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New space, new questions
Co-creative Artistic Research Ecologies are artistic, co-creative practices within care institutions, hospitals, neighbourhoods and communities, leading to hopeful new perspectives on ‘care’ and ‘caring communities. By introducing different ways of seeing, connecting and making, a new kind of space emerges, no longer belonging solely to art, but also no longer exclusively to ‘care’. Very quickly, questions arise in this new space about what, in a given situation, is the right thing to do – or not to do. About who has which role and who is responsible for what. Roles begin to shift, because who is actually caring for whom? And when an artwork is created through co-creation, who, then, is the artist?
Marielle Schuurman. Photo: Thomas de Wit.
Moral ecology
Marielle approaches this process of jointly searching, attuning and creating as a new moral ecology: a living system that thrives on equality and reciprocity, that is continuously in motion and is created in and through practice. How can we navigate this new landscape more easily, and what role do artists play within it? What does this mean for practices of care and making?
CARE labs
In so-called CARE labs, artists and designers work together with residents, clients, professionals, policymakers, students and researchers around questions such as: ‘What does it mean to live with dementia?’ or ‘What can music mean for nurses, patients and their loved ones after a major operation?’ These artistic practices bring about significant changes not only at an individual level, but also within relationships, for everyone involved. How do new concepts and practices of care and art emerge here? And how might this also lead to institutional change and perhaps even to a more caring society?
Photo: Thomas de Wit.
From a care-ethical perspective, Marielle investigates what happens in the CARE labs, together with artists, care professionals and sometimes also patients/clients. Her multiple case study focuses on CARE practices that are already taking place at various locations across the Netherlands. These include artists-in-residence in a nursing home for people with dementia, musicians in a rehabilitation centre, and art students who receive weekly lessons on the grounds of a residential community for people with severe multiple disabilities. These are places where the future is already being ‘rehearsed’ together with designers and care professionals
Lexicon of Care
Together with those involved, Marielle searches for the issues or concerns within these practices: where do tensions arise and what really matters to those involved? Which moral questions surface, and how are they addressed? She feeds reflections from care ethics back into the CARE labs, so that these insights can be applied in practice. In co-creation with participants, she shapes and gives language to a new Lexicon of Care, which will continue to grow in the coming years. She uses, among other things, drawing and working with textiles as artistic research methods.
Meaningful Artistic Research
Drawing towards moral ecologies of care is part of Meaningful Artistic Research as an artistic research PhD. This programme is a collaboration between HKU and the University of Humanistic Studies, aimed at making doctoral research in artistic practice possible.