On the conditions of artistic research and related discourse via twenty significant concepts.
What are the key discussions, presentations, and publications that have shaped the recent discourse of artistic research? In search of some answers, this book departs from twenty research projects developed by the author over the past decade at venues including BAK Utrecht, Bucharest Biennial, Guangzhou Triennial, Havana Biennial, Kuanda Biennial, Nottingham Contemporary, Research Pavilion Venice/Helsinki, and Seoul Media City. The conceptual frameworks of these projects are resituated here, drawing on the critique of the alphabetical order articulated in Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes. From Diderot’s Encyclopedia to the current form of online lexicons and vocabularies, alphabetical order has long been a conventional mode of organizing knowledge. Barthes, however, shifted the mode entirely when he started to arrange his texts alphabetically based on concepts that emerged while rewriting them.
Alphabetical order then functions as a non-chronologizing anti-structure that prevents the different fragments from sliding into a single linear narrative. The twenty concepts developed here adopt a similar, essayistic approach to the heteronomous practices of artistic research: each one is a new point of departure from which to explore this nascent field in a provisional way. Rather than advancing definitive assertions, theories, or conclusions, Collateral Concepts is an assemblage of productive hints that invite the reader to reflect on the meaning, role, and position that ideas emerging from creative practices play in further articulating artistic research as an idiosyncratic mode of inquiry.
Published in partnership with the Centre for Research in Artistic Practice under Contemporary Conditions at Aarhus University.
Henk Slager is currently honorary professor of Artistic Research at Manchester Metropolitan University, visiting professor at Uniarts Helsinki, and senior lecturer at the University of the Arts Utrecht. In 2004, Henk Slager co-initiated the European Artistic Research Network (EARN), a network that investigates the impacts of artistic research on current art education through symposia, expert meetings, and presentations. Departing from a similar focus on research, he has also (co-)produced various curatorial projects, a.o. 7th Shanghai Biennale 2008, 1st Tbilisi Triennial (2012), Research Pavilion (Venice Biennale 2015–19), 5th Guangzhou Triennial 2016, 9th Bucharest Biennial 2020–21, and 6th Asia Triennial Manchester 2025.
On the conditions of artistic research and related discourse via twenty significant concepts.
What are the key discussions, presentations, and publications that have shaped the recent discourse of artistic research? In search of some answers, this book departs from twenty research projects developed by the author over the past decade at venues including BAK Utrecht, Bucharest Biennial, Guangzhou Triennial, Havana Biennial, Kuanda Biennial, Nottingham Contemporary, Research Pavilion Venice/Helsinki, and Seoul Media City. The conceptual frameworks of these projects are resituated here, drawing on the critique of the alphabetical order articulated in Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes. From Diderot’s Encyclopedia to the current form of online lexicons and vocabularies, alphabetical order has long been a conventional mode of organizing knowledge. Barthes, however, shifted the mode entirely when he started to arrange his texts alphabetically based on concepts that emerged while rewriting them.
Alphabetical order then functions as a non-chronologizing anti-structure that prevents the different fragments from sliding into a single linear narrative. The twenty concepts developed here adopt a similar, essayistic approach to the heteronomous practices of artistic research: each one is a new point of departure from which to explore this nascent field in a provisional way. Rather than advancing definitive assertions, theories, or conclusions, Collateral Concepts is an assemblage of productive hints that invite the reader to reflect on the meaning, role, and position that ideas emerging from creative practices play in further articulating artistic research as an idiosyncratic mode of inquiry.
Published in partnership with the Centre for Research in Artistic Practice under Contemporary Conditions at Aarhus University.
Author
Henk Slager is currently honorary professor of Artistic Research at Manchester Metropolitan University, visiting professor at Uniarts Helsinki, and senior lecturer at the University of the Arts Utrecht. In 2004, Henk Slager co-initiated the European Artistic Research Network (EARN), a network that investigates the impacts of artistic research on current art education through symposia, expert meetings, and presentations. Departing from a similar focus on research, he has also (co-)produced various curatorial projects, a.o. 7th Shanghai Biennale 2008, 1st Tbilisi Triennial (2012), Research Pavilion (Venice Biennale 2015–19), 5th Guangzhou Triennial 2016, 9th Bucharest Biennial 2020–21, and 6th Asia Triennial Manchester 2025.
