The theme of Research into Practice 2006 is the role of the context in the interpretation of artefacts and visual semantics in art and design research.
In recent years there has been much international debate about the role of the artefact in art and design research. The debate has considered, for example, what contribution the artefact makes to the research process and to the communication of the outcomes. However, artefacts are not interpreted in isolation. The question of what contribution the artefact makes has to be considered in the light of how the artefact is interpreted. This interpretation takes place in a context; for example in the studio, in a gallery, in the market place, online, in the context of "research" or in the context of "design", etc. Research into Practice 2006 focuses on these contexts and explores the instrumentality of the context on the reception of artefacts as constituting or contributing to research.
Topics that might be considered include, but are not restricted to:
- Is the researcher responsible for establishing a context for the "correct" interpretation of the artefact, i.e. is that also part of doing research?
- Can the research content be activated/deactivated by changing the context of reception?
- Are certain types of context more research-friendly than others?
- Is it the context that makes research into research, the Institutional Theory of Art
- What is signified by research being undertaken in the context of a university or by being done by those labelled as researchers, or being funded by a Research Council?
- Does research demand new types of context, and what would they need to be like?
- What is the impact of traditional academic attempts at the recontextualization of research from other disciplines outside art and design?
- Is decontextualization or disinterest, either possible or desirable?
More information here.