all becoming creative individuals comfortable with originating material for our own and others' consumption. The notion of the designer as conduit for a client's message is no longer the full story. For example, blogging tools make it possible for anyone to self-publish to a fully professional looking standard. Selecting from a amazing range of professionally designed templates a novice can produce a professional looking website in a very short time.

Online virtual worlds take the phenomenon even further and residents, as those who inhabit such places as Second Life are known, design and build not only their own houses but entire cities that are living breathing communities. Inevitably, as these communities become bigger and more complex those with creative skills become sought after.

'Virtual Environments: Is one life enough?' is an accredited third level module for designers delivered entirely in Second Life. The module ponders these issues and seeks to understand their impact on the design profession, the opportunities for designers and the wider impact on society.

Lynda Devenney and Laurence Riddell, IADT,Dun Laghaire

Lynda Devenney and Laurence Riddell (School of Creative Arts, Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire) will be presenting a site-specific project from the 1st year BA Hons Visual Arts Practice programme in collaboration with The Irish Museum of Modern Art. The project incorporates online mapping tools for reflection and critique and the creation of a visual dynamic archive of project work completed off campus.

In support of research autonomy and self-direction students are given an opportunity to cultivate strategic thinking and processing and to transfer strategies to other problems and contexts. Effectively students become authors off their own learning experience. Web technology and to be more specific the Wiki site was adopted as a tool to assist students in self-direction and self-evaluation and as part of the project outcomes students were asked to publish online research material. This presentation will show how online mapping tools and online publishing enriched the learning experience through sharing knowledge and creating dialogue and feedback with a wider audience.


Hyunjung Bae, Columbia College Chicago
The Wikiest Link: Intentionally informal use of SNS for post class discussion

Substantial social science research has explored the relationship between the structure/design of Social Network Sites (SNS) and the effectiveness of communication (e.g. Boyd and Ellison, 2007; Donath, 2007, Ellison et al., 2007). Among many emerging SNSs, Facebook is of particular interest because it embodies a variety of the social utility of emerging technologies (Paparcharissi, 2002). This study is particularly interested in the latent function of Facebook as a learning tool rather than for its utilitarian functions (e.g. submission of assignments, grading, sharing supplemental materials). Two related research questions are (1) Does/ How does having an exclusive (classmates only) FB page help students understand the material? (2) How do less structured interactions within a closed Facebook page influence/ facilitate learning?

Simply having more time to discuss the subjects that are not fully explored during the class time may increase student’s understanding either via direct participation in the discussion or even merely as an audience to such discussion. Students who are less extroverted may find it easier to participate in online discussions rather than vocalizing opinions within the classroom setting. Perhaps more importantly, having an arena where they can propose new topics, ideas, and material may increase student’s sense of ownership of the material, hence facilitating the understanding and the retention of the subject matter. While these findings may be conventional in their value, the working of the interaction itself is of more interest. Casual contacts with the classmates with whom they may not have interaction outside of the class on SNS fosters a sense of belonging and community, which in turn enhances teamwork and promotes participation.

A critical point for the instructor to consider is that the contacts among the members of the class Facebook page must not be staged or orchestrated. The sense of belonging and community building is an organic outcome rather than a goal. The challenge for the instructors is quite similar to that of the conventional managers of large corporations: let go of control. Highly controlled, prefabricated corporate messages have lost their efficacy and have been replaced with consumer (often called prosumer) - generated messages. Class Facebook pages resemble a company R&D centre (e.g. Yet2.com, InnoCentive, Legoworld) that is open to the interested, involved, and qualified consumers. Prosumers of such Facebook pages learn networking, peering, and sharing critical to the development of arts students.

Symposium A4

(h)eART(h); Regeneration of cities and the role of the art schools

Organisers: Emmanuelle Chérel, ESBANM; Laurent Devisme, Laboratoire Langages, Actions Urbaines, Altérités – LAUA, école nationale supérieure d’Architecture de Nantes

This symposium will be simultaneously translated into English and French

Today the arts are communally asked by national and territorial politics to take part in the make-up of territory through re-qualification and re-development. The arts are considered as a tool for local development capable of bringing together new practice in space and social organisation, taking part through their geographical site and space within a city.

But how does art and its proposals question contemporary realities of a city? In what manner can the arts take part in urban organization accepting the complex pluralism and citizenship?

Certain contemporary art practices are to be considered with precision. Made within spaces of knowledge using new methods of lecture, privileging angles of approach that allow an understanding of the realities of the contemporary world, through bringing together varied disciplines and skills, through combining reality and fiction.
This symposium will underline certain facts of contemporary cities and the way that art opens up to new knowledge and new models.

