In the game of online visibility; cuddly animals, selfies, houseplants, bro-culture, health mantras, and Fiji water bottles are now strangely powerful tools. It is no coincidence that these images and sub-cultures are also commonly utilized in the rapidly growing category called ‘post-internet art’. There is a definite link between the kinds of images and meme strategies used in many post-internet practices, and the swift proliferation of post-internet art into the gallery and collecting scene.
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In part one of this chapter, I commence by positioning my artistic PhD project in its field of practice (performance, scenography, fine arts), before describing and presenting the variety of methods that I deploy to research, develop and document the questions that I am concerned with. In part two, I zoom in on the case study, Thresholds of Touch, a performative experiment based on an inter-disciplinary collaboration between a composer/researcher, a sociologist and an artist/researcher (myself). I share how we set up a collaborative methodology between social science and artistic research, and what it contributed to researching touch from my perspective on practice-based research. The power relations between disciplines, methods and forms of expression/ knowledge will be traced and discussed. Finally, in the conclusion I reflect on the research outcomes and speculate on how different documentation strategies would have foregrounded other experiences, insights and/or knowledge.
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Empirical studies in the creative arts therapies (CATs; i.e., art therapy, dance/movement therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, psychodrama, and poetry/bibliotherapy) have grown rapidly in the last 10 years, documenting their positive impact on a wide range of psychological and physiological outcomes (e.g., stress, trauma, depression, anxiety, and pain). However, it remains unclear how and why the CATs have positive effects, and which therapeutic factors account for these changes. Research that specifically focuses on the therapeutic factors and/or mechanisms of change in CATs is only beginning to emerge. To gain more insight into how and why the CATs influence outcomes, we conducted a scoping review (Nstudies = 67) to pinpoint therapeutic factors specific to each CATs discipline, joint factors of CATs, and more generic common factors across all psychotherapy approaches. This review therefore provides an overview of empirical CATs studies dealing with therapeutic factors and/or mechanisms of change, and a detailed analysis of these therapeutic factors which are grouped into domains. A framework of 19 domains of CATs therapeutic factors is proposed, of which the three domains are composed solely of factors unique to the CATs: “embodiment,” “concretization,” and “symbolism and metaphors.” The terminology used in change process research is clarified, and the implications for future research, clinical practice, and CATs education are discussed.
The consistent demand for improving products working in a real-time environment is increasing, given the rise in system complexity and urge to constantly optimize the system. One such problem faced by the component supplier is to ensure their product viability under various conditions. Suppliers are at times dependent on the client’s hardware to perform full system level testing and verify own product behaviour under real circumstances. This slows down the development cycle due to dependency on client’s hardware, complexity and safety risks involved with real hardware. Moreover, in the expanding market serving multiple clients with different requirements can be challenging. This is also one of the challenges faced by HyMove, who are the manufacturer of Hydrogen fuel cells module (https://www.hymove.nl/). To match this expectation, it starts with understanding the component behaviour. Hardware in the loop (HIL) is a technique used in development and testing of the real-time systems across various engineering domain. It is a virtual simulation testing method, where a virtual simulation environment, that mimics real-world scenarios, around the physical hardware component is created, allowing for a detailed evaluation of the system’s behaviour. These methods play a vital role in assessing the functionality, robustness and reliability of systems before their deployment. Testing in a controlled environment helps understand system’s behaviour, identify potential issues, reduce risk, refine controls and accelerate the development cycle. The goal is to incorporate the fuel cell system in HIL environment to understand it’s potential in various real-time scenarios for hybrid drivelines and suggest secondary power source sizing, to consolidate appropriate hybridization ratio, along with optimizing the driveline controls. As this is a concept with wider application, this proposal is seen as the starting point for more follow-up research. To this end, a student project is already carried out on steering column as HIL
My research investigates the concept of permacomputing, a blend of the words permaculture and computing, as a potential field of convergence of technology, arts, environmental research and activism, and as a subject of future school curricula in art and design. This concept originated in online subcultures, and is currently restricted to creative coding communities. I study in what way permacomputing principles may be used to redefine how art and design education is taught. More generally, I want to research the potential of permacomputing as a critical, sustainable, and practical alternative to the way digital technology is being taught in art education, where students mostly rely on tools and techniques geared towards maximising productivity and mass consumption. This situation is at odds with goals for sustainable production and consumption. I want to research to what degree the concept of permacomputing can be broadened and applied to critically revised, sustainable ways of making computing part of art and design education and professional practice. This research will be embedded in the design curriculum of Willem de Kooning Academy, focused on redefining the role of artists and designers to contribute to future modes of sustainable organisation and production. It is aligned with Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences sectorplan masters VH, in particular managing and directing sustainable transitions. This research builds upon twenty years of experience in the creative industries. It is an attempt to generalise, consolidate, and structure methods and practices for sustainable art and design production experimented with while I was course director of a master programme at WdKA. Throughout the research I will be exchanging with peers and confirmed interested parties, a.o.: Het Nieuwe Instituut (NL), RUAS Creating 010 kenniscentrum (NL), Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts (NO), Mikrolabs (NO), Varia (NL), Media Arts department at RHU (UK), Media Studies at UvA (NL).
This Impuls 2020 proposal of ArtEZ University of the Arts focuses on strengthening the institutional structure and organizational infrastructure of its Research and Outreach Unit, by developing and building ArtEZ Research & Outreach. ArtEZ Research & Outreach is a centralized research incubation and development space to facilitate the large communities of researchers at ArtEZ. Based on the portfolio of diverse practices, disciplinary competences, and domain expertise, it explores and develops common grounds for new ways of shared, de-disciplined research and outreach activities across the university and with relevant external partners and stakeholders. The 2 key areas in which Impuls-activities will be performed are: 1. Strategic Research Programming and Networking – Aligning expertise, combining research resources and developing strategic networks Our first objective is to define a long-term Strategic Research Program, to set the directions of urgent and future-proof research topics, directly related to needs and demands from internal (research, education) and external (societal, industrial) stakeholders, with the ambition to create maximum value and impact for researchers, students and professionals and preserving the power of art. This area also includes networking, to develop diverse multi-stakeholder consortia within and around the selected strategic research topics. Our objective is to create multi-lateral exchanges, bringing people together in diverse communities for building consortia to prepare for joint practices of research, impact, accountability, and intervention towards collective research development. 2. Professional Research Support Infrastructure We need to develop and professionalize our research support infrastructure to facilitate professors and researchers in preparing, performing and managing (organizationally and financially) their research projects. The ambition is to increase ArtEZ’ participation in projects for research in the arts, from networking to dissemination and implementation of the research results and output, by developing a strong and sustainable research portfolio and financing strategy.
