Arts in Contexts - Research axes Faculty of Arts
Arts in Contexts
The arts are not heterogeneous: not only are there various arts and art schools, within these you will find diverse art practices with a unique materiality, focus and dynamic.
The research in the arts is just as versatile. It is situated on the common ground between art practice, research and society. The art practice is often inspired and supported by new research developments and theories. These art theories are often built on developments and concrete cases in the art practice, and the art practice's relevance is manifested in the social field in the shape of a performance, event, intervention in situ, or even a social project.
Interdisciplinary research
The versatility of the research (with)in the arts is intrinsically transgressing the borders of research and art. The Faculty of Arts maintains several partnerships with art schools and museums in Antwerp.
Themes
Art and the city
Researchers take the city as a starting point for artistic creation and question how artists contribute to the city commons, how urban governments can develop creativity policies, and what role the urban context has in the production, value judgements and development of (new) art forms in past and present.
Art and practice
This research is focused on the diverse aspects of various arts' performance practices: it experiments with new techniques and/or materials on the one hand, or analyses the historical and sociocultural contexts of art practices on the other.
Art and aesthetics
This research focuses on the classic themes of art philosophy: the aesthetic experience, the aesthetic judgement, the imagination, mimesis, artistic meaning the cognitive aspects of the art creation and appreciation. Part of this research is connected to contemporary empirical aesthetics, while another part draws the attention to the historical development of modern and modernistic art theories.