Manifesto of Artistic Research

Mersch Dieter, Henke Silvia, Strassle Thomas, Wiesel Jorg, van der Meulen Nicolaj

Since its beginnings in the 1990s, artistic research has become established as a new format in the areas of educational and institutional policy, aesthetics, and art theory. It has now diffused into almost all artistic fields, from installation to experimental formats to contemporary music, literature, dance, or performance art. But from its beginnings – under labels like "art and science" or "scienceart" or "artscience" that mention both disciplines in one breath – it has been in competition with academic research, without its own concept of research having been adequately clarified. This manifesto attempts to resolve the problem and to defend the term. Further, this manifesto defends the radical potential of artistic research against those who toy all too carefully with university formats, wishing to ally their work with scientific principles. Its aim is to emphasize the autonomy and particular intellectuality of artistic research, without seeking to justify its legitimacy or adopt alien standards.

About the Author

Silvia Henke is Cultural Studies Scholar at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, where she is head of the Department of Theory.

Dieter Mersch is head of the Institute for Theory at the Zurich University of the Arts, a member of German Society for Philosophy and the German Society for Aesthetics, and a board member of the Journal of Philosophy of Culture. Nicolaj van der Meulen is co-director of the Institute for Aesthetic Practice and Theory at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design in Basel, Switzerland.

Thomas Strنssle is head of the transdisciplinary Y Institute at the Bern University of the Arts, and professor of Modern German and Comparative Literature at the University of Zurich.

Jorg Wiesel is co-director of the Institute for Aesthetic Practice and Theory at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design in Basel, Switzerland.

Back to the list of books