Conference 2004
Research into Practice 2004 explored the role of the artefact in art and design research.
Conference report
Practitioners, theorists, critics and audiences all agree that the artefact (in the sense of 'man-made', such as objects, images, sounds, performances, etc.) has a vital role in the subject area of art and design.
It is no surprise that researchers also claim that artefacts have a similarly vital role in the development and communication of knowledge in the discipline.
This raises questions such as:
- How do artefacts do that?
- How do artefacts embody knowledge?
- How are artefacts used as part of the research process and what do they contribute in comparison with words and thoughts, etc?
- How does one communicate using artefacts and what kind of communication is facilitated that would be more difficult or impossible using other means?
- What kind of knowledge do we gain from the interpretation of artefacts that may come from other cultures or historical periods, and how much of the interpretation is derived from the artefact compared with the amount that is projected onto it?
- What is the role of the artefact in art and design research?
Key speakers
The keynote speakers were:
- Prof Anthony Snodgrass (Cambridge, UK), Emeritus Professor of Archeology and Chair of the British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles
- James Faure Walker (Kingston, UK), Senior AHRB Research Fellow in Fine Art
There were also 28 refereed papers on issues related to research in the creative and performing arts, and an MA(Res) examination exhibition by John Adams and Bren Unwin, candidates from University of Hertfordshire.
Read selected papers from the conference in Working Papers in Art and Design - Volume 3.
