Research is going around in circles: Sally-Jane Norman

Sally-Jane Norman at Sonic Acts, photo by Pieter Kers
By Nadine Roestenburg Sally-Jane Norman, Professor of Performance Technologies at the University of Sussex, also an advisor for Sonic Acts, talked about the legitimacy and difficulties of artistic research. She asks the question: how can we articulate artistic research without falling into the sterile oppositions of theory versus practice? Artistic research within the academy has increased in recent years and Norman explains that critical reflection has become more important for artists to reclaim their authority in a system taken over by curators and critics. The problematic result is that PhDs are becoming a determining factor for employability in teaching art in higher education. The balance between practice and theory in artistic research, the latter not prescribing the first, is a tough balance to strike. She criticises programmes that train artists to attach bits of fashionable theory to their artistic works. It’s better to think about the usefulness of specific references, she says, and how these can strengthen artistic research and practice. Research is systematically investigating and studying existing materials and sources, to reach new conclusions. Norman points out a loose etymological meaning of the word research, by which she means creative etymological interpretation, repetition and coming around. Thus to do research, she says, could be thought of as going around in circles repeatedly. Norman refers to a review by Matthew Fuller of the Electronic Superhighway, an exhibition that shows computer and internet art from over the last fifty years, currently on show at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. The review, titled: “Eleven pro-tips for art plus internet” is a tragicomic account of curatorial libertarianism, in which he questions the rules of curation and museum practices that determine what we see. Like other critics, Norman dislikes the exhibition's pseudo-historical approach that has used dates as somewhat arbitrary curatorial bookends to bring together the artworks. Like Norman, I haven’t visited the exhibition yet.

This site uses cookies.