"Other Knowledge" in Artistic Research and Aesthetic Theory

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Christoph Brunner
• Subject Area: Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: from 2017 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 389043764

The network brings individual research projects into dialogue around the primary focus on the mutual relationship between the epistemic meaning of art and the aesthetic conditions and formations of generating theory. The project's point of departure resides in the assumption that the production of knowledge in the arts, known under the label of artistic research, finds its counterpart in the reflection of the aesthetic conditions of theory formation. Accordingly, we propose to investigate what might be called an »other knowledge« in both fields of research. The focus lies on identifying transitions, convergences, and divergences between art and aesthetic theory; after fine arts opened up towards theoretical forms of knowledge as much as art related sciences started to acknowledge their media conditions and aesthetics formations of their very own articulation. The project will emphasize the mutual borrowing between research-based arts and theory proceeding by aesthetic means by referring »knowledge in the arts« systematically to »artistic theory«; whose boundaries are as porous as the ones of fine arts. As a consequence, the aim of the network is to carve out a response from the perspective of the humanities to the challenges of "artistic Research". The network wants to establish a sustainable relationship between artistic research and the humanities through the inclusion of artistic positions, as much as collaborative publication projects, and exhibitions. A first hypothesis revolves around the insight that the contemporary epistemic relevance of art and the aesthetic conditioning of theory formation evoke a new distribution of the field of aesthetic knowledge. As a consequence, we perceive the proliferation of a third domain, that of "other knowledge" between art and theory. As a second hypothesis, the network assumes that this emergence of a new field evokes a paradigm shift concerning the reflection about art, moving from aesthetic terms to concepts of knowledge. Art manifests itself increasingly as epistemic practice; the aesthetic regime of art is supplemented by an epistemic regime, not revealing new positive knowledge but rather experimenting with other practices of knowing. Our third hypothesis: This "other knowledge" in the arts corresponds with »other« practices of knowing in theory, whose episteme operates similarly aesthetically. This aesthetic operation relies not only on forms of representation but especially on the materiality, mediality and performativity of its articulation. From this point of view it will be our primary concern to ask: how a new field of "other knowledge" crystallizes and differentiates through the mutual dependence and translation between art and theory. Such a new mode of knowledge would consequentially not only effect artistic research but crucially the formation of theory in philosophical aesthetics, art, media, and cultural theory - thus generating new experimental practices.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks