Political Art Practices in Artistic Research: An Interface between Society and Academia. The case of Jonas Staal.

Research in the arts is a controversial form of research even in scholar’s circles. Many artists nowadays are following doctoral programmes focusing on arts (a PhD in the Arts), in order to enhance their artistry through “academisation” but also in order to be capable of finding a job in the highereducation field. There is an ongoing debate about these programmes whether they actually enhance the artists or not and if those programmes are equal to other research programmes that include for example scientific research. Through this thesis many definitions will be given in order to clarify the meanings of artistic research, of artistic practice, and the distinction between art practice-as-research and art practice-as-itself as well, just to name a few. But the central question to be answered through this thesis is going to be, what the relationship between society and academia is, and whether political artistic practices can play the role of intermediary. In order to answer that...Show moreResearch in the arts is a controversial form of research even in scholar’s circles. Many artists nowadays are following doctoral programmes focusing on arts (a PhD in the Arts), in order to enhance their artistry through “academisation” but also in order to be capable of finding a job in the highereducation field. There is an ongoing debate about these programmes whether they actually enhance the artists or not and if those programmes are equal to other research programmes that include for example scientific research. Through this thesis many definitions will be given in order to clarify the meanings of artistic research, of artistic practice, and the distinction between art practice-as-research and art practice-as-itself as well, just to name a few. But the central question to be answered through this thesis is going to be, what the relationship between society and academia is, and whether political artistic practices can play the role of intermediary. In order to answer that question besides the analysis of the anatomy of research in the arts, this thesis will focus on the case of how political artistic practices can achieve a symbiosis between academia and society. For that reason, the artistic research of the political artist Jonas Staal, who is currently following a PhD in the Arts, will be the case study of the thesis.Show less

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Political Art Practices in Artistic Research: An Interface between Society and Academia. The case of Jonas Staal.