epistemology

Afterword: On beyond research and new knowledge

Lindsay — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 08:38:42 +0200

Art and Knowledge in Kant's aesthetics

Lindsay — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 08:32:38 +0200

DIY or die | Historical genealogy of the network society

capprich — Sat, 31 May 2008 09:53:46 +0200

Talking about as well as investigating networks has become the determining morphology of our society in recent years. Web 2.0 holds the promise of an essential change, in which the collective intelligence of the users becomes the central resource of individual and community life. Today the question seems to be whether the industrial society is in the middle of a transformation to something entirely new, which by theory is only indicated with the prefix "post". Thus, scientific research has trouble keeping pace with the rapid development of a nascent mode of life and production. Instead of merely technological inventories, we need the critical examination of a social structure which is primarily based on networks. The aim of this work therefore will be the evidence of new forms of subjectivation which produce specific concepts of subjectivity (as in the fields of arts, business or communications) within the digital context. In this sense Foucault's historical genealogy refers to an eminent problem in cultural studies: how could the structuralist premise of unchanging, self-contained loop systems be resolved through the assumption of an open "game" of diverse contingencies. The subject here is not merely the product of cybernetic self-regulation, but is the essential condition for the possibility of these networks. Hence, the acknowledgment of the existence of relations of power and the need to transform them has led to the rise of a cultural movement for which the free flow of information is the fundamental prerequisite of a networked knowledge society. At the interface between technical and social networks new forms of knowledge (Free software, Open source and Open content movement) have emerged which are willing to overwrite the old control regimes with their own codes. "Do it yourself or die" therefore is committed to a certain type of genuine thinking as well as action and refers to a new alliance between creativity, politics and work which has already become the norm in post-industrial societies.

Handling the current discourse over new dynamics of production with Foucault's "theoretical kit" henceforth provides a specific point of view in which the description of the global network society can be confronted with a variety of local forms of knowledge. Thus, at the beginning of the 1990s, a very active media culture scene has been formed to critically discuss the promises and risks of newly built network technologies. This fact shall now be the starting point for the present study, in order to define these pioneer projects as an experimental ground for contemporary forms of subjectivity and to describe the current conception of network society. A focus on media history therefore results from the question of how technology and respectively the discourse over technology can be crucial for social, theoretical and epistemological modeling. The approach of the analysis pursues a double strategy: on the one hand it is necessary to examine the tension between subject, subjectivity and subjectivation on the basis of existing theoretical discussions, on the other hand to explore the relevant material in its positivity. For this purpose, both the analog and online archives of Public Netbase/t0 as well as the archive materials of the Ars Electronica Center are available. The large number of unpublished essays, lectures, videos, live-recordings and interviews (including contributions by Sadie Plant, Manuel de Landa, Anne Balsamo, the Critical Art Ensemble and Hakim Bey), which are able to indicate the discourse of the network pioneers, allow to meet the requirements of historical genealogy as a method of collecting, archiving and structuring. Hence, by means of this rich and complex body of texts and works, the "discursive formation" of the network in its cultural dimension may be analysed, in order to develop a critical theory of network-based subjectivation. The terminology thus derived enables further conclusions to be made about the implicit assumptions of today's network society, as they can be found in media but also academic discourse. Namely, by retracing the threads of the existing dispositif into the early days of network building, current processes of transformation can be put up for discussion. Because only in the interplay of power, truth and subjectivity, can critique emerge as the ability to act vis-à-vis the ruling order - submitting or resisting.

WHO'S AFRAID OF ARTISTIC RESEARCH?

Lindsay — Sat, 03 May 2008 10:02:35 +0200

WHO IS AFRAID OF ARTISTIC RESEARCH?

Thursday 22nd May 2008 10am - 4.30pm
Dundee Contemporary Arts Seminar room

One-day symposium about the epistemology and context of practice-based research

Compared with the established epistemologies of the humanities, the social sciences and the natural sciences, the discourse surrounding practice-based research in art and design is relatively young and includes a range of diverse approaches. What practice-based research is or is not, is highly controversial. Does it mean that the researcher investigates his/her own (visual) practice, or rather, that visual practice is a means of investigation? Other questions arise in the context of 'normal science' and the knowledge economy: what are the goals of such research?, and what is the desired outcome? What are the connecting lines between art and science, between practice and theory?
And last but not least: why would an artist want to do 'research'?

Practice-based research can be understood as a process, evolving from and changing through the practice undertaken by the individual researcher. The challenge here is that research (still) can be undertaken in releative freedom. Entering the arena of ongoing discussion, negotiation and re-adjustment, and engaging in the discourse about methodology essentially contributes to constituting this freedom.

Speakers:
Laurence Rassel, artist/curator (constantvzw.org, Brussels) Simon Sheikh, curator/critic (Copenhagen, Malmö Art Academy) Dr. Dieter Lesage, philosopher (Berlin/ Erasmushogeschool Brussel) Prof. Nigel Johnson, artist/researcher (Dundee University)
Chair: Dr. Ken Neil, artist/researcher (Glasgow School of Art)

Screening:
A portrait of the artist as a worker (rmx.), Ina Wudtke, Berlin

Organised by: Lindsay Brown and Cornelia Sollfrank

For detailed information about the programme and the speakers, please visit the Visual Research Centre website at the address below.

The event is free, but advance booking is required: 01382-909900

Dundee Contemporary Arts · Nethergate 152 · Dundee DD1 4DX

Knowledge Transfer Conference

Lindsay — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:52:19 +0100

Knowledge Transfer Scotland: Policy and Practice 2008 aims to address research-KT
questions by bringing together early stage researchers, academic staff,
university managers, research and enterprise experts, outreach
specialists, funding bodies and policy makers for a unique, one-day
conference at the University of St Andrews on Friday 4th April 2008.

Programme includes experts speakers from across the Art-Science,
innovation-outreach spectrum of KT and all of the key organisations
involved with developing KT policies and strategies in Scotland (e.g.
Scottish Government, Scottish Funding Council, Scottish Enterprise and
RCUK).

The event is free to Scottish PhD students, academic staff, research fellows and KT practitioners. Registration closes on the 18th March, 2008.

Thing Knowledge: A Philosophy of Scientific Instruments

Lindsay — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:59:03 +0100

Artistic Research and the Poetics of Knowledge

Lindsay — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 14:31:25 +0100

Kant: A Very Short Introduction

Lindsay — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:21:58 +0100

The PostModern Condition: A Report on Knowledge

Lindsay — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:46:34 +0100

Soil and Soul: People Versus Corporate Power

Lindsay — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:15:06 +0100