Proposal deadline: February 1, 2017
Publication date: October 2017
O A R: The Oxford Artistic and Practice Based Research Platform, is an online journal and research platform that engages with new and experimental ways of participating in knowledge production, specifically through practice based research. Practice based research is understood as a form of research that is innovative, dynamic, artistic, and anchored in practice. Our goal is to treat it as a broad, multidisciplinary epistemological category, so that its grounds and boundaries can be explored, expanded, questioned and redefined. We are currently inviting contributions to our second issue on the theme of Validity as well as inviting responses to already published articles and issues.
Issue 2 – “Validity”
Inspired by the work of Patti Lather on alternative criteria for judging research outputs, including “voluptuous” and “ironic” validity, in this issue of O A R we seek papers, artworks, and interventions which tackle reliability, effectiveness, correctness, genuineness, plausibility and the value of facts in practice based research across any discipline. Researchers undertaking experimental work, and often those carrying out empirical investigations, will recognize appeals to validity and replicability. From sociology and economic history to experimental psychology and curatorial practices, research has to address its relationship to facts and soundness. To what extent can or should practice based research take on or subvert these terms? Should artistic research aim to be correct or merely plausible? Does practice based research give otherwise seemingly ossified research protocols a space to know/make/do differently? We are interested in proposals, including art works, which seek to address the following or related issues:
–Knowing/not knowing in practice based research
–Format and media specificity in outputs
–”Truth to materials”
–Sampling, populations and inference
–(Un)believable arguments
–Alternative or innovative criteria for judgment of research
–The state of relativism
–Feelings and emotions as criteria for validity or soundness
–The claim of a “replicability crisis” and/or questions of internal validity
–Interdisciplinary comparison of these issues
Abstracts or multimedia proposals are invited from any discipline, and we will accept submissions in a wide range of media (text, image, film, and sound). Final written contributions should be under 6,000 words, though we strongly encourage shorter pieces of around 2,000 words.
Proposals for contributions, as well as all inquiries about submissions should be sent to: [email protected]
Please include:
1. An abstract or proposal (300 words)
2. A short biographical statement (150 words)
3. Examples of previous work (optional):
–For text-based proposals we recommend submitting one previous piece of writing, or links to works online.
–For multimedia proposals we recommend submitting two images of previous work, or links to works online.
Please submit all written material in a Word document.
Rolling deadline for responses
Through its publishing activities, O A R seeks to challenge the bound temporality of the standard academic publication, and to stimulate a culture of timely response. The launch of an issue is its publishing event, but the issue does not assume its final form on that date. Instead, the issue continues to expand through the responses that are added to the site. We invite responses to specific articles, whole themed issues, or any aspect of the O A R platform at all times. More information on how to contribute can be found on our participate page.
If you would like to stay updated on future call for contributions and issue publications please sign up to our mailing list.