Paper presentations:

• Kevin James Henry (Columbia College Chicago)
  Craftivism: reconnecting art and design education through the social act of making
• Meltem Yılmaz (Hacettepe University, Faculty of Fine Arts Department of Interior Architecture & Environmental Design)
  Lessons Learnt from Vernacular for Sustainable Cities
• Petr Oslzlý (Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts Brno (JAMU), Theatre Faculty)
  The role of theatre and theatre schools in the creation of the human dimension of a city Home institution

Symposium B1

Artistic research in Europe 2010: A necessary dialogue of users and stakeholders

Organiser: Johan Öberg, University of Gothenburg

The symposium will simultaneously translated into English and French

Keynote: Henk Borgdorff, Professor of esthetics, University of Gothenburg, editor of the JAR - Journal for Artistic Research.

Panel: Henk Borgdorff, Yves Knockaert (Faculty of Art and Archtitecture, K.U.Leuven Association), Johan Öberg.

Presentations: Ruxandra Demetrescu (National University of Arts, Bucharest); Timothy Jones (Burren College of Art); Kerstin Mey (University for the Creative Arts Farnham); Klaas Tindemans (RITS, Erasmushogeschool Brussels)


Today artistic research is expanding all over Europe and worldwide in the form of arts based projects and PhD programs. This development is encouraged by the European governments and higher art educations structures, including ELIA, which has published an influential paper on research. Among politicians and managers there are usually several arguments in favor of research. Those arguments could be divided into two categories:

1. Research and PhD programs are necessary as a consequence of the implementation of the 3rd cycle of the Bologna system and the European Higher Education Area.
2. Research and PhD programs are important for European creativity, and necessary for enhancing creative economics and stimulating the "cognitive capital".

In the artistic fields research is met with diverging attitudes. In the design and music fields the possibilities to do research are often met with enthusiasm. But in fine art opinions diverge strongly on the issue and many artists express worry for the artistic content and consequences of artistic research: is this academisation of artistic practice a new form of control, and even state control, over subjectivity and over "free art?" Will the 3rd cycle prevent the educational institutions from recruiting their teaching personnel from a category of artists without a doctoral degree? And do managers and politicians at all understand the arts based research strategies developed in the artistic field - which in many cases come close to critical-philopsophical investigations? And, on the other hand: is it excluded that criticism and self reflection are alien to creativity and social and economic growth? And how does this relate to European history and identity?

Bernhard Rüdiger
Contemporary Art and Historical Temporalities

In the past ten years the artist's status and the status of the work of art changed in a significant and interesting way. The emerging attitudes of the artist as a searcher, as an iconographer, or as an archivist, should not, however, obliterate his initial status as a painter, sculptor, performer, photographer, video-maker or cinema director. Being strictly associated to his epoch by “elective association”, the artist is too often considered as immerged in contemporariness, his work is reduced to present, when it is not considered as an expression of post-modern condition as indifferent to history. History only seems to play a role to determine an influence, a national identity or a style. On the contrary we would like to show that the question of contemporariness derives today by the capacity of the artist to put “history at work”. Considering the form as a main instance of history, the artist invites himself in the discussion between historians about the flattening of the past and the future on "presentisme", a rootless historical condition fixed in an eternal present without any perspective (François Hartog). How is this artistic work produced ? How is it engaged in rebuilding the thickness of history in our present?

The research group Art Contemporain et Temps de l'Histoire (ACTH), Contemporary Art and Historical Temporalities, is directed by the artist Bernhard Rüdiger and the art historian and theoretician Giovanni Careri. It brings together historians and theoretician (EHESS Paris) and artists (ENBA School of Fine Arts, Lyon), this cooperation allows to articulate the theoretical aspect of the issue with the practical one and more precisely with the artistic creation as such.

Symposium B2

Creativity: reclaimed!

Organisers and presenters: Klaus Jung, Academy of Media Arts Cologne; Steven Kapelke, Columbia College Chicago

Keynote: Prof.Dr. Hans Ulrich Reck, Academy of Media Arts Cologne

Table moderators: Gerald Bast, University of Applied Arts Vienna; Snejina Tankovska, National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts (NATFA), Sofia; Steve Kapelke and Klaus Jung


This workshop is a follow up from the Claiming Creativity symposium in April 2010. Presented through a partnership of ELIA and Columbia College Chicago, the symposium centered on the intersection of the arts and other disciplines, such as economics, science and commerce in relation to an understanding of the term creativity.

