WHAT CAN A WALNUT BOX TEACH US ABOUT ARTISTIC RESEARCH?

In this article, I will discuss the methodological as well as collaborative challenges that may take place when artists do research that is led by their own practice. I begin with an observation on the recyclable aesthetics of lighting design as a background for my research study, the Trippel Flipper dance production. I analyze my experience on the outcome and place it in the context of Finnish artistic research. I use Robert Morris's minimalist sculpture, the Box with the Sound of its Own Making, as a source of inspiration while scrutinizing the nature of artistic research. The artwork transparently presents the auditory document of its creation as an essential part of itself. Analogous to the attitude and the structure of Morris's sculpture, artistic research has to trust in the unique nature of the artistic process and create its own questions, methods and arguments for each case. Art universities are now well on their way in constructing their own practices, not separately, but in dialogue with the traditional research world. This means continuing negotiations about epistemology, methodology and about the formats in which arguments are presented. In order to answer these challenges, we should remember the teaching of Morris's walnut box; artistic research needs to be well articulated, self-reflective and transparent.