TITLE

Reflections on creation research, practice-led research, and practice as research:
pushing against institutional limits.

ABSTRACT

I've been working in the field of creation as research, practice-based research, and practice as research for many years. I founded a journal in order to bridge the gap between artists and scholars, and offer a place where unconventional submissions could be made (for instance in the form of a video essay or an essay with audio files, etc.). I have also experienced the difficulty to have part of my work recognized as a scientific contribution by the institutions that evaluate my work. So I have always tried to investigate that question of what constitutes new knowledge, and where is the fine line between all the things that can be done and the things that most institutions recognize as scientific contributions, occasionally pushing against those limitations to make them evolve at the risk of being myself sanctioned. My thinking has been evolving a lot on those questions during the past few years and I would like to present where I am at now, and where this is coming from. I will address modestly very ambitious questions such as: what is research-based research? what is practice as research? what are the conditions for an artistic practice to be called research? what does it mean to produce new knowledge? what kind of knowledge? how to evaluate a work that combines practice and research? Those questions are crucial to this field, for its recognition by our institutions, and they are constantly revisited, redefined, reinvestigated. I will illustrate this presentation with some examples (in theatre, film, photography, music), some that will appear easy to categorize as research, some others not so much. I hope to contribute, through this proposition, to the debate. Eisner, 1981; Candy, 2006; Schiller, 2020; Macleod and Holdridge, 2006; Smith and Dean, 2009; Easton, 2011; Sullivan, 2010; Borgdorff, 2012; Chapman and Sawchuk, 2012; etc.

BIO

Ivan MAGRIN-CHAGNOLLEAU is an artist philosopher born in Paris. He has been involved in art making for most of his life, including film, theatre, photography, music, and creative writing. He has been in turn actor, singer, director and author in around fifty projects in theater and film and occasionally performs as a performance artist. He has also practiced photography since childhood and published his first books of photographs in 2017 (Muir Woods Spirits) and in 2020 (Handscapes). He has two more planned in 2021. In addition to all this, Ivan has been involved in academic research and teaching, in particular in art and philosophy. He is currently a researcher with the CNRS in France, and is affiliated with the PRISM Laboratory. He is now particularly interested in the creative process, practice as research, the link between art and spirituality, and the importance of rehabilitating love as a life value. Several of his art videos have been exhibited during biennials and collective exhibitions. He also regularly composes for dance and film. His first album as a composer, Music for Dancers, is scheduled for 2021.

MPE/MeCCSA Practice Network Symposium 2021
http://practice21.net/