Valeria V. KONONCHUKNational Research University – Higher School of Economics
20, Myasnitskaya ul., Moscow, 101000 Russian Federation
PhD Student of School of Art and Design
V–A–C Foundation
15, Bolotnaya nab., Moscow, 119072 Russian Federation
Senior Researcher
e-mail: kononchuk@hotmail.com
ORCID: 0000-0001-6908-8336
Artistic Research: Approaches to Definition, Critique, and Specifics in RussiaAbstract: The article provides a definition for "artistic research", distinguishing it from "art-based research" and science art. By tracing the development of the criteria by which artistic research differs from other types of research and from non-research art, the close intertwining of ontology, epistemology and methodology comes to the fore, whereby an artistic object or process acts as an "epistemic thing": both the means and the end of the inquiry.
At the same time, the article provides a broad overview of criticism from politico-economic and infrastructural positions that prevent an idealistic understanding of artistic research as emancipatory in its inter- and transdisciplinarity. Viewing artistic research as a by-product of a knowledge economy that has also affected art, theorists question its critical power and point to its predictability and conformism.
At the same time, such criticism, even from Russian authors, has little sensitivity to the local context where artistic research has not become part of the academic milieu or even a dominant form of artistic expression. On the other hand, the very emergence of artistic research in Russia in the absence of academic programs was indicative of a palpable shift in the institutional system, as well as of art community rethinking its goals. This was reflected in the themes and working methods of the younger generation of artists of the 2010s.
Key words: artistic research, epistemology of art, art and knowledge, knowledge economy, art of the 2010s, contemporary art.
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For Citation: Kononchuk, V. (2023) Artistic Research: Approaches to Definition, Critique, and Specifics in Russia. International Journal of Cultural Research, 2 (51). 99–114. DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2023_2_99
DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2023_2_99