From a rich array of sessions, based on papers from numerous international participants arose a number of critical questions for and from artists and arts educators — and all creative practitioners. These include:

• What obligations do artists have relative to the social needs of their communities?
• What power can artists exert in legislative matters that will not only assert the primacy of cultural production, but assure a sustained commitment to arts education?
• How can the intersections between the arts and other disciplines best be nurtured and developed?
• How has the recent emphasis on practice-based research affected the nature and quality of arts education?

The creativity reclaimed workshop will pick from this but also ask further questions, such as:

• Does creativity mean the same inside and outside the arts?
• How does an artists’ self exploitive relationship to the term creativity contribute to the understanding of world?
• How can Higher Art Education fine-tune an understanding of creativity that goes beyond the application in the so called creative industries?
• How can Higher Art Education Institutions ensure that an expanded but specialised understanding of creativity is developed and gains influence on future policies in Higher Education and beyond.
• Is the term creativity still relevant for a contemporary understanding of art production?

The workshop will start with introductory remarks to summarise the Claiming Creativity symposium in Chicago, both as a live and online experience. This will be followed by a wide discussion including all workshop participants. The aim is to develop strategies, which can help to position an HAE definition of creativity better in the international context of politics, economy and education. The workshop leaders Steve Kapelke (Columbia College Chicago) and Klaus Jung (Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln) will chair the discussions.

The Claiming Creativity symposium has developed a strong online presence before, during and after the event. Keynote addresses, workshops, panel discussions and presentations from the symposium are available to all ELIA Biennial participants at www.claimingcreativity.com . We strongly encourage all Nantes participants to go to the website and view this work. We encourage to pay particular attention to the specific form of visual note taking, which was introduced to the symposium in Chicago.

Symposium B3

Writing the Story; Narrative Trails in Academic Writing

Organisers: Susan Orr, York St John University; Margot Blythman, CLTAD, University of the Arts London

This symposium will explore the position of academic writing in the context of higher art and design education.

16.00-16.15
Introductions and the case for and against writing in the creative arts
Dr Margo Blythman and Professor Susan Orr

16.15-16.35
Robust, is a step away from Š
Maziar Raein

16.35-16.55
Becoming friends with the ABC: Reflections on writing across the design curriculum
Franziska Nyffenegger

16.55-17.30
Questions and Answers / discussion

Session overview abstract

For some students (and indeed lecturers) the choice of art as an object of study is connected to a rejection of writing. There is a desire to work across different media. Within arts education writing is not the primary means to explicate knowledge. However, there is continuing debate about the role of academic writing within art and design curricula. On some art and design degrees students are obliged to write a traditional extended dissertation at the end of their course of study. On other degrees students’ final projects may not require a dissertation but may insist on reflective documentation that relates to the final show. This is contested territory. For some lecturers, the traditional dissertation is the essential capstone of the arts degree - the part that makes it truly graduate; whilst there are other lecturers who are frustrated that the art curricula still insists on what can be viewed as outmoded dissertation requirements that have little relevance for today’s creative practitioners.

Whatever one's views it still remains the case that all arts practice students will need to engage with academic writing if they are to graduate from the academy. This symposium will offer an opportunity to explore approaches to academic writing development that are most relevant for today’s creative arts students. For example, we note with interest the new forms of writing emerging from technological change (e.g. blogs and twitters) and we ask the question: To what extent can these new writing types inform creative arts education?

In this symposium we will identify pedagogies that encourage students to approach their academic writing as a practice that has much in common with the practices they employ for their creative work. To what extent can we encourage students to 'design their writing and write their design' (Orr, Blythman and Mullin 2006)? To answer this question we need to explore ways that we can encourage students to relate to the written word in the same ways that they relate to their own artistic practices. One way to do this is to promote the use of writing forms that encourage reflective practice. Through the use of reflective ‘textual sketchbooks’ (Orr and Blythman 2002) we can promote a view of writing as reflexive, contested, emergent, exploratory and provisional features that share much in common with student’s artistic practices. To underline this point we give the last word to a design student we interviewed as part of a study in this area. She told us that 'the process of design is almost like writing an essay'.

Becoming friends with the ABC: Reflections on writing across the design curriculum

Franziska Nyffenegger, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts


Writing is not a favourite subject of art and design students; yet academic writing is still less popular (Clarke, 2007; Francis, 2009). Often art and design students perceive writing as opposite to creative work (Orr & Blythman, 2002) and academic writing as a useless burden imposed by Bologna reforms (Nyffenegger, 2009). As well in other study fields like pedagogy, history or social science students perceive academic writing as a hard and difficult task (Kruse, 2007). How to teach academic writing in a motivating and successful way has therefore been widely studied and discussed in the last decade (Bean, 2001; Björk et al., 2003; Ehlich & Steets, 2003; Girgensohn, 2007; Kruse, Berger & Ulmi, 2006; Ruhmann, 2008). In many disciplines, writing centers and writing programs have been established. In the UK, the teaching of writing skills in art and design disciplines has become an own research field (see http://www.writing-pad.ac.uk and Journal of Writing in Creative Practice). All the same, most european design faculties – except for the UK, Ireland and Norway – ignore these experiences and lack a systematic, research-based debate about writing in and across design curricula. Writing and especially academic writing are poor cousins to design students as well as to design lecturers.

