Praise of poiesis – Theoretical reflections on the practice of artistic research

The book Praise of poiesis — Theoretical reflections on the practice of artistic research by Fernando Rosa Dias is now available in the repository of the University of Lisbon.

The present essay seeks to problematize the current condition of research in the arts by reviewing and reformulating a series of texts produced in the course of a decade for an editorial project focused on the topic, namely as it relates to the historical horizon of the arts and the discourses construed around them as well as to artistic creation, in a reflection that poses methodological, epistemological and hermeneutical questions.

(…)

Thus, our effort supports a kind of artistic research developed within poiesis, which unleashes the need for a new argument from the artist in order to confront other reasons in his poietic.

Out of the various points made in this study, or its most significant underlying theses, we point out the following:

1)      Research in the arts does not exist without artistic production (poiesis), neither can it exist without a theoretical reflection (logos) about said practice.

2)      Research in the arts implies new modes of interconnection between discourse and art whose parameters are unprecedented in the history of culture and arts.

3)      Research in the arts must be grounded on an open poiesis in experimental terms, not limited to the conception of a definitive and correct work (becoming part of a broader poiesis), much less of a perfect one, privileging the path of a poietic process, understood as a place of interrogations and discoveries and thus taking studio practice and rehearsal as its preferred modes.

4)      Poisesis must be considered expansive, never-ending and experimental. An expansive poiesis integrates and problematizes the various means – technical, institutional, social, theoretical, historical, etc., – in system-art, combining the different artistic forms and fields considered within artistic making (poiesis) and thinking (logos) as interrelated processual modes. A never-ending poiesis acts beyond the mere production of a final and definitive piece presented as a telos of poietics, turning any production into something as defining as any sketch or study. An experimental poiesis acting upon a notion of studio as a laboratory for experimenting and sharing new artistic or related problems.

5)      There is a place for research in the arts both within the art world as in the university, insofar as it conveys the concerns and contributions that characterize notions of truth, knowledge, know-how, culture, experience, etc., considering that these aspects are not reducible or exclusive of traditional scientific fields.