The role of artistic researchers is not to describe their work – it’s something else entirely.

By Professor Barb Bolt, Faculty of Fine Arts and Music.

Talk about scientific research and a few things immediately spring to mind: randomised controlled trials, journal articles, momentous breakthroughs … And while those things are also true in the arts (one need only look at the University’s Music Therapy discipline for proof) the parameters are often different. So, what does “artistic research” in a Faculty such as ours look like?

The terms “artwork” and “work of art” tend to be used interchangeably but it’s useful to tease them apart. The artwork may be defined as the production – the performance, recital, painting, sculptural installation, drawing, film, screenplay, novel, poem or event that has emerged. Meanwhile, the work of art is the work that art does: the movement in concepts, understandings, methodologies, material practice, affect and sensorial experience that arises in and through art and the artwork.

The mapping of this movement allows artistic researchers to identify and argue for the research’s claim to new knowledge, or rather new ways of knowing – which, of course, is what all research does. But the positioning of the researcher as maker and observer, and the multi-dimensional qualities that arise in artistic research, gives artistic research its particularity.

The role of the artistic researcher is not to describe his or her work, nor to interpret the work, but rather to recognise and map the ruptures and movements that are the work of art in a way not necessarily open to others. The artist-as-researcher offers a particular and unique perspective on the work of art from inside-out as well as outside-in.

In August, Dr Simone Slee, former Head of Sculpture and Spatial Practice and now the Research Convenor at VCA Art, as well as being a successful practising artist, was awarded a 2018 University of Melbourne Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence for her PhD thesis: Help a Sculpture and other functional potentials – the first time an artistic research thesis has been recognised with this particular accolade.

As Simone observed in 2016:

Centering myself within the process of the artwork’s production was the most important factor in garnering my voice within the writing. Once I enabled this to occur the project began to drive its own agenda, developing an autonomy that was also akin to an artwork itself. Commencing with the artwork this firstly generated the research questions that then enabled these to be tested, sometimes contradicted, adjusted and clarified, and provoked new questions as they applied to the work.

This centering of oneself within the artwork’s production is the most important factor in giving voice to what has become known variously as practice-led research, practice as research (PAR), creative practice research (CPR) or, more simply, artistic research.

It is a truism to say that words are inadequate to the task of encapsulating the material fact and the experience of the artwork and one could argue that any the kind of discursive mapping process is a distancing device that creates objective “data” and denies the embodied experience that is central to our encounters with art. The artwork must stand eloquently in its own way, and if it doesn’t it fails. In this very important sense, elite art practice is necessarily at the heart of artistic research.

But through mapping the work of art as well as sending their artwork out into the world, artistic researchers offer a unique perspective on art, demonstrating and arguing for the impact of artistic research in the broader realm, and particularly in the academy.

In other words, artistic research has opened the possibility for artists to find their voice in a field where hitherto they have been the object of study by art historians, musicologists, critics, curators, and cultural theorists, amongst others.

Perez Art Museum PAMM

WHAT IS FLUORESCENT COLOR?

FLUORESCENT COLOR IS EVERYWHERE IN MIAMI

Have you ever noticed that some colors catch your eyes more than others? Have you ever found yourself drawn to a particular product on the store shelf, because the packing design screams “Over here! Look at me”? What about the highlighter yellow athletic shorts you work out in? The traffic cones in the construction zones on your morning commute?

Fluorescent color is everywhere, and odds are, you come across it in your everyday routine at least once a day. But what exactly is fluorescent color, and what makes it so special?

What Is Fluorescent Color?

‘Fluorescent’ refers to colors that absorb and reflect more light than conventional colors. Because of this, these pigments are brighter, bolder and better. Some people refer to fluorescent color as neon. We call it DayGlo®.

The color spectrum moves from invisible, low-energy infrared rays to high-energy ultraviolet rays. When looking at the color spectrum, the middle of the range represents the colors we actually see (the ‘visible light spectrum’). Normal colors absorb and re-emit a portion of the visible spectrum that matches its principal wavelength, while the remaining colors are absorbed and dissipated as heat.

Fluorescent colors use a larger amount of both the visible spectrum and the lower wavelengths compared to conventional colors (your traditional ROYGBIV colors). The difference between these two types of colors is that fluorescents absorb and convert light energy of the dominant wavelength, but also the wavelengths of ultraviolet rays and other colors lower in the visible spectrum.

Because of this combination, your eyes view fluorescent colors far more intensely as if they’re “glowing” in front of you. That extra glow you see is called ultraviolet (UV) light.

UV-Reactive Vs. Glow-in-the-Dark

Fluorescent colors are ultraviolet reactive and convert light to a dominant wavelength or color. Without a source of light (like a black light), the colors won’t be visible. As soon as you add an ultraviolet light source, the DayGlo pigments will appear to glow, while conventional colors remain dull and hardly visible in the dark. Remove the light, and the glow of the pigments will disappear before you.

These types of pigments are different than glow-in-the-dark colorants, also known as ‘phosphorescent.’ Phosphorescent pigments store the light source as energy and continue to emit a glow after the lights are turned off. The pigments remained charged for a short period of time, and will only start to glow again if they are reintroduced to artificial or natural light.

The DayGlo Difference

With our bright, fluorescent color palette, DayGlo Color Corp’s iconic neon colors are up to three times brighter than conventional colors and work across all mediums- from plastics and graphic arts to coatings and textiles. Ditching conventional colors could be what sets your products apart from the competition and helps build brand identity and recognition.

Bright conventional colors are able to reflect a maximum of 90% of a color present in the spectrum, but fluorescent colors can reflect anywhere from 200% to 300% of color.

THE FLUORESCENT COLOR THEORY

So how exactly does a fluorescent color fluoresce? It’s all about energy!

A fluorescent dye molecule begins at the lowest state of energy possible – the Ground State. When light shines on it, a photon of light is absorbed by the molecule. In effect, energy is absorbed. This excites the electrons inside the molecule to higher energy states – known as the Excited State. The excited electrons soon lose some of their energy to their surroundings, which prompts them to transition back to their unexcited state – the Ground State. In order to transition back, the electrons need to emit the photon of light absorbed.

This flash of light (the emission of the photon) is the fluorescence we see.

FLUORESCENT COLORS

How do fluorescent colors behave differently?

Fluorescent colors use a larger amount of both the visible spectrum and the lower wavelengths compared to conventional colors. They not only absorb and convert light energy of the dominant wavelength but also the wavelengths of ultraviolet rays and other colors lower in the visible spectrum. As a result, your eye perceives a far more intense color.

Where a clean, bright conventional color is able to reflect a maximum of 90% of a color present in the spectrum, a fluorescent color can reflect as much as 200% to 300%.

THE MECHANISM OF COLOR

The color spectrum is much larger than we can perceive!

The range moves from invisible, low-energy infrared rays to high-energy ultraviolet rays. The ‘visible light spectrum,’ or the colors that we see, are actually in the middle of the range.

Normal color absorbs and re-emits a portion of the visible spectrum that matches its principal wavelength, while the remaining colors are absorbed and dissipated as heat. In this way, a regular orange color re-emits back to your eye just the narrow orange band of the visible light spectrum. Therefore, if there is little or no orange light around (such as early dawn or dusk) the orange surface would appear dark or even black.

Perez Art Museum PAMM