During this summer, I’ve been involved with a lot of interesting events and projects exploring creative experimentation in research. A few of the highlights include:
- Jonathan Prior and I have set up an Experimental Research Network. This is a consolidates and widens out from my ‘Experimenting with Geography’ ESRC project which is now nearing its end. The network website is at http://experimentalnetwork.org/
- Jonathan and I have also obtained funding in the form of a Vitae Innovate grant to run another week-long residential training workshop in November this year. This one is for 10 UK researchers and PhD students and will be based at Dundee Contemporary Arts. Instead of having structured sessions with expert presenters, participants will spend the week working on their own projects and sharing the results with each other. The deadline for applications is soon. Full details are at http://experimentalnetwork.org/
- In September I co-organised a session on sonic methods at the Royal Geographical Society annual conference, again with Jonathan. There’s a lot to say about this so I’ll make a separate post.
- In July I presented a paper on ‘What is experimental music?’ at the Experimental Society conference in Lancaster. As part of the paper I performed a version of Cage’s infamous 4’33”. The response was strongly polarised. My intention had been to experiment with what was possible in a conference paper and it was certainly successful in that respect.
- In July I also went to a superb workshop on experimental ruins in geography at UCL. Organised by Dr. Gail Davies with artists Neil White and Steve Rowell, the highlight of the day was an excursion to a derelict block of science laboratories. Here’s some photos courtesy of Bradley L. Garrett.
Bradley L. Garrett