torna Research

torna is starting a collaborative art research group in which research by practice can be realised without the limitations of academic requests -which in many cases kill the very reason why one chooses to do practice-based art research at a PhD level.

We are a group of like-minded artists, writers and designers individually working on our projects within the support system we've created in our co-working art 'department'.

We no longer want to showcase a list of white-male-dead and western names as reference points in order to seek any recognition in what we have to say. There is a whole other world outside these references.

We hope to prove there is also another way of doing art research by practice without imitating other subjects like social sciences, which may (or may not) need to rely more on other's acceptance before one's own.

We refuse to create a linear database of selected knowledge which naturally appears from this systematic 'monoculture' harvest.

"... the contribution it makes to knowledge. In order to demonstrate a contribution to knowledge, you need to map an existing context of scholarship in which your proposed project sits. This will enable you to demonstrate that the project has a place in the world but that there is also a gap, which your project fills. The best way to do this is to review the existing scholarship and to place your project within it, suggesting how it builds on this work..."

We kept hearing the same set of words: CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE and FILLING THE GAPS IN KNOWLEDGE. We disagree with this perspective and propose another way of doing art research.

We aim to create more gaps in knowledge. We aim to make the subject matter more confusing, more intriguing and more open for different interpretations, because we believe this is what art is meant to do. If we are to spend hours, days and years working on a research project on subjects, questions, suggestions and options that don't seem to make sense but 'feel right'; then we believe we have the full right to._____ADD_____

We refuse to squander our creative thinking processes, and the unreplaceable care we have for our projects, in order to make the academically expected list of references get even stronger and unbearably longer.

Get in touch (contact box right at the bottom of this page) if you feel close to these ideas and are interested in a new or at least another way of art research by practice.

– What is torna Research now, what can it be later?

What are our questions in mind and how will we start?

At this stage there seems to be more questions than answers. Below are some of our initial questions to ourselves:

• What do we individually expect from this project?

• How will each artist/researcher prepare their own work plan?

• How often will we meet to share our work with one another?

• What are our expectations of each other? In other words, how will this collective differ from working on our own?

• Not being in a good art department at a university has many disadvantages. How can we turn this shortcoming into an advantage for ourselves and for the efficiency of our work?

• Research projects are typically given three years. Is this the timeframe we are setting for ourselves? What are the boundaries? Should it take less or more time?

• Should we have other people join the group occasionally alongside us the researchers? Or should it consist only of those actively conducting the research?

• How can we share the work that will emerge as a result of this research project, and why and how should we share it with the outside world?

– torna Research Publishing

torna research will publish pamphlets and other printed matter by artists interested in research and using the artist publishing format as a tool to share it.

See HERE for more information.