Artistic Research

The young discipline of Artistic Research (AR) is understood as research in the arts and through the arts. In the continental European tradition, AR denotes both a particular characteristic of research-based artistic practices and the associated institutionalisation, particularly in the context of the implementation of third-cycle university programmes, the establishment of cross-disciplinary interest groups, dedicated periodicals and stand-alone institutions. At the core of AR are artists as involved researchers, whose practice is a central part of the method. This aims to take the artistic process as the actual object, wherein performing, composing, creating objects, exhibiting, intervening, etc. act as vehicles for generating new knowledge and insights. These activities are not isolated objects of observation in research, but are understood as constituent for the research process in their performativity and agency. This requires making often non-propositional knowledge visible and audible—complementing clearly verbalisable “knowing that” by aesthetic and action-oriented “knowing how”—through multi-layered, mutually complementary forms of documentation that nonetheless integrate critical text production as an important part. The work in AR furthermore proceeds systematically and aims to bring knowledge and experiences interwoven with the art makers to an intersubjectively comprehensible level. To this end, it employs, coordinates and combines a wide variety of methods and techniques that are drawn from other disciplines such as the humanities and social sciences, depending on their proximity to the specific research question. This also means that within the GMPU, artistic research is in close contact with scientific research. Experimentation is often a central methodological element. AR is thus interdisciplinary in nature and seeks to build bridges between artistic creation and other scientific and social discourses.

In the PhD in the Arts programme planned at GMPU and currently in the accreditation process, Artistic Research will be conducted in three main research areas: 1. Musical Performance Art (artistic research through instrumental practice / performance research). 2. Composition (artistic research through compositional practice). 3. Sound and Intermedia (artistic practices such as sound and installation art, computer music, among others, which explore new interstitial spaces in relation to physical and digital media and in expanded performance and exhibition contexts).

These three areas of specialisation are combined in a diverse and complementary spectrum of research approaches, content, and methods, intended to create a broad and interdisciplinary environment for prospective doctoral students. These areas support and promote each other through a common understanding of research, building bridges within doctoral and research projects. This is achieved through joint concepts and interfaces.

The interface between the research areas Musical Performance Art and Composition is essentially formed by the collaboration between performers and composers. Possible research topics include innovative collaboration models, e.g. involving new rehearsal strategies or the creation of new repertoire including instrument making. Dual roles such as composer-performer are also conceivable. Composition may meet Sound and Intermedia by thinking about technologies, for instance in the form of algorithmic or computer-aided composition or the algorithmic modelling or simulation of human composition processes. Another point of contact are new and expanded aesthetics, in which, for example, the compositional potential of sound objects is researched or composing responds to auditory cultures; furthermore, composition may be investigated for specific and unusual locations or in hybrid formats such as concert installations. Sound and Intermedia creates connections to Musical Performance Art, in areas such as live electronics, performance ecosystems or via hybrid physical-digital or extended instruments; here, too, the focus can be on unusual and extra-musically contextualised performance spaces or the interplay of musical and non-intentional sounds.

Artistic research is embedded in the university’s overall research environment and also allows for links to academic research in the fields of ethnomusicology and applied musicology.