MKE LAB (Photo: private)
The theoretical discourse around artistic research as such oscillates between two genealogies. One emerged in the 1990s following the establishment of doctoral schools within European art universities, the other is an extra academic approach that positions the relationship between art and knowledge in a broader art historical perspective, pointing out early examples of it going back as far as the European Renaissance. The HUFA LAB positions itself between these two dominant discourses: while we consider the inclusion of various aspects of the extremely productive – though to some extent redundant – academic discourse important, we strongly encourage its critical interpretation, highlighting the threats of the instrumentalisation of artistic research.
>>> Read more about MKE Lab on their website
The concept of the HUFA Research LAB is based on the firm consideration, that artistic research is not an individual activity, rather a collective endeavor that requires a discursive space, therefore the core intention is to demonstrate the potential of collaboration as opposed to a purely individual research strategy. Since artistic research in one way or another aims at cultural transformation, its ideal positioning would require embeddedness not only into the system of cultural institutions, galleries and museums, but into a broader socio-cultural landscape as well, in which the research outputs can possibly be converted into a legitimate social agency of art as a discipline. Therefore our LAB supports the methodologies of research through art, and prioritizes the investigation, articulation and application of new artistic formats and strategies leading to new social alliances.
The Artistic Research and Innovation Lab pilot event of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts
The pilot event of the AR & I Lab, the workshop “Artistic Research and Innovation Lab”, took place on 15.11.2022 between 16-20h at the MKE Doctoral School with 26 undergraduate and postgraduate students. The aim of the event was to create research micro-communities where undergraduate, masters and doctoral students could share their research experiences, questions and working methods.
The event was the starting point for the Artistic Research and Innovation LAB, that will operate in the form of a block seminar starting from the spring semester of the academic year 2022/2023, and in which students of the EU4ART European University Alliance partner institutions are invited to join.
The workshop was organised by Mátyás Fusz, Gabriella Kiss, Szabolcs KissPál.
