Confronting Conflicts - Seminar on Methodology

About - Method/Art (Methods in Artistic Research Seminar)

Since its inception in 2019 spring, Methods in Artistic Research aims at bringing artistic researchers from different artistic disciplines to discuss their research methodologies. Each edition centers on a set theme during two days of presentations by four keynote speakers and ten presenters, via an open call. The floor is open for debates and thoughts sharing in the Q&A, roundtable discussions and networking moments. The event is part of the seminar series of ARIA - Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts, University of Antwerp.

The Subject of Confronting Conflicts

Conflict, though consuming and challenging, inevitably results in the construction of a more conscious model of interconnectedness. Crisis can become a catalyst of co-dependence that fuels art and design processes that respond to a broad range of critical conditions, from the collapse of local social systems to the global ecological catastrophes.

Conflict may also mean overcoming old conventions and the delusion of control, which presupposes new capacities and competences for engagement and co-action. The ability of creatively crafting such methods and strategies resides in one’s competence to connect and communicate with the assemblages in which one finds themselves to be participating in.

Culture can bring conative bodies to confrontation and resilience. By accepting the losses and costs attached to such endeavors and by continuing to contemplate the possible changes and the alternative scenarios of co-existence, established norms can be cancelled and rendered irrelevant. Art and design absorb and reflect back to our value systems. Therefore, taking in consideration its transformative agency, creativity with courage can play an active role in maintaining resilience and in building sustainable human and non-human collaborations of mutual common futures.

For registration to attend the seminar, please follow this link.