CFP: THE ART OF RESEARCH

FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS

Processes, Results and Contributions

24-25 November 2009
University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland

Over the last two decades, a lively discussion has developed about the
relationship between art and research. The roles of the professional
artist and the professional researcher have in many ways come closer to
one another and often merged in fruitful ways. At the university level,
the criteria for various forms of research related to art and design
have emerged. With some variation, the suggested minimum criteria
include: a clearly articulated epistemic interest, a systematic and
sustained approach, explicit and articulated means for communicating and
evaluating the results, and established practices for publishing the
results.

This new institutional connection between research and art/design has
promoted much discussion concerning the dialogue between theory and
practice, or ‘reflecting’ and ‘making’, the emphasis often being on the
question of how they might be combined in a productive way. This time
the conference explores the different ways to turn processes into
results guided by following questions:

- To what extent is it productive to demarcate the practices of
art/design from theories of art and design? Do these distinctions just
serve the narration of the dialogues between theories and practices or
do they have relevance beyond that?

- How to conceive of the relationship between the art/design processes
and the research results from case to case?

- How to document art and design processes for research purposes?

- How to communicate non-verbal research results?

- What do we mean by contribution in terms of art and design research?

- What is the relationship between saying and showing, or argument and
demonstration?

These questions might also stimulate other relevant questions.

The conference will go beyond conventional paper presentation, as each
conference session space will be designed to enable oral presentations
to interact with exhibited works of art and design. The aim of the event
is to continue and update the discussions concerning the relationship
between art and design practices and research, in terms of both content
and modes of presentation.

We invite papers (5000 words max) by doctoral students, post-doctoral
researchers and academics dealing with following themes:

1) Explorative art/design projects. This type of papers must be
submitted together with creative works and must contribute to
understanding how the visual and the verbal are unified in artistic and
design research. Each submission should also include a separate brief
description (80 words max) of the creative work and visual material such
as photographs or video (digital formats only, totally 10M max.).

2) Methodological and theoretical questions related to the conference
theme.

All contributions will be double-blind peer reviewed. To facilitate
double-blind peer review process, authors should make efforts to ensure
that information about the authors’ identities do not appear anywhere in
the paper. If an author is cited, “Author” and year should be used in
the bibliography and footnotes, instead of author’s name, paper title,
etc.

The conference is hosted by School of Design in co-operation with Design
Connection Doctoral School at the University of Art and Design Helsinki.
Since the first event in 2005 in Helsinkihas been organized annually, altering between two locations: University
of Art and Design Helsinki and Chelsea College of Art and Design in
London.

The paper and exhibition proposals should be sent to the conference
secretary Johanna Rauhaniemi (Johanna.Rauhaniemi@taik.fi). For the paper
template and other practical details, see the conference web site at
http://www.taik.fi/designresearch/AOR2009. Conference fee 150€/100€ for
students, includes conference attendance and refreshments.

KEYDATES:

9 April 2009 First call for papers

10 August 2009 Deadline for papers
1 September – 6 November 2009 Registration and payment
28 September 2009 Review notice and referee
feedback
30 October 2009 Submission for final
papers
10 November 2009 Arrival of exhibits.
24-25 November 2009 Conference

For further information, please contact:
Maarit Mäkelä
DA, coordinator / Design Connections Doctoral School
School of Design / University of Art and Design Helsinki
Hämeentie 135 C / FIN-00560 Helsinki
+ 358 9 7563 0640
maarit.makela@taik.fi