No. 9 (2022): Recontextualising Practice-based Research
Articles

Can artistic practices inform an unlearning of normative thought structures? Towards an ethico-onto-epistemological co-constitution with other worlds’ knowledges

Monika Jaeckel
Independent Artist and Researcher

Published 12-09-2024

Abstract

A positionality within the framework of Western Modernity most poignantly is depicted through agency's interpretation as one-sided. It accounts for a belief in control and mastery over a presumably silent or mute 'othered' side, leading to an exclusionary and singular view of the world. Essential for breaching this prevalent approach are questions like how can other knowledges be approached without being appropriated, how can something unknown be made perceptible when generally approved unable as to provide a valuable contribution?

 

Practice-based research emphasises the intertwining of practice and theory rather than juxtaposing reason over the sensual, culture to nature. Focusing on results based on intuition and creativity activates a link between science and the arts. Such intertwining involves the participation across sectors and informs a specific sensitivity to differently defined norms. Creative research's prospect of divergent approaches in these transdisciplinary excursions entails an awareness for critical attitudes and differing possibilities. Its potential to address the normative frameworks surrounding the specific fields derives from these experiences. The text argues that these transversal abilities of creative research are essential for interrogating a worldview based on western modernity towards a co-constitutional attitude. A paradigmatic reference is an engagement with sound/noise in performance practice, as equally on a theoretical level. The intertwined approach allowed to unravel potentialities and also problematics surfacing throughout the project. Response-ability to the resonance of a new tone necessitates an openness to encounter 'new' or other knowledges, which incites an inherent co-constitutional ethics following feminist new materialism.