The research focus is devoted to the cultural-scientific dimensions of artistic practice and the aesthetic forms or critical-transformative cultural theory. The focus is on the productive interactions between theory and artistic practices.
At the fsp-k, we pursue research in art and cultural studies that can take on different forms, also artistic ones. We investigate how practical aesthetic methods reflect, shape and further develop culture analytical concepts and discourses. Art is not primarily grasped as an object of critical reflection but as an active means, that is, as a medium and method of cultural analysis. The research focus is therefore concerned with breaking down the separation between theory and practice and promoting transdisciplinary research approaches in the field of the arts.
The fsp-k researches in particular artistic practices and positions that critically engage with cultural constructions of meaning and social productions of difference – for example, with regard to identity, alterity, subjectivity, or relationality. We examine the social conditions, historical-political situatedness and efficacious materialisations of cultural phenomena and aesthetic practices, and how these are negotiated, deconstructed or transformed through artistic forms of expression.
In the field of the arts, concepts such as performativity, agency, intervention, appropriation, re-enactment, participation, making (in)visible, and speculation, among others, refer to the close interactions between aesthetic practice and theory. These approaches make it possible to analyse, negotiate and actively shape culture in many different ways. Such methods and concepts allow us to understand art as a critical practice that not only poses questions but also devises alternative perspectives and forms of living together. The aim is to grasp art and cultural analysis not just as parallel practices but as mutually enriching ones that initiate and deepen transformative processes in society.
Thematic-methodical focuses of the fsp-k include:
- The questioning of and reflection on artistic knowledge practices in their relation to society, history and contemporary developments.
- The examination of the production, circulation and transformation of cultural signs and their translations and situatedness.
- The development of methodical approaches following the cognitive dimensions of aesthetic practices and experiences.
Through this methodically sound and practice-oriented research, the research focus contributes to exploring and further developing the close relations between art and science as reciprocal and productive links.