This paper examines in the first part results obtained in the frame of writing research in general and of writing research in art and design. It then presents current teaching practice using blogs as learning instruments. Blogs allow to establish a narrative in a class and along a course. Blocking search engines, they offer a semi-public and safe space to overcome writing problems. They suit the interweaving of creative and academic writing. They promote discourse among students and among teachers and students. And they allow students to experience the core of writing: sharpening thoughts by sketching with the alphabet. Selected examples illustrate what has to be considered when using blogs as a learning environment and as a tool for assessment. Success as well as failure are considered and evaluated. The final discussion focuses on the narrative qualities of blogs (Pachler & Daly, 2009).

Robust, is a step away from Š

Maziar Raein, Kunsthøgskolen i Oslo - KHiO


This presentations aims to communicate an understanding of the role of theory, and its manifestation as writing from the perspective of practice and the practitioner. It will present questions about the role of theory as a vessel for communicating ideas. It suggest that form as the material expression of artistic / designerly practice, itself could act as a basis for contextulaising the role and function of a view (theatron “a place for seeing), or theory. The lynch pin of theory in the area of art and design has been the expression of visual phenomena through writing. Especially, the academic essay – which was imposed from the discipline of art history into art and design practice – with its reliance on rigor and argumentation. This presentation will suggest that the idea of rigor – a word that implies a stasis, and is related to death – detracts from the fluency and fluidity of visual practice and in effect is not a useful tool for exploration an development of ideas in art and design practice. In its place the role of the robust should be considered as a tool for the construction of ideas that can enable a form expression in writing, that parallels art and design practice. Robustness as a tool enables innovation and transformation of visual ideas in writing and develops through (as oppose to into and for) art and design practice.

Symposium B4

The training of an artist as an intervener

["Intervene" is a warrior ability trained at level 70 for 6 gold and 50 silver (World of Warcraft) ]

Organiser: Thera Jonker, Utrecht School of the Arts

Programme

16.00 - 16.05
Welcome by chair: Thera Jonker, Utrecht School of the Arts

16.05 - 16.25
Presentation Titia Bouwmeester, Artistic Collective 5e Kwartier, Netherlands
'An Artists' Biography'

16.30 - 16.40
Presentation Serge von Arx, Norwegian Theatre Academy
'Training art guerrillas'

16.45 - 16.55
Presentation Karen Fleming and Sharon Conway, University of Ulster, UK
‘Does my S3 look big in this?’

17.00 - 17.30
Q and A and discussion around the question of the impact of cross disciplinary engagement of students and graduates on the curricula at art schools.
How do artschools train intervenors who set out to operate artistically on the edges between arts, education, science, media, social work, healtcare, politics, media, agriculture and the media? In which context should they be trained? As specialists or allrounders and in which competencies?

Summaries and CVs

Titia Bouwmeester – Artistic director, theatre company 5eKwartier (Fifth Quarter) http://www.5ekwartier.nl

'An Artist's Biography'
Titia Bouwmeester will tell about the skills you need to work with 5eKwartier. Starting point will be the development of her own vision, mentality and competencies. 5eKwartier is a collective of actors, artists and composers under artistic management of Titia Bouwmeester. 5eKwartier has been creating engaging site specific theatre since 2004 in both rural and urban communities. 5eKwartier is the chronicler of communities in development, at places where the world is constantly changing and where people are in search of who they are and what connects them to others and to their surrounding. Artists develop theatrical formats to disclose personal stories and unique qualities of the location and to transform them into communal experiences.
In 2010 Titia Bouwmeester is artistic director of 5eKwartier and of theatre festival Karavaan. From 1984-1988 Bouwmeester went to art school where she was trained as a visual artist. From 1998 till 2003 she worked with Dogtroep, a theatre group which achieved international recognition with site specific theatre. Here she developed herself from a visual artist to theatremaker and director.

