Method/Art 2026

30 & 31 March 2026 - Royal Conservatoire & Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp 

​Research seminar initiated by Vivi Touloumidi, Umut Eldem and Adilia Yip​

Within artistic research, the artist-researcher often oscillates between autonomy and entanglement. Conducting research therefore, can be itself an adaptive organism which ponders within these two poles, through continuous acts of making, sensing, and reflecting. Autopoiesis (self-creation) and symbiosis (mutual becoming) provide frameworks to rethink how creation emerges through reciprocal exchange rather than isolated expression.

How do these notions reshape the understanding of the artist-researcher, both as a self-sustaining entity and a node in a larger ecology of relations? In short, within the spectrum of autopoiesis towards symbiosis, where does the threshold of co-creation lie? When can we really speak of co-creation?

In ecological and social systems, symbiosis refers to relationships built on exchange and mutual transformation. When translated into artistic research, such models challenge hierarchies of authorship and expertise, as well as the power dynamics between polyphonic voices. Knowledge and skills emerge through negotiation, dialogue, and relational becoming among co-actors. 

In this scope, we ask what are the conditions needed for these relationships (biological, ecological, social, and/or technological) to sustain co-creative frameworks of artistic knowledge production: 

• How can co-creation be structured while the other-than-human is working with the human?
• What are the challenges of transdisciplinary co-creation and the flux of agency? 
• How can mutual dependency, rather than exclusive mastery, shape both research processes and outcomes?
• How can we practice co-creation with ethical awareness?

Call for proposals

The METHOD/ART seminar is looking for proposals of lectures, performances and workshops with a specific focus on artistic research methodology in general, and interesting to the work of researchers and practitioners of other artistic disciplines. Each presentation will be 20 minutes, followed by a Q&A of 10 minutes. The deadline of submission is 25 January 2026. Successful proposals will be notified by the following week. The proposal should provide the following information and be sent to artresearchseminar@gmail.com:

• ​Name of the presenter and affiliated institute
• An abstract of 300 words (maximum) to describe the subject of the presentation
• A short curriculum vitae of the presenter in 150 words
• Two images of the project and one image of the presenter (.jpeg)
• Necessary equipment and musical instruments for the presentation and/or performance