Multiperspective take on pluriversal agenda in artistic research

Rigid structures and differences in the sociocultural contexts of art academies and universities across the world can limit cross-disciplinary collaboration and network building. Artistic and arts-based research has the potential to unfold a transition in art and design fields, merging them into a cross-disciplinary arena that summons radical innovation. Based on the concept of the pluriverse, this chapter explores speculative scenarios of envisioning the future of artistic research by analysing four case studies. These cases apply similar methods in engagement with diverse audiences to disseminate multiple themes or concerns (social, environmental and cultural) and to represent different medialities/medial situations and scales of collaboration, hence contributing to the concept of the pluriverse within arts-based research and artistic research projects. This chapter addresses the following four questions: For whose benefit is artistic research initiated? Who is doing artistic research? With and by whom is artistic research conducted? Why is artistic research conducted? Hence, the social aspects of artistic research are explored to better understand the relationship between collaborative practices and research. The ‘social’ in the scope of this chapter includes a wider group of agents, including nonhuman contributors. After an overview of theory behind the key themes—artistic research, arts-based research and the pluriverse—the authors proceed with autoethnographic analysis of the above-mentioned questions through the prism of their personal experiences and specific case studies from their respective artistic research practices. Further application of these autoethnographies in discussing the pluriversal agenda results in an outline of the profile of a contemporary researcher and the social aspects of her research, both in and beyond institutional settings.