Unexpected (RE)solutions – How the process drives the outcome
Process is often the invisible hero behind creating or inventing the world we live in. Process – seen as a sequence of steps aiming at discovering the unknown or solving problems with no apparent solution, is a language of communication in itself. In Fusion AIR artistic residency, we explored this language in the context of both art and science, seemingly divergent fields with different apparatuses for decoding the world, calling for different ways of understanding and explaining what surrounds us. Their investigative processes intersect and sometimes even overlap, resulting in complementary ways of knowing.
Unexpected (RE)solutions – How the process drives the outcome is the concept for the 2022’s edition by Floriama Cândea and Andrei Tudose, the curators for this year. It brings to the fore the work processes at the basis of artistic and scientific creativity and the methods employed in both studio and laboratory practices. Ideas, their formation, the way they are constructed and represented, are the result of practices or methods that are often repetitive, sometimes spontaneous, but never random. In science, process provides structure, it is oriented towards problem solving with well-defined objectives, with clear stages of observation and experiment, with deductive and inductive reasoning that lead to the formation and testing of hypotheses and theories. The artistic process, on the other hand, is often seen either as an act of demystifying the creative gesture, or as a creative act in itself, with no need for a clear finality. We propose the identification of some techniques that migrate between the two disciplines, of some characteristics that can be found at the base of both types of processes, of the route changes moments in their research approach, as a foundation for the collaborative practice between art and science.
Processes such as iteration, methodological determinism or serendipity are found in the practices of both disciplines. They are generators of new content or innovation. But what do they look like in the scientific research laboratory and what do they look like in the artist’s studio? What are those conventions dictating objectivity and what role does speculation play in these processes? How do both art and science base their refinement of methods and concepts on how they relate to norms? Their questioning, the “trial and error”, the unconventional paths are all important as they can lead to unexpected results and to identifying new directions in which creativity plays a decisive role.
Fusion AIR residency encouraged both artists and researchers to explore the relationship between their working process and the production of ideas and artistic objects; they navigated their own approaches in search of those cracks through which creativity sneaks in. The resulting artworks merged imagination with technique and technology, unexpected transitions between reality and fiction became visible, speculative approaches brought the rigor and aesthetics of the scientific image closer to the public along with artists and researchers’ pleasure for experiment.
