Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Westminster
What is research in the visual arts? Obsession, archive, encounter
The output comprises the Introduction/first chapter of this edited collection, as well as the co-editorship of the book, which forms part of the prestigious Clark Studies in the Visual Arts, Series, Yale University Press. Smith’s introduction/first chapter identifies the questions shaping this collection’s research agenda. It asks: (1) Why is it pressing to consider critically ‘research’ itself as a topic of research? (2) How do the Arts and Humanities approach ‘research’ in distinctive and productive ways? (3) What is the relationship between research as a topic, practice-led research and practice-led (artistic or curatorial) projects themselves? Along with writings (e.g. Appadurai, Macleod), exhibitions (e.g. Slager) and debate in university and art school contexts, this output contributes to wider emerging debates in the Arts and Humanities into ‘research’ as itself a topic of research. Smith’s contribution explores the nature of curiosity as personal, political and creative, and the processes of doing research in the archive, library, studio, museum, and beyond. As such, it considers the pleasures and dangers of researchers’ encounters with the incoherence, chaos and wonder that lie at the heart of re-searching. The book is a result of a two-day conference Smith programmed at the Clark Art Institute (Williamstown, USA, 2007), with Michael Ann Holly. The Paul Mellon Foundation funded the conference. In addition to the invited Plenary Lectures, detailed in Output 3, Smith has programmed significant innovative public events related to this project, including: a two-day event at Manifesta 8, Murcia, Spain, as a member of European Art Research Network (2010); a one-day conference (with Goldsmiths and UAL) on research and interdisciplinarity in the arts and humanities at Swedenborg Society (2008); a two-day conference at Tate (2007) entitled ‘Encounter, Curiosity, and Method’ with international, world-leading artists, curators and academics.