Serge von Arx - Artistic Director of the Scenography department at the Norwegian Theatre Academy since 2006, Architect

'Training art guerrillas'
The artist’s role as an “art guerrilla”, subverting the notion of disciplines, is to question what society determined to take for granted. The Østfold Science Center was an academic case study in collaboration with its executives and regional politicians. By developing a scenography respectively artistic tactics for the Center the students disintegrated boundaries of art and science as they commonly are reflected in commerce. The contemporary artist’s responsibility to intervene unexpectedly and to break established structures should be part of an arts education from BA level. "Art students should be encouraged to pursue their chosen paths while being challenged with a variety of other impressions and perceptions; as those paths eventually may be reconfigured from within.

Serge von Arx
In 1997 Serge von Arx made his degree in architecture at the ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology). Since then he works as an independent scenographer, designer and architect. After 2 years of work experience within architecture and exhibition design in Paris, he began his professional career in theatre as assistant to Prof. Rolf Glittenberg in Hamburg. Serge von Arx is a member of the Swiss Association of Engineers and Architects. Since 1998 he works as a stage, exhibition and installation design collaborator for Robert Wilson on various projects all over the world. And since 2003 he is a regular mentor and architectural consultant at the “Watermill Center” on Long Island, New York. Serge von Arx writes as an architectural critic with various publications in the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”. In 2006 he was appointed the Artistic Director of the Scenography department at the Norwegian Theatre Academy in Fredrikstad. Serge von Arx is based in Oslo and Berlin and aside from his academic activities he works as an independent scenographer and architect.


Prof. Karen Fleming - Professor of Textile Arts and Sharon Conway Lecturer Radiography, University of Ulster

'Does my S3 look big in this?'
Illustrated with artwork garments and workshops from a collaboration of medics and artists at 2 UK Universities, this presentation examines how art and design haptic strategies can be used in medical and health sciences education. ‘Doing’ is an important part of deep learning that is reinforced by such kinaesthetic engagement.

• Communication and challenging text and printed data
• Re-positioning creativity as a driver for knowledge, skills and understanding
• Generating appreciation among arts graduates for cross-disciplinary potential in their futures
• Transferring knowledge from one context to another
• Exploring emotional and communication significances beyond simple knowledge

Prof. Karen Fleming
Karen Fleming, Professor of Textile Arts, is Director of the Research institute, Art and Design at the University of Ulster where she founded and has led the ‘Interface’ textile research group since 2004. Having lectured there since 1989, she has been instrumental in developing textiles within fine and applied art contexts, extending links with industry and cross-disciplinary engagement. She is a former chair of the 62 Group of Textile Artists. International awards include Europäische Quilt-Triennial, The Art of The Stitch and Threadworks, New Zealand. Fleming exhibits internationally, juries and curates exhibitions. She is currently principal investigator on a Wellcome Trust funded art / science project.

Sharon Conway
Holding a Diploma of the College of Radiographers (London College of Radiographers), Professional Certificate of Management (Open University), Master of Business Administration. Conway is a member of the Society of Radiographers and the Health Professions Council. She is a RegisteredMember of the British Association of MR radiographers. Conway has combined a career in readiography education with work as a superintendent radiographer. Her teaching disciplines include Diagnostic radiography,Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Health Service Management

Architecture

Art and Architecture, which learns more from the the other?

Organisers: Christian Dautel, école des beaux-arts d’Angers; Philippe Bataille, école d’architecture de Nantes

The intersection between art and architecture has a long history that is visible in the public sphere through many artistic productions. The crisis of the codes of representation in the fields of art and architecture has enabled new modes of collaboration between the two disciplines. We observe, for example, a shifting of symbolic dimensions of the artwork toward architecture. The global aesthetisization of our environment (art / design / architecture) due to the culture of leisure, spectacle and entertainment partly explains this shift.

In parallel with this climax of the culture of entertainment, the ecological crisis and the feeling of global catastrophe has instigated long term projects that are less spectacular and less worried about their exposure. Consequently, different projects developed by artists, as well as architects, that are promoting participative and efficient dimensions are also reconnecting these fields with science. These new practices provide the mediation between ecological goals and people, and regenerate critical and political discourse.

Our session will concern different aspects of the exchanges and shifts between the practices of art and architecture with this question: Art and architecture, which learns more from the other?

Film and New Media

Dissolving the discipline boundaries / Creating new spaces

Organiser: Anna Daucikova, Academy of Fine Art and Design, Bratislava

Art education is subject to ongoing changes. Film Studies, Performing Art as well as Fine Art are operating far beyond the borders of one or two single disciplines, and the teaching programmes throughout ELIA member schools are interdisciplinary and remarkably diverse.
In the last decades the borderlines between the language of film and other time based media (video, multimedia, digital media) became softened and indistinct. Visual arts have had extensive benefit from this blending of disciplines. Film and cinematography on the other hand expanded into a leading cultural industry and enjoy exciting times in global production as well as in number of small "national" cinematographies. The latest "documentary turn" in arts found a fertile ground in both cinematic production and video art within galleries and museums. By this, the space of research aimed at artistic solutions positioned within actual socio-political processes, cultural practices and new areas of human experience has significantly expanded.

