A RESEARCH OF DOING (ARD) is a collaborative research-based artistic project that takes a joint publication as the main activity and outcome of the collaboration. The research is facilitated by two teams from the University of Pretoria and University of the Applied Arts Vienna in collaboration with the Centre for the Less Good Ideas in Johannesburg. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Basak Senova, Visiting Professor at Department of Art and Communication Practices at Angewandte will lead the research and co-edit the publication in collaboration with Dr. Johan Thom, coordinator of Fine Art and Postgraduate studies in Fine Art at UP and Bronwyn Lace, Director of the Centre for the Less Good Idea. ARD will be executed throughout two segments of inquiry that are designed to practice, analyse, and document: Researching by practicing—“doing”—and documenting, analysing, and discussing by Writing.
The project teams participate in the research as case studies and also through their practice-led artistic research projects, teaching contributions to the programme and the book.
The ARD partnership serves as a means to connect two universities and an art centre through collaborative research and artistic production (through joint work on research questions) as part of an educational process and artistic research framework. The ARD partnership will allow for – and – highlight a dynamic model of cultural and pedagogic exchange between Europe and Southern Africa (through joint development of research-based teaching and workshops). The partnership, which will be developed through researching and producing together, values and connects the diversities between and/or among interdisciplinary approaches towards artistic research and practices; the various forms of artistic research and practices; divergent perspectives on artistic production methodologies and creative outputs; individual and community-based approaches towards artistic practice and research; diverse socio-political realities and context-specific perspectives; strategies of sustainability; global and context-specific artistic challenges and opportunities; diverse forms of engagement between artists, audiences, institutions, forms of innovative and technology-driven mindsets; and diverse knowledge production models. The impact and effectiveness of the programme on the participants and the students will be contextualised and put into perspective by the final publication.
With an integrative approach, “The Octopus Programme” of University of Applied Art Vienna and the Centre for the Less Good Idea will provide further input to this research.