Processpatching, Defining New Methods in aRt&D

This article describes the PhD research: Processpatching, "Defining New Methods in aRt&D" that is informed by my work as media art laboratory manager at V2_Lab and my current work as director of The Patching Zone, a new transdisciplinary lab for innovation.

The study investigates how electronic art patches together processes and methods from the arts, engineering and (computer) science environments. It provides a framework describing electronic art methods, to improve collaboration by informing others about one's artistic research and development approach.

The investigation addresses fundamental questions about the "research and development methods" of artists who are involved in interdisciplinary collaborations amongst and between the fields of Art, Computer Science, and Engineering. The breadth of the fields studied necessarily forced a tight focus on specific issues in the literature, addressed herein through a series of focused case studies, which demonstrate the points of synergy and divergence between the fields of artistic research and development, in a wider R&D context. It provides information about the practical and theoretical aspects of the research and development processes of artists. The artistic methods proposed in this research include references from a broad set of fields (e.g. Technology, Media Arts, Theatre and Performance, Systems Theories, the Humanities, and Design Practice) relevant to and intrinsically intertwined with this project and its placement in an inter-disciplinary knowledge domain.

Field

What distinguishes electronic art is, on the one hand, that it works mainly with mechanical, electronic and digital technologies and means of communication, and, on the other, that it is always made in collaborations in which the contributions of scientists and technicians (hard- and software engineers) are as great as those of the artists who supply the ideas, concepts and in particular the motivations.

—Brouwer, Fauconnier, Mulder, Nigten [1]

This investigation is positioned in the electronic art laboratory where new alliances with other disciplines are established. In the context of a rapidly changing domain of contemporary electronic art practice where the speed of technological innovation and the topicality of art "process as research" methods are both under constant revision, the process of collaboration between art, computer science and engineering is an important addition to existing "R&D."

Scholarly as well as practical exploration of artistic methods, viewed in relation to the field of new technology, can be seen to enable and foster innovation in both the conceptualisation and practice of the electronic arts. At the same time, citing new media art in the context of technological innovation brings a mix of scientific and engineering issues to the fore and thereby demands an extended functionality, which may lead to R&D as technology attempts to take account of aesthetic and social considerations in its re-development. This contemporary field of new media or electronic art R&D is different from the research and development aimed at practical applications of new technologies as we see them in daily life. The discourse dealing with the research and development process or the making of inter- or transdisciplinary art and technology practice is nearly absent in today's knowledge resources. This is a major problem for the contemporary artist who plans to work with technology, in particular those who intend to collaborate in the research and development process with other disciplines. A next step for Research and Development in Art (aRt&D) is a formalisation or a verbalisation of the associated work methods, as an essential ingredient for interdisciplinary collaboration.

Processpatching

Processpatching [2] refers to the aRt&D process of electronic or interactive art, where different kinds of analogue and digital materials are stitched together for the creation of an art experience or an art project in a broader sense. Processpatching combines and remixes well-known approaches from the arts, design and various scientific branches; it accelerates creative and innovative approaches that build on years of discipline-specific expertise. Processpatching has its roots in the arts without being formalised as a method. The term Processpatching is chosen as an associative, connecting approach, which is similar to the process it describes. It is typical of...