Using the these issues as a point of departure we would like to look at the practice of art education as an area of interdisciplinary attitudes subjected to continuous changes and open to a present day processes, as well as perhaps too quickly forgotten perspectives e.g. diversity studies, feminist and gender studies, queer vision, etc.

The session will focus on the following questions:

• How the art schools and the respective programs should react to this development;
• What new approaches and examples of good practice can be presented to trigger the discussion on actual challenges in the field;
• How building new programs and methodologies open new areas and themes which still need more visibility and attention;
• How the professional profiles of graduate (visual and media artist / filmmaker / performer) have changed and what new strategies in education are to be suggested to meet new demands.

Time table

09.30 Introduction (idea, panelists,program):
Anna Daucikova, Academy of Fine arts and Design Bratislava, Slovakia

09.40 – 10.10 Keynote:
Andrea Braidt, University of Vienna, Austria

10.10 – 10.35 Presentation:
Per Zetterfalk, Memoria Produktion, Stockholm, Sweden: doctoral research

10.35 – 11.00 Presentation:
Tim Middleton, Bath Spa University, School of Humanities and Cultural Industries, UK

11.00 - 11.30 Discussion (30 min)

Performing Arts

Sustainanility and the Performing Arts

Organiser: Francesco Beja, ESMAE – Escola Superior de Música e das Artes do Espectáculo, Instituto Politécnico do Porto

The notion of sustainability is most commonly referred to when environmental issues are discussed, but has many bearings in a Performing Arts context as well. Artistic work is today in close dialogue with social experiences in many layers, leading to a necessity to position and identify oneself and one's art work, both as part of social and economical contexts and as agent in an artistic field. To engage in an artistic process is to make use of oneself; profound personal experiences are a large part of the material on which the practice is built. It is also a process that involves co-operations and dialogues wiht colleagues on many levels. In addition activities such as selling, finding ways to support oneself, creating publicity and dealing with media contacts are becoming a more vigorous part of the artist's practice. The need to talk about artistic work in a holistic view is therefore emerging; taking into consideration the entire human being with body, mind, emotions and social agency.

This Discipline Session will address issues concerning sustainability and performing arts in a broad sense, reaching from aspects of the artist's handicraft - how can a voice be sustained during an entire career ? - to aspects of the art itself: how can performing arts keep its role as a vital arena for political and ethical discussions ? How these issues effects higher education is another obvious theme that will be addressed during the seminar: how can we prepare students to a rapidly changing performing arts sector ? Instead of conserving myths about the suffering artist, the seminar would like to discuss ways of dealing with the artistic economy, a body/mind economy, aiming at a balance between input and output.

The Discipline Session has its starting points in experiences and theory from many different areas and will have an interactive, participatory focus, inviting participants to take a strong active role. It aims at evoking questions, trying out techniques and establishing a dialogue.

Applied Arts

Applied Arts - in Service of Global Welfare or European Competitiveness?

Organiser: Matti Velhonoja, Fine Arts Kankaanpää, Satakunta University of Applied Sciences

The definition of Applied Arts varies between countries, but generally it is considered as an area between, outside or inside other conventional higher art forms with commercial purposes. Industrial design, fashion, graphic design, digital game concepts and other commercial digital solutions demand high knowledge, good education organisation and great investments. Applied Arts need to converse with business and environmental issues. This leads to an open connection with political and economical decision makers. Besides, this controversial in-between-position of Applied Arts may protect the autonomous position of other higher art forms.

Applied Arts may find solutions for sustainable development and global problems. Climate change and other ecological issues are serious challenges for all consumers but those who design goods need to carry responsibility in all details from production costs to recycling. All new design strategies aim to spare energy and consider local cultures and their traditions of manufacture and handicraft. The question is how this ideology works in a world of hard global competition?

Creative industries or creative economy are new strategic concepts to find a new direction for post-industrial societies. In some European countries this development has lead to structural changes in organizing education and research. The close connection between research and education is key issue to maintain and develop position in global trade. Fair trade and fragile ecological system need to be taken in consideration in global political decisions and agreements, otherwise production and consuming is not sustainable and idealistic design strategies do not work.

Keynote:
Art, design, business and technology: happy together? The new Aalto University in Helsinki.
Pekka Korvenmaa, PhD
Vice Dean / Professor, Aalto University School of Art and Design (Finland)

Music

How have new technological developments influenced the perception of music?

