Research Themes
Each of the residencies are linked by a theme or specific area for research or area of craft practice. Through the programme a body of experience, knowledge, critical exchange and work is built up, and relationships developed between the artists, the hosts and the “communities” of practice that are connected with the artists and hosts.
Whilst each artist will be pursuing their own individual lines of enquiry the residencies will be linked by the common experience of some level of displacement. Each of the artists will be working away from home, away from the familiar, known or given situation and this is presented as an opportunity not only for time to engage in critical reflection on their practice but also for exposure to new influences, ideas, new materials, other artists and to different readings of their work.
All the research will be carried out in the context of being somewhere else and in a different cultural context. This underpins the rationale for the whole Project. For some of the artists their research proposals will explicitly address the factors of displacement and they will specifically explore related issues in their work during their residencies. For others it is likely that the factors associated with displacement will be less integral to the work with which they will engage. But throughout the project there will be an attempt to examine the significance and influence of context on the development of work.
The documentation of the Project and its writers-in-residence will both be critical to the further exploration of this dimension of the Project: seeking to draw out, illustrate and critique the impacts and meanings of working in and developing international communities of practice.
Possible research questions:
- What are the means by which networks can be built and sustained across cultural regions?
- What are the inhibitors for artists in participating in and contributing to such networks?
- What are the conditions that best provide ‘structures of reflection, creation and communication’ for artists’ practice?
- What are the ‘risks in movement’ for artists?
