GGK/GCSC Anniversary Lectures: Philipp Schulte und Falk Rössler: Post/Doc Perspectives: Against Functionalization. On Artistic Research

A specter is haunting European academia – the specter of artistic research. This specter invokes an ambivalent promise: For some the hybridization of academic studies and art practice seems to be a worthwhile endeavor inasmuch as it aims to break with incrusted institutional structures within the field of art and knowledge production. Others hope to enhance the visibility of their institutions by acquiring public funds to establish new study and research programs that work at the intersection of art and research; or in short: artistic research has economic value.

In our lecture we will, first, address the discussion on artistic research by asking how an aesthetic critique of scientific knowledge production could look like. By, secondly, referring to concrete examples we will further question the potential of artistic research as a hybrid cultural praxis that receives its value precisely from sitting at the nexus of academic studies and art. Do we need to hold on to a constitutional difference between artistic practice and scientific praxis or does this distinction dissolve? In relating our thoughts to the institutional critique – specifically focusing on the critique of the higher education sector – we will assume that the praxis of artistic research can only fully unfold its potential if such a praxis gets encouraged by means of funding, but without institutionally embedding and regulating this very praxis.

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