Approximating Borders: New publication about artistic research

The publication Approximating Borders: Artistic Research in Practice developed in the framework of the EU4ART_differencesproject by the editorial team of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts took the approach of concentrating on different research methods concerning artistic practices and offering practitioners the possibility to narrate their process in their way using textual and visual material.

The text types included in the book can be arranged around three large groups. The central set includes the so-called artistic contributions based on partially guided questions. In these texts invited artists from the European region, and in one case from outside, describe the research process and the various stages of the creation. Their approach is indirect, as it involves research and creative processes related to already completed works.

The other type of texts, the so called ‘inserts’, are short summaries written by specialists in art theory. In some cases the authors describe the need to adapt to the institutional infrastructure of research and the higher education guidelines from a historical perspective linking artistic research more closely to education. The third text type is the interview, which looks at the connections between the creative processes and the research from an external point of view.

The primary target audience of the publication are graduate art students and those participating in the third cycle.

The book aims to approach Artistic Research from the perspective of the artist-researcher, by giving the main voice to them to narrate their creative process in whichever shape or form they choose. Texts of this type vary from objective narrative, through personal to poetical expressions. Invited artists represent the perspectives of the partnering institutes with regard to the Central and East-European perspective. Contributing artists are Anca Benera & Arnold Estefán, Judit Böröcz, András Cséfalvay, Ilona Jurkonytė, Carsten Nicolai, Bence György Pálinkás, Alfredo Pirri, Grit Ruhland, Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits, Máté Szigeti, and Santiago Reyes Villaveces

Short theoretical texts, serve to embed the self-narrated artistic and research approaches into the broader discursive field of Artistic Research. Topics range from the situation of the institutional framework, through the challenges of AR in the Global South to shared methodologies between science and art, and historical perspectives. Contributing authors are Costanza Barbieri, John Butler, Veronica Di Geronimo, Manuel Ángel Macía, Dániel Máté, Vytautas Michelkevičius, Benedek Purkarthofer, Elena Giulia Rossi, Tünde Varga,

The publication is primarily targeted to undergraduate and graduate students of Higher Arts Education institutes as well as academic staff and researchers interested in the perspectives of practitioners of AR.