Dialogical Landscapes A Speculative Research on Common Ground(ing)

Abstract

The PhD research Dialogical Landscapes: A Speculative Research on Common Ground(ing) investigates collective and self-organised artistic practices as spaces in which alternative ways of living, working, and imagining can be rehearsed within an increasingly precarious cultural landscape. Situated between artistic practice, research, and writing, the trajectory explores how artists and collectives continuously negotiate the relationship between artistic labour and maintenance work, as well as questions of hospitality, the use of space, reciprocity, dependency, and decision-making. In doing so, the research focuses on how such practices are shaped by processes of friendship- and community-building, difference, conflict, and ways of surviving. Through performative exercises, conversations, and collaborative artistic projects, the research approaches artistic practice itself as a mode of thinking and knowledge production. In doing so, it develops dialogical and embodied methods that temporarily invite participants to step into shared imaginative spaces where existing social relations, organisational structures, and forms of collaboration can be questioned. Central to the research is the idea of constellative thinking: an understanding of collective artistic practice as a constantly shifting network of relations, frictions and dependencies that cannot be reduced to a single coherent narrative. Collectivity is approached as a fragile and continuously negotiated process, shaped by imagination, failure, and the possibility of transformation. The dissertation is therefore presented as a non-linear digital environment that reflects the polyphonic and fragmentary character of collective practice, and through its design attempts to create a dialogical and constellative research space in which different voices, residues, and relations are made visible. Ultimately, the research asks how collective artistic practices, despite their temporary and vulnerable nature, can open up forms of commoning and world-making in which other social, artistic, and political realities can be imagined and momentarily lived.