Chris Salter - "Research-Creation, Hexagram and Embodied Knowing in a Digital World"

Although the word research increasingly surfaces in relationship to digitally-based art and design, there is much confusion over exactly what this term means, particularly in regards to institutions outside of academic contexts. In institutionalized settings, research signifies modes of acquiring new knowledge that coherently and systematically advance a field, is grounded, supported and adhered to by established methods and techniques and is validated by both social frameworks (peers) and already existing bodies of thought. This talk examines an emerging paradigm in Quebec and Canada (“Research-Creation”)  that traverses both academic and cultural contexts together with an institutional “test site” (Hexagram, based in Montreal) that seeks to puts forward an integrated model of theory and practice, and experimentation and creation in which the interpretive disciplines (humanities and social science) are increasingly linked with creative ones (art and design) through the arena of new technologies. Since its founding in 2001, Hexagram’s network of researchers has been internationally recognized in developing theoretical and methodological strategies for understanding the role of research lead frameworks in creative art and design practices. Due to this, Hexagram is becoming the theoretical, methodological and practice-based reference in the emerging field of research-creation in Canada and provides an important case study and example of best practices in the growing interest in practice-based, embodied knowledge.

Chris Salter

Chris Salter is an artist, Concordia University Research Chair in New Media, Technology and the Senses, Co-Director of Hexagram and Associate Professor for Design + Computation Arts at Concordia University in Montreal. He studied philosophy, economics, theatre and computer music at Emory and Stanford Universities. After collaborating with Peter Sellars and William Forsythe/Ballett Frankfurt, he co-founded and directed the art and research organization Sponge. His work has been seen all over the world at such venues as the Venice Architecture Biennale, Vitra Design Museum, National Art Museum of China, CTM, Ars Electronica, Meta.Morf in Norway, PACT Zollverein, Todays Art, Villette Numerique, EMPAC, Transmediale, EXIT Festival, Place des Arts, Elektra, Shanghai Dance Festival, V2_, among many others. He is the author of Entangled: Technology and the Transformation of Performance (MIT Press, 2010) and the forthcoming Alien Agency: Experimental Encounters with Art in the Making (MIT Press, 2015).

Digital Intelligence 2014

Digital Intelligence 2014 (#DI2014) was the first international scientific and interdisciplinary conference dedicated to digital society and cultures. The main objective was to bring together researchers, practitioners and students from a large variety of fields and to provide them with the opportunity to share their visions and research achievements as well establish worldwide cooperative research and developpement. Areas of research include but are not limited to: Data, Social Web, Digital Humanities, Digital Identity, The commons, Digital Art, Smart Cities, Media and Digital Cultures, Human-Computer Interface, Digital Literature, Digital Literacy, Computational Thinking, Secutity, Safety and Privacy, e-Learning, Business intelligence. The mindset of #di2014 is unique in bringing these disciplines together in creative and critical dialogs.