Method/Art #8: The Threshold of Co-Creation
Seminar on Methods in Artistic Research
- Mon 30 March 2026, at the Gele Zaal, Royal Conservatoire Antwerp
- Tue 31 March 2026, at the Wintertuin, Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp
Method/Art aims at bringing artistic researchers from different artistic disciplines to discuss their research methodologies. It is annually organised by Umut Eldem, Vivi Touloumidi and Adilia Yip, and is part of the seminar series of ARIA - Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts, University of Antwerp.
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.
Programme
Mon 30 March 2026, at the 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 Kleykens Vidal / 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
Programme
Tue 31 March 2026, at the 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 / 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
Updates and more information:
www.methodartseminar.com
(image: Dualtagh McDonnell-Grundy / ArtEZ, Arnhem)