Session 3.5
How to span boundaries? Methodological reflections on transdisciplinary cooperation involving artistic and social research
Martina Ukowitz, Katrin Ackerl Konstantin
University of Klagenfurt, Austria
The question of knowledge integration has already been widely discussed in the discourse on transdisciplinary methodology. The underlying premise is to gain the best from combining different perspectives. Instead of multidisciplinarity in the sense of solely arranging disciplinary perspectives side-by-side, transdisciplinarity intends to bridge differences, focusing on integrative results. The reflection of this premise at the background of the arts- and social science based research in “Mapping the Unseen” explores the collaboration with a view on zones of blurring as well as on contours, and raises the question of consequences for the conceptualization of integration.
The video presentation focuses on how knowledge integration in transdisciplinary research can be (re-)conceptualized in the face of less familiar cooperation between research approaches, namely between artistic and social research. The background of experience is the transdisciplinary artistic research project “Mapping the Unseen”. It explores unseen, undiscussed topics, which are absent from public discourse because of their implicit social taboo potential. Enabling a visualisation of the respective topics and generating dialogue through participatory processes between researchers, artists, and the public is at the core of the activity. The project involves local artists in Croatia, Bangladesh, and Iran, where art laboratories are created in local public space to deal with marginalised topics. In a second step, the partner's artistic work is shown in Austria. With the purpose to enable an intercultural dialogue, it is embedded in interventions in the public sphere. A reflective process accompanies the whole project, including artistic- and social research methods (auto-ethnography, qualitative interviews, focus groups, participative observation). In a third step, a virtual mapping of all the research content is created. This archive can be explored interactively and follows the idea of an unfinished participatory dialogue.
The presentation gives insight into a dialogue on aspects that appear as relevant in a project constellation including artistic research, which does not happen so often in transdisciplinary projects. The focus lies on the aims of research, the attitude towards normativity, epistemological premises regarding the knowledge generation processes, and objectives and forms of representation. The analysis leads to the question of how we can handle the differences in research and how we can make them fruitful for the involved stakeholders and the topic under discussion. A slightly nuanced conceptualization of integration arises that touches two levels: the explicit, with an exchange of perspectives and processes of negotiation, and the implicit, where unfamiliar stimuli and not seldom irritating impulses foster creativity and new insights more on an unconscious level. Integration then appears not so much as a methodical step but as a methodological premise realised throughout the project in dialectical processes, partly with a strong focus on differences and less on integrative aspects. In line with that: It might be not so much about spanning boundaries but simply about transgressing them.
Advancing and contextualising arts-based participatory research methods to co-produce transdisciplinary knowledge for sustainable ocean governance
Mia Strand 1, Nina Rivers 1, Rachel Baasch 2
1 Nelson Mandela University, South Africa; 2 Rhodes University, South Africa
This paper outlines the exercise of mapping an arts-based participatory research methodology within a transdisciplinary research team to co-produce knowledge for integrated ocean governance in Algoa Bay, South Africa. Exploring the challenges and opportunities of engaging different epistemologies and ontologies in transdisciplinary research teams, where indigenous and local knowledge holders are engaged co-researchers, this project investigates how contextualised conceptualisations of photovoice and digital storytelling can create pathways to co-create alternative and equitable futures. Arts-based research approaches, by offering the opportunity to represent, convey and open up the conversation for different ways of knowing, can promote social justice issues and challenge the inherent coloniality of research methodologies with (as opposed to on) marginalised communities. By activating the imagination and encouraging empathy, arts-based methodologies have been found to be helpful in exploring alternative futures necessary to respond to complex social-ecological systems challenges such as climate change. However, the privilege of certain epistemologies and deconstructing or overcoming these during knowledge production processes proves more challenging than expected. For example, ILKS might prove incompatible with current ABOM strategies such as spatial mapping. Highlighting the importance of social learning and reflexivity throughout the research mapping process, this paper provides a simple heuristic for iterative transdisciplinary arts-based participatory research. This can be summarised as i) defining the project objectives, ii) deciding on the specific ABPR approaches, iii) contextualising the methods through engagements and redefining the objectives, iv) planning the practicalities, v) in situ ABPR training workshops, field visits and storytelling, and vi) collaborative analysis workshops review of further work. Simultaneously, the paper argues that the research process needs to be redefined and reconceptualised together with the co-researchers throughout the lifetime of the project to move from knowledge integration to knowledge co-production. Arts-based participatory research methods, when employed in a contextualised transdisciplinary and collaborative setting, have the opportunity to bring together different ways of knowing and encourage creative thinking, which are both necessary to produce creative solutions for a better future.
Suratómica: a collaborative global network of artists and scientists for new knowledge-creation
Natalia Rivera, Daniela Brill Estrada, Ulrike Kuchner
Suratómica, Colombia
The union of art and science is currently one of the bases for the creation of new knowledge related to alternative, more open and more equitable social structures. However, successfully connecting artists and scientists presents a significant challenge since these disciplines rarely share common methodologies or ways of communication, or so it seems. An added complication is the perceived difference between the Global South and Global North, related to the idea of a unidirectional source of knowledge. Often participants of projects that are “branded” art-science are left feeling dissatisfied, stemming from an imbalance of expectations and a misunderstanding of the other discipline’s practices. Through new structures of transdisciplinary collaborations, we aim to encourage reflections on science, society and alternative forms of organization that lead to meaning-making and (knowledge-) creation.
In this contribution, we will describe our experience of successfully creating and participating in Suratómica (loosely translated as “atomic South”), a global network of organizations, groups and individuals that, through collaboration and openness of knowledge, propagates scientific and artistic thought. During Suratómica’s first cycle, called “A Cerca Del Origen” (Near the Origin), a group of 8 Latin American artists traveled to CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva. Initially the idea was to promote a two way conversation between creative ideas of Colombian artists and the knowledge produced at CERN, however we were astonished to experience that this journey broke the apparent dichotomies of the global North and South, artists and scientists. The diversity of the individual entities that formed into a wide-spanning network, each with their own intentions and unique histories, blurred the apparent divisions. During the past 2 years we have found that this success was fundamentally linked to the way Suratómica structures itself: a non-hierarchical, horizontal, and wide network of individuals/communities whose involvement is based on their ideas and interests rather than on their status within the art world or scientific constitution, seniority or origin of understanding. We saw that transdisciplinary diversity can erase socio-political borders when it is based on non institutional social relationships; importantly while acknowledging the dramatic impact political and social injustice can have on individuals.
Collaborations are made of relationships. Successful collaboration relies on personal communication and the willingness to learn from and engage with other participants. The Suratómica network demonstrates that many challenges that art - science collaborations face can be overcome by providing adequate time and a curated space for interventions and exploration, and by generating open-goal spaces for possibilities to emerge. Nevertheless, some challenges persist: those are challenges linked to language, time and funding.
We will discuss the impacts and effects Suratómica has on the participating artists and on scientists. The conclusion of this cycle was a successful bilingual online-festival, which was both closure and continuation, offering workshops and learning spaces, as well as a book publication in progress. The virtual environment allows the continuation of collaboration, and has made a unique learning practice possible: Suratómica is now regularly facilitating global online Creation Groups that are initiated and developed by members of the network. Suratomica’s current cycle focuses on Bioart and nature, again connecting artists and scientists globally and virtually.