Method/Art 2025

31 March & 1 April 2025 - Royal Conservatoire & Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp 

Research seminar initiated by Vivi Touloumidi, Umut Eldem and Adilia Yip

With the theme 'skill_DEskill_REskill', the seventh edition of the METHOD/ART seminar in 2025 will explore the role and necessity of skill in artistic research. The 2-day event will take place on the 31st of March at the Royal Conservatory Antwerp and on the 1st of April at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp.

The approaches to skill have been going under significant changes since the 20th century. In the visual arts, the connection between craft and skill in artistic production was profoundly displaced by the rise of the readymade. In music and performing arts, chance procedures and conceptual processes became a valid means of shaping both the artwork and the performance of it. The further developments in technology exponentially intensified the trend towards deskilling: It is now possible to generate thousands of artworks with the click of a button. Such developments merged the realms of artistic and productive labour and, moreover reconditioning the function of the hand in the making of art. Through the paradigm shifts of modernism, the avant-garde, and postmodernism, interpretations and definitions of artistic skill have been repeatedly re-inscribed. 

The integration of new artistic practices, technology, and interdisciplinary methods is bringing artistic skills, social interdependencies, and material and philosophical processes into closer interaction. Consequently, shifts in skill demand shifts in strategy. Deskilling becomes a form of reskilling, on the basis of reconceptualizing not only the resources, but also skill itself. This evolving dynamic presents a unique challenge for artistic research, which must continually adapt to and interrogate these shifts, exploring new practices and reimagining skill itself. 

On this note, skill can be understood as a sensibility to correspond to current times. How can the relations between skill and habit, repetition or complexity, be yet again reinterpreted? Is AI a new form of the readymade? How is the perception and mastery of deskilling and reskilling evolving for artistic research?

The METHOD/ART seminar is looking for proposals of lectures, performances and workshops with a specific focus on artistic research methodology in general, and interesting to the work of researchers and practitioners of other artistic disciplines. Each presentation will be 20 minutes, followed by a Q&A of 10 minutes. The deadline of submission is the 12th January 2024. Successful proposals will be notified by the 19th of January. The proposal should provide the following information and be sent to artresearchseminar@gmail.com:

• Name of the presenter and affiliated institute
• An abstract of 300 words (maximum) to describe the subject of the presentation
• A short curriculum vitae of the presenter in 150 words
• One image of the presenter/project (.jpeg)
• Necessary equipment and musical instruments for the presentation and/or performance