Challenges and new perspectives of using technology in music education

Organiser: Marje Lohuaru, Estonian Academy of Music

Nowadays the relation to and perception of music has changed notably. Rapid technological developments have played a crucial part in that. New means e.g. internet, recording technologies, CDs have increased the availability of music, making it more affordable for the increasing number of beneficiaries.

The formats of music performance and broadcasting have changed. The perception of music is considered more as a dynamic process than a static object, like concert vs. audience. Developments in music technology have influenced different performing arts domains (video dance etc). In addition, new technological domains have appeared (concert DVDs etc).

How can new technological means be integrated into the pedagogical process of relatively conservative music education? Although recording process has become a part of study process, there is a big potential in developing and using the new methods in study process on different levels. One of the good examples is SONUS, an electronic music studio course for interpreters in the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Lyon; music analysis could also be developed with the usage of technology etc.

 

Design

Design, a new vision for Art?

or new field in art education development?

Organisers: Jacqueline Febvre, IAV École supérieure d’art et de design, Orléans; John Thackara, Doors of Perception (United Kingdom)

1. Panel

Jean-Louis Frechin, Architect, Nodesign, ENSCI (France)
Jean Patrick Péché, IAV Orléans Higher School of Art and Design (France)
Yolande Padilla, ministry of Culture (France)
Michel Bouisson, VIA

2. Presentation

Andrew Kulman, Birmingham institute of Art & Design (BIAD), Birmingham City University (United Kingdom)


Recently, Design - product, space, graphic, service design – has been introduced into schools of fine art, raising new questions in social, science, human sectors and opening new fields of research and new processes.

Design has been considered for a long time as a technical discipline, or a “tool to sell”; maybe the only field of industry open to social and environmental changes, it seems nowadays in charge of a new vision for the world. The benefit of new technologies, new materials, new softwares, as digital 3D tools, interactivity, has given freedom to young designers to investigate domains of space, movements, uses, environmental questions. Design is apparently playing a new role in the artistic education methodologies, giving new way of thinking and organizing creation, bringing new input on a wide range of applied researches and experimentations.
On the other hand, art is certainly bringing its singularity and sensitivity to the discipline, bringing fresh air in what was mainly devoted to industrial creation.

We would like to focus on the emerging research in the design sector and its place nowadays in art education.
The session will address the following questions:

• Can we specify the design curriculum in Art education: examples of emerging fields of design research; design mixing approaches of sciences, techniques, environment, design as a new field of art ?
• Design is some times called a “process”, or a “way of thinking”. Are there examples of contribution of design methodologies on artistic education (and vice-versa) ?
• Design as driver of new shapes and concepts (- new interfaces – communicant spaces - relation of human body and environment, new shapes born of algorithmic softwares and biodesign, ecodesign…)

Sound art

Teaching and learning sounds practices in art school

Organiser: Didier Larnac, école des beaux-arts du Mans

The increasing number of programs devoted to sound practices and research in art school curricula internationally is remarkable. For some the engagement with sound has continued for a significant number of years. One cannot deny the diversity and richness of such experiences, nor ignore the broad diversity offered by the multiple ways to deal with acoustics and sound design in the art field.

The sound territory, whose scope could be compared to the potentials and cross-over of the digital world, offers the capacity to establish educational fields and programs in partnership with the industrial, communication and cultural sectors, and with experimental creative art or research.

Art schools, whose primary mission is education, must not only preserve the plurality of outcomes, but also reflect on the development of these outcomes by giving networks a structure, by listing available means and by identifying fields of research. How to approach such educational models within art schools, how to bring life to an international network whose aim would be the development of research, networking art schools, laboratories, universities and the buissness sector? How to highlight the numerous research projects in the field of sound and accoustics by training, research, innovation and dissemination?

Based on testimonies of the experiences which are being developed today within schools and institutions, a partial landscape will emerge, offering the opportunity of an effective international collaborative commitment.

Guest speakers in this debate are:

• Patrick Susini : Researcher, IRCAM, Paris
• Benoït Pécan : Lecturer, Haute école d’art, Bern
• Peter Sainclair : Lecturer, Ecole supérieure d’Art, Aix en Provence
• Ludovic Germain & Philippe Langlois : Lecturers, Ecole Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Le Mans.

International Relations

Catalytic Exchange

Organiser: Mark Gaynor, ELIA

The phrase catalysed processes was coined by Jöns Jakob Berzelius in 1836 to describe reactions that are accelerated by substances that remain unchanged after the reaction:

Catalysis is the process in which the rate of a ... reaction is either increased or decreased by means of a ... substance known as a catalyst. Unlike other reagents that participate in the ... reaction, a catalyst is not consumed by the reaction itself.

