Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts

Method/Art 2026

The THRESHOLD of CO-CREATION

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?

Programme

Monday 30 March - Gele Zaal - Royal Conservatoire Antwerp

  • 11:00 - 11:20  Introduction
  • 11:20 - 12:00  Gerard Gormley / Buckinghamshire New University - 'Vibrational Listening and Material Resonance: The Threshold of Co-Creation in Sonic Practice'
  • 12:00 - 12:40  Nicolas Kummert / Royal Conservatoire Antwerp - 'The Sound Between Us: Co-Embodiment and Electroacoustic Improvisation'
  • 12:40 - 13:40  Lunch
  • 13:40 - 14:20  Carmen Keynes / Hochschule Für Musik und Theater Hamburg - 'Fluid Virtual Identities as Relational Processes: Listening as a Threshold of Co-Creation in XR Performance' 
  • 14:20 - 15:00  Anne Marleen Olthof, Inesa Markava & Elena Khurgina / University of Amsterdam & University of Antwerp / University of Coimbra / Independent musician - '3 ½ Kaleidoscopic. Anachronistic. Diffractive.' 
  • 15:00 - 15:20  Coffee break 
  • 15:20 - 16:00  Leonardo Melchionda / Conservatory of Siena - 'Multisensory Sounds: A Case Study. Workshop on Haptic Perception of Sound and Co-Creation with Deaf and Hearing People' 
  • 16:00 - 16:40  Gianmarco Canato / Conservatorio G. Verdi, Como, Conservatorio A. Vivaldi, Alessandria - 'Collaborative Design of Improvisational Space in Experimental Music Theatre: “Framing” as a Model to Support Co-Creation and Shared Agency' 

Tuesday 31 March - Wintertuin - Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp

  • 11:00 - 11:20  Introduction
  • 11:30 - 12:00  Dualtagh McDonnell-Grundy / ArtEZ, Arnhem - 'Bogs as Structural Force: Reflexive Co-Creation with Wetlands' 
  • 12:00 - 12:30  Anna Andrejew & Floris Janssens (research duo somæ) / Independent artist / Dutch National Archives - 'Tending the Unfinished: Fermentation, Archives: Towards Non-Extractive Co-Creation' 
  • 12:30 - 13:30  Lunch
  • 13:30 - 14:10  Miriana Faieta / University of Antwerp - 'For More than One Voice Shared Vocal Practice as Artistic Research' (Workshop)
  • 14:10 - 14:50  Spring Pears (Katy Drake, Saskia Van der Gucht, Yi Zhang, Kristí Fekete, Anthe Hermans & An-Marie Breem) / Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp & Sint Lucas Antwerpen - 'A Case Study in Mutual Referencing' (Expo + Workshop) 
  • 14:50 - 15:10  Coffee break 
  • 15:10 - 15:40  Liesl Roos Leseberg / Hasselt University, PXL-MAD - 'Transformation as Artistic Methodology: Sculptures as Thinking Models of Formation Explored through Kiln-Formed Glass' (Expo) 
  • 15:40 - 16:10  Wieke Aerts & Fabienne Snellinx / Independent artist / Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp - 'City Whisperings'

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All information at www.methodartseminar.com

(image: Dualtagh McDonnell-Grundy / ArtEZ, Arnhem)