Public Research Seminar: Research as Art, Art as Research

Research as Art, Art as Research
Public Research Seminar: Mike Fletcher

Research that uses artistic practice as a core methodological component is becoming ever more widely recognised as having the potential to create genuinely new and valuable insights in many areas. However, along with its increased visibility, questions about the extent to which artistic research (AR) can, and indeed should, be a separate endeavour to artistic practice arise. This presentation draws on on philosopher Alva Noe’s 2006 book ‘Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature’ to set out one possible model for understanding the subtle yet important differences between the professional fields of art and artistic research.

Mike Fletcher is a woodwind multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and researcher who works predominantly in the fields of jazz and improvised music. His research spans jazz, traditional, and improvised music practice, musicology and philosophy. He is a founder committee member of the International Network for Artistic Research in Jazz (INARJ), has presented his work at conferences across Europe, and his academic writing has been published by Routledge and Leuven University Press. His most recent research project, funded by AHRC, investigated the musical and cultural impact of saxophonist Ornette Coleman’s early music. He was recently awarded Arts Council England funding to develop an improvisation methodology based on the bagpipe traditions of Northumbria and the Scottish borders.

Seminars are in RBC Workshop 2 and can also be accessed online via Zoom. A link to view the seminar via Zoom will be emailed ahead of the session.

Real and virtual doors will open around 3.25pm, the seminar begins at 3.30pm and discussion will conclude around 4.55pm.

Running time approx. 90 minutes