This keynote lecture by Prof Vida L Midgelow opened the ADiE ‘Future Manifestos‘ gathering and closed CARPA 6, the Colloquium on Artistic Research in Performing Arts, Theatre Academy, Uniarts Helsinki.

Formed through series of  stories, through a process of ‘storying’ as a mode of artistic research, the lecture offers a convergence of the (inter)subjective and the critical.

It might be that though this collection of stories, viewers can note a manifesto (of sorts) for an imagined (not to distance) future emerging. In this expanded envisioning, doctoral researchers are positioned as cultural change makers, in a diverse culture of inclusion in which many modalities, languages and registers co-exist in slow, co-generative and porous exchanges.

These are sensuous stories, stories that call for the reconsideration of language and the decolonisation of knowing and doing through and in artistic research. They are stories of doctoral research – mostly real, some re-imagined. Some recall memories and others speak of encounters. Some are borrowed. A few speak of the past, others point to a future.

 

Open Keynote of ‘Future Manifestos’, Friday 30th August, 2019, Kiasma Theatre, Helsinki

 

The lecture ends with the following words:

To bring this to an end and to look toward the future of the artistic doctorate – these stories implicitly argue for the necessary commitments we must make as a field to sustain, extend, and revitalize the richness of research practices.

Perhaps by alignment with other decolonising approaches (be that hailing for example from slow ontologists, maternal ethicists or Indigenous researchers) it might be that Artistic Research can infiltrate the academy, art practices and society more widely.  Embracing the heartful and the soulful, breaking down the falsity of assumed knowledges and the primacy of conventional modalities of practicing and writing, it might be that marginalised perspectives, embodied research methodologies and more diverse world views can come to the fore. For, as the final statement in the ADiE ‘Recommendation for Actions’ states:

‘The artistic doctorate has the potential to enter and map uncharted territories, reaching beyond the university to connect, benefit and transform society more widely’ (ADiE Recommendation for Action).

Mattering

Moving

Slowly

Shaking

Shaking slowly

Shaking the world

Making the world

Making the world …anew.