In the following reflection, Risk shares key moments from the conference.
Reflections on “The Artistic Attitude”
The conference kicked off with the welcoming speech by Professor Anke Coumans, who explored the idea of The Artistic Attitude—the central theme of her recently published book. Coumans, Professor Image in Context at Hanze, likened the artistic practice to a love affair, particularly when situated within non-artistic environments. She researches how The Artistic Attitude can be inserted and shared to create new kinds of social and educational connections. Her approach challenges us to think deeply about what she calls the five key qualities of ‘Unknowing, Emergence, Situationality, Open-endedness, and Dialogical Reciprocity’ which are all embedded within The Artistic Attitude.
Following the opening word, two short documentary films were shown, each portraying a research practice ‘in action’ by Adri Schokker and the duo Asa Scholma & Jedidja Smalbil. Both the films and the Q&A with the audience afterwards echoed Coumans’ ideas around the impact and adaptability of the artistic attitude, reinforcing the intrinsic value of open-ended work and participatory research methods—a recurring theme throughout the day.
Time and Urgency: Artistic Research in an Age of Crisis
Another thought-provoking encounter was the lecture by Jan van Boeckel, Professor of Art & Sustainability at Hanze, who expounded on the theme of Artistic Research in Urgent Times. Invoking Nigerian philosopher Bayo Akomolafe’s paradoxical advice, “The times are urgent, let’s slow down,” Van Boeckel reflected on how art embodies patience and slowness, especially in the face of pressing global crises. In his talk, Van Boeckel highlighted the work of Juha Varto, Annette Arlander and Hanna Tuullikki, whose approaches underscore a profound commitment to ‘being’ within the artistic process. Zooming into the figure of time, Van Boeckel closed off with Native American writer Leslie Marmon Silko’s notion of it, she states: “for the old-time people, time was round—like a tortilla; time had specific moments and specific locations, so that the beloved ancestors who had passed on were not annihilated by death, but only relocated (…).” This seems a profound insight into how the way to interpret time has moved from being guiding or accompanying towards being executing and operating.
Collective Workshops: Artistic Research in Practice
The day continued in the afternoon with an optional programme of two times three workshops, where researchers and lectors presented their research in a participatory and embodied way, asking their respective audiences to re-do, re-frame, re-consider or re-experience certain aspects of their research practices. The workshops emphasized the value of not merely presenting research but doing research collectively and collaboratively. This approach challenges conventional boundaries, inviting everyone involved to become co-creators in the research process.
The Kiribati Notes: Performance as an Environmental Dialogue
In the evening Norwegian playwright, author and dramaturge Tale Næss continued the conference with a lecture in which she drew on the concept of intertextuality as the landscape of the researcher, with the feedback loop being a key event that continuously recurs in research. As an example, she introduced her own process of writing The Kiribati Notes. Following the lecture, and to conclude the first day of the conference, an artistic collective consisting of alumni and students from Nordic Black Xpress, Minerva Art Academy, and Prins Claus Conservatoire, performed the piece. The Kiribati Notes explores the emotional landscapes of those most directly impacted by climate crisis through personal stories of the islanders of Kiribati, an actually existing island republic in Oceania. All the islanders of Kiribati are now trapped on the mainland, where their longing, climate grief, melancholy and physical homesickness becomes more and more tangible. The audience members, seated in the centre of the room with (voice)actors and musicians positioned around the perimeter, were compelled to shift and engage with different perspectives. Unable to survey everything, the viewers turned restlessly, twisted their seats or quietly resigned themselves to not being able to get the full picture, copying the agitation of the people of Kiribati, soon to be all of us.
With this powerful performance we landed back at the beginning of the day, where Anke Coumans introduced us to the five qualities of The Artistic Attitude. The Encounters in Artistic Research conference was a vivid reminder of how artistic research can embody the not-knowing, reciprocity and relationality on pluriversal levels.
