To me, ARC is a platform in which we both relate to each others practices as to the contexts that define our practices, the way it fits or fits not within the general discours on artistic research and within the possibilities of finding finances. This means for example that we will also discuss contemporary issues on the role of artistic research in the broader context of a society that asks from the arts to relate itself towards the needs of the society and to have a controlled and thought out impact.

By informing ourselves and by having thorough talks we can help each other (or maybe you can help me) to take a stance and communicate it to the outside world. The most urgent context of this moment is the influence of the Covid 19 virus on the ways we interact. The measures taken urge us to find new ways of communicating on line and off line. I see it as a challenge for the arc to develop new ways of using digital media and digital platforms to create vivid, intimate and open-minded forms of exchange and communication. How can we implement as much realness as possible, as much nearness as possible and as much dynamic as possible why combining on line an off line communication?

To me as professor Image in Context, as the facilitator and fan of what is happening on and through this platform, I am happy of being part of an intelligent, sensitive and committed group of trained and skilled artists. They are the flesh and blood of the way artstic research in the North will become a critical, reflective, autonomous, engaged and dialogical art practice.

As I see it, as I wish for it to be – ‘Artistic Research in the North Community’ is a BASE CAMP, a summit place for those who wish to embark on a journey into a partly or totally unknown territory.
A KNOWLEDGE BASE, place to share information, thoughts, tools, and experience, plan an individual trail and get prepared for a long walk.

It is a HOME BASE, to which you can come back, pause, contemplate, analyze, think out loud and think-with among critical people, a place to be heard, to be inquisitive, and safe to make mistakes.

It is a META LAB, in which Artistic Research concept is being examined and asked – What can this be.

The Arc is a community of people thinking about research in various artistic and non-artistic fields. The community hopes to be a platform for all to stimulate discussion on the concept of research, to enable projects and to contribute to collaborations. The community serves as a platform that enables people with different backgrounds to engage and share ideas.

I think the power should be with the individual. The community should have a large online communication platform where information can be added to quickly and simply. In this format groups can be created for online or physical meeting. For example, a topic/question can be created allowing participants to op-in into the meeting.

The community aims to address: Research as a discourse. The ARC serves as a platform to encourage cross over of research methodologies and to support each other, weather that be through critique or collaboration. The content and context of subjects and fields of research that are related or interested by the members. Ways for the community to serve as a bridge between the independent artist or researcher and other established institution research groups.

Arc to me is a learning community focused on the journey/process. A group of people interested in what research, through and in the Arts, can be in all its forms and articulations and where the concept of knowledge remains fluid and sometimes even elusive. At the same time it provides a solid concrete base through the exchange of documentation, literature and experience.

The group functions as a sounding board and critical friend, were different perspectives are key. Through discussion, sharing our projects and proposals, and reading, we try to find some common ground and slowly a modus operandi will evolve.

For me it is a project we do together. The continuity of seeing and talking to each other about Arc keeps artistic research for me to the surface.

Without removing anything of my fellow art researchers said, for me ARC is still a blurry agglomerate of things. But the time we are living in is extremely blurry as well, so this is not a problem. It might even be a solution. Obviously the COVID 19 let the people who has the chance to work in the art/cultural area to reinvented their ways of working; that’s what I consider ARC nowadays. An attend of creating news ways of stimulating artistic research in the North of the Netherlands – but with an internationalist open-ness.

ARC is continuously wondering what artistic research is (or might be) and this, as a community. By sharing knowledge and experiences. By connecting the art world, the society and the nature. By exchanging ideas, concepts and methodologies. By associating institutions and artists. In short, and for me, ARC is creating an experimental path for future artistic research developments.