We can all cite examples where art and artistic exchanges have been utilized for some particular (social) benefit. Urban Regeneration may be one of the most common, importing the energies of art to stimulate an otherwise failing or failed area. These opportunities can be very exciting as well as consuming time and effort. In the process of developing and participating in exchange programmes how often to we stop to ask ourselves why? Who, in the end, is the beneficiary? If art is a catalyst, as described above, it will 'remain unchanged'.

If urban regeneration is already the 'old' model and the knowledge economy the 'new' one, what role does artistic exchange have to play? How do we appreciate the political, social and/or economic motivations behind such exchanges? Is art a catalyst or can it be changed itself by the process?

Richard Polacek will present the Practics project:

Practics - Makes Culture Move

The Practics project is a 3-years project which aims to set up a network of Information points across Europe providing information on cross-border mobility for artists and culture professionals. The meeting with Practics during the International Relations session at the ELIA Biennial Conference in Nantes on 29 October 2010 aims to provide ELIA members and participants of the session with a quick overview of the aims and the work of the Practics project and of one of its strategic partners, the Bureau d’Accueil des Artistes Etrangers of the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris (BAAPE).

The short presentations of Practics and BAAPE will be followed by an open exchange with ELIA members on the following issues:

• How to best prepare graduates of art schools for cross-border mobility in their future professional lives?
• What are the benefits of mobility for arts institutes beyond 'promotion'?
• How can professionals best transfer the knowledge and know-how they have gained on mobility to art students?

The debate aims to establish closer links between ELIA and the Practics project and to provide further input into tools to better inform present and future culture professionals and artists for their mobile international careers.

Fine Art and Curating

Curating as a field to explore for art schools

This discipline session will be simultaneously translated into English and French

Organisers:
Étienne Bernard, École superieure des beaux-arts de Nantes (France)
Isidro López-Aparicio, Universidad de Granada (Spain) and chair of PARADOX (The Fine Art European Forum)

Presentations:
Lucy Renton, University of the Arts London (United Kingdom) and Rob Flint, Nottingham Trent University (United Kingdom); Sissel Lillebostad, Bergen National Academy of the Arts (Norway); Ana Ibañez and Isidro López-Aparicio, Universidad de Granada (Spain); and Sandra Patron, director of Parc-Saint-Léger art center and vice-president of DCA (France)

The evolution of artistic practices for over a century has placed the process at the heart of the logic of production of the work. In his definition of the creative act, Marcel Duchamp adds audience analysis as a new element in the manufacture of the work. Since then, many artists focus on the concept rather than the finished object. Since the early 2000s, the explosion of information channels and the advent of a networking society have shattered the traditional disciplinary categories, access to creation, and consequently, the institutional concerns about presentation and selection. Today we see a profound change in the exhibition modes nourished by the questioning of the teleological value of the work of art in favor of "work in progress". For the artist-to-be in such a global context, the issues are now: what to learn? what to train for? what to produce? And what to show?

These questions go hand in hand with the concerns of the curator. Its two main functions as critical producer (challenging and stimulating the artist while the piece is being produced) and mediator of the work presented to the public, which historically accounted successively meet today at the same time.

Our session will focus on the following questions:

• how are the art schools now dealing with the traditional teleological education approach?
• how to open the art schools as the place to experiment to an audience?
• how to integrate the curator’s functions within the pedagogical project of the art school?
• how to connect the work produced within the context of the art school to the professional field ?

Schedule:

Part 1 (60 minutes)
presentations :

• “The curriculum is out there” by Rob Flint (Nottingham Trent University, UK) and Lucy Renton (Chelsea, Camberwell & Wimbledon Colleges of Art, UK)
• “The daily practice of imagining things differently” by Sissel Lillebostad (Bergen National Academy of the Arts, Norway)
• “Professional parallel events” by Ana García and Isidro Lopez-Aparicio (Granada University, Spain).

Part 2 (40 minutes)
panel discussion :

• Rob Flint (Nottingham Trent University, UK)
• Lucy Renton (Chelsea, Camberwell & Wimbledon Colleges of Art, UK)
• Sissel Lillebostad (Bergen National Academy of the Arts, Norway)
• Ana García (Granada University, Spain)
• Isidro Lopez-Aparicio (Granada University, Spain)
• Étienne Bernard (ERBA Nantes, France)
• Sandra Patron (Parc-Saint-Léger art center / vice-president, DCA)

Part 3 (20 minutes)
exchange with the public.


Presentation of Paradox
Isidro López-Aparicio

Paradoxia, created by ILA