Art as a Research Tool

The workshop was organized by the Esbrina Group, an interdisciplinary research team from the University of Barcelona, which integrates art, research, and social interventions. The main subject of the group’s research is various learning environments, but the range of its interests is very wide. The team brings together researchers in pedagogics, psychology, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, internet technology, history of art, and artists.

During the workshops, invited lecturers from Ireland, Sweden, Great Britain, Italy, and Finland presented the projects they had been involved in implementing.

A team from Dublin, Vagabond Reviews, spoke about their original participatory research projects. Luca Palmas and Jose Morandi from the University of Genoa told the audience about their experience of researching visual sociology and about the process of creating a film about the life of teenage gangs in Barcelona. Jen Tarr from the London School of Economics and Political Science shared details of projects dedicated to communicating chronic pain. As part of this project, people suffering chronic diseases got the opportunity to study pain by means of various expressive techniques, such as photography, audio landscapes, and body mapping. As part of the series of workshops led by artists, Catarina Player-Koro shared her experience on the use of network ethnography to study the process of introducing technological innovation in Swedish schools. Anniina Souminen (Aalto University) introduced the participants to one of the methods of art research – self-ethnography (when the researcher is the subject and the object at the same time), through the example of her own experience of reflecting upon her adjustment to living in two countries at once.

In the afternoons, the participants had the opportunity to discuss their own research projects and get feedback from the invited speakers.

The next workshop is planned for summer 2016 in Bilbao.