TOWARDS A DOCTORAL FRAMEWORK OF EMBODIED ARTISTIC RESEARCH
Janneke van Leeuwen, 2020
ABSTRACT
The traditional model of knowledge transfer in academia has for centuries been a written thesis. Embodied experiences have been discarded as an unreliable source of knowledge acquisition in Western societies.
In this essay I will argue the case for the inclusion of other dimensions of knowledge acquisition and transfer that artistic methods can tap into par excellence.
I will set out how embodied artistic research can engage with multimodal neural knowledge systems, drawing on novel insights from my research on the intersection of social neuroscience and visual art. Different elements of embodied artistic research will be contextualised in the Social Brain Atlas, which I have drawn based on the largest meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies on social cognition to date by Alcala-Lopez et al. (2017).
Using the ‘Creator Doctus’ pilot by the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam as a guiding example, I will discuss the unique requirements and challenges of creating a European doctoral framework for embodied artistic research programmes.
Especially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, investigating and redefining our deep entanglements with the physical world will be more urgent than ever. Advanced embodied artistic research could lead the way in these endeavours, counterbalancing the progressive shift towards the immaterial.
The essay can be downloaded here for free: