Art as a Mode of Enquiry: Graduate Symposium

The symposium will feature presentations by artists, philosophers and art historians. The symposium will be accompanied by a site-specific exhibition of contemporary art at the Ashmolean Museum.

Drawing on a spectrum of disciplinary approaches, the conference seeks to investigate the theoretical underpinnings of the advanced degrees in art that have recently become established in many universities in the UK and abroad. In what ways might art practice constitute a form of
research? What kinds of knowledge can it produce and how can these be evaluated? How can artists learn from, critique, and productively contribute to other disciplines, and when do these other disciplines become art? Are there historical precedents that might be used to explore this relationship?

Conference Schedule

Saturday 16th June, 2012
The Auditorium, St. John’s College, University of Oxford

9.30-10.00 Registration
10.00-11.20 Keynote lecture: Professor Adrian Piper (APRA Berlin): “On the Very Idea of Artistic Research”
11.20-11.40 Coffee
11.40-12.20 Kate Aspinall (East Anglia): “Vocation or Profession? The Character of the Artist and the 1960 Coldstream Report”
12.20-13.00 Robert Rapoport (Oxford): “Jean Rouch: Research as the Production of Shared Meaning”
13.00-13.50 Lunch
13.50-15.10 Keynote lecture: Professor Shearer West (University of Oxford): Title TBC
15.10-15.30 Coffee
15.30-16.10 Maarten Steenhagen (UCL): “Researching the Self”
16.10-16.50 Sonja Vilč (Humboldt, Berlin): “Artistic Research as an Autopoietic Practice”
17.00-18.00 Visit to the Ashmolean Museum to see the exhibition In-Site: Art as a Mode of Enquiry
18.30 Conference dinner

Sunday 17th June, 2012
Headley Lecture Theater, The Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archeology

10.00-10.40 David Egan (Oxford): “Later Wittgenstein as Literature”
10.40-11.20 Michael Delacruz (Slade): “Re-visualising the Andromeda: At the Intersection of Art, Tragedy and the Critique of Reason”
11.20-11.40 Coffee
11.40-12.20 Philipp Jeandrée (Goldsmiths): “Denaturalising the Visual: The Essay Film as Political Thinking in Images”
12.20-13.00 Rebecca Blocksome (Kansas): “The Aesthetics of Research: Towards a Post-Modern University”
13.00-13.50 Lunch
13.50-14.30 Laura Kuch (Slade): “The Seed of Romanticism: In Search of the Blue Flower”
14.30-15.10 Chay Allen (Oxford): “Art as Continuous Discovery: Allan Kaprow’s Activities as Models for a Post-Industrial Empiricism”
15.10-15.30 Coffee
15.30-17.00 Panel discussion: Art as a Mode of Enquiry
Confirmed discussants: Professor Adrian Piper, Malcolm Bull, Dr. Louise Hanson

The admission is free, but advanced booking is recommended. To book and for full schedule, visit: