Marnix Rummens: RESPONSIVE SPACES

Doctoral Project

Marnix Rummens, PhD in the Arts

RESPONSIVE SPACES
Towards a design practice of multipolar creative spaces

The last decade has seen a significant increase in hybridisation within the arts. Through the mutual influence of disciplines such as performance, visual arts, media arts and social practices, a great diversity of new artistic languages and formats is developing today. What characterises an important part of this movement is that the relationship to the public is also shifting dramatically. In addition to the classic set-up with the separation between hall and stage, there are experiments with installations and interventions in which the space of the audience and that of the work of art coincide. The audience is more directly or actively involved, thus developing more diverse connections and relationships between art practice and life.
Parallel to these art forms, alternative forms of creation and trajectory development are emerging. These are often collaborative in nature, due to the interdisciplinary nature of the work. Creators, each with their own background and expertise, join forces here, not only as performing subcontractors, but increasingly as autonomous stakeholders in a collective process. With this diversification of formats, the context of these practices is also shifting. Productions with a different set-up, scale or duration than classical presentations in the black box or white cube migrate differently: from theatres and museums to (higher) education, care sector, companies, city festivals and public space. Increasingly, these social contexts are being actively addressed, giving them an active role in both creation and presentation.
If this development of responsive and context-specific forms is current, and various publics and social sub-domains are becoming a starting point in artistic co-creations, what do these trends mean for my design practice as a dramaturge, audience mediator, curator and cultural manager? What methodologies or organisational forms are needed to facilitate or stimulate these groundbreaking trends? And even more: how can artistic strategies inherent to these alternative forms influence my design practice as a curator and cultural manager and lead to renewed cultural or creative spaces that can generate added value to the existing typologies of theatres and museums in our collective capacity to engage with art and creation in society?

Supervisors:

  • Prof. Dr. Rudi Laermans (Supervisor KU Leuven)
  • Dr. Steven De Vleminck (Co-supervisor LUCA)

Research Unit: Intermedia

Duration: 2014-2020

Contact marnixrummens@hotmail.com

Marnix Rummens: Responsieve ruimtes
Marnix Rummens