About - Method/Art  (Methods in Artistic Research Seminar)

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Since its inception in 2019 spring, Methods in Artistic Research aims at bringing artistic researchers from different artistic disciplines to discuss their research methodologies. Each edition centers on a set theme during two days of presentations by four keynote speakers and ten presenters, via an open call. The floor is open for debates and thoughts sharing in the Q&A, roundtable discussions and networking moments.  The event is part of the seminar series of ARIA - Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts, University of Antwerp.

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Organizing committee

 

Umut Eldem

Umut is a composer, musician, and researcher. He currently teaches music theory and audiovisual composition, and is the coordinator of the research group CREATIE at Royal Conservatoire Antwerp. As a Max Certified Trainer, he teaches and regularly organises workshops on creative coding.

 

The compositions and audiovisual installations of Umut Eldem combine cross-modal experiences with inventive technology, using sound, color, and innovative methods to explore artistic boundaries. He has given lectures on his research on cross-modal art and technology, and had his compositions performed in many countries and events around the world. In 2020 he has won the Sampo Composition Contest. His online audiovisual installations commissioned by Screen Dive have been featured at the Gaudeamus Festival. His research project ‘Synaesthesia and Sound-colour Associations as An Interdisciplinary Metaphor’ has explored the phenomenon of synaesthesia as an interdisciplinary analysis and performance method.

 

Umut Eldem also acts as the musical director of the theatre collective Mixed & United and as the keyboardist of the band Transport Aerian. He frequently organises creative coding workshops and meetups on Music Hackspace. His PhD research project entitled ‘The Hearing Glass: Synaesthetic Correspondences in The Musical Practice’ intends to develop an inter-sensory theory and practice of visual music.

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Vivi Touloumidi

Vivi is a contextual artist, researcher, and craftswoman. Her practice is embedded in artistic research at the intersections of art, cultural activism, and craft disciplines. A principal pursuit of her artistic practice is to investigate wearable and portable art as a medium of agency to carry socio-political messages, evoke discourse, and position a body in the public realm. On this trajectory, she obtained a practice-based PhD in the Arts in collaboration with the Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts (ARIA) in Belgium, with the focus to investigate the social significance of body-related objects and their potential in engaging with the current times. Her research was published in the artist book, “Pharmakos, adornment as a social tool” and was shown at a solo exhibition at M HKA museum INBOX space.

 

Currently, she is a Docent at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp (2018-the present) focusing on artistic research. She has been repeatedly an invited speaker on these topics at events, such as PARSE, the 4th Biennial Research Conference in Sweden, and has written articles on related subjects for FORUM+, Art Jewelry Forum and The Vessel magazine of Norwegian Crafts.

 

Since 2010, Vivi’s work has been published and shown internationally in curated gallery and museum exhibitions. She was born and studied in Athens, Greece, before continuing her education in Germany and Canada. She holds an MFA in the Crafts from Konstfack University in Stockholm. She lives and works in Berlin and Antwerp, while she always returns back home to Athens.

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Adilia Yip

Adilia is a marimba/percussion performer and artistic researcher from Hong Kong, and based in Belgium. She has obtained the Doctoral in Arts degree (PhD) jointly offered by the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp and the University of Antwerp in 2018 with artistic research project “Inventing New Marimba Performance from the West African Balafon Practice”. The project was financed by the Antwerp conservatoire in 2012-16, and supervised by Prof. dr. Kathleen Coessens and Prof. dr. Henk De Smaele. She is currently a researcher of the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren (Belgium), focusing on the historical xylophone collection and music practice of the Azande in northern DR Congo. The project is supported by the BELSPO scientific fund (2023-26), and the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp (2023-25). Her research scopes encompass the West and Central African xylophones, music embodiment, cross-cultural exchange, autoethnography and ethnomusicology. As an active solo and chamber musician, she is frequently invited as guest artist for interdisciplinary and intercultural music projects at international festivals, cultural venues and organisations. She has founded the chamber music groups "The Bracket Percussion" and "Duo Antwerp" to support the creation of new marimba/percussion compositions and performances. She is also the founder of the ARIA seminar METHOD/ART since 2019, and the KLINKEN percussion festival.