Update: Viviana Checchia shares some information on the Invisible Knowledge project which saw a series of collaborative events held at CCA over the last six months.
‘Invisible Knowledge addresses knowledge production within Glasgow, and is supported by Research at The Glasgow School of Art, University of Glasgow and SCAN (Scottish Contemporary Art Network), with the purpose of using research to inform a public programme of events. The Invisible Knowledge programme of events is managed by CCA with two groups: the research-led Invisible Knowledge meeting group and Glasgow Refugee Asylum and Migration Network (GRAMNet).
The research led Invisible Knowledge meeting group is an experiment in peer production methodology for artistic research co-ordinated by CCA’s Public Engagement curator. PhDs in art practice are proliferating, with little sign that the job market will catch up to an increase in doctoral graduates. What can researchers do in this context when they are working tangentially to, or outside of, an institution? What might a space for peer production related to research into and alongside art look like? How can we create links between a widely dispersed group of researchers through the process of programming and discursive practice?
Since June 2015, together with PhD candidates Emma Balkind (GSA) and Tiffany Boyle (Birkbeck), the Invisible Knowledge meeting group was formed as a new group for independent researchers in the arts, primarily aimed at PhD students and early-career researchers. Using research to inform a public programme of events, the group seeks to consider the nature of independent research as it relates to attendant structures and contexts. In part, the group wishes to work towards a critical understanding of policy-making around PhDs and independent research in the arts.
The aims and intentions of the group include the provision of a space in which researchers can produce programming which relates across / between / without institutional interests, and to critically assess where, when and how research takes place, within and beyond institutions today. The group takes a particular focus on how organisations such as the CCA and GSA can operate in a productive partnership to develop research within artistic programming, and to understand in what forms a mutual exchange with researchers might take.
The other group, involves GRAMNet, a network of researchers, practitioners, NGOs and policy makers working with migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland. GRAMNet and CCA aim to make the knowledge of GRAMNet members more visible. This is an important support for people who at the moment cannot contribute to the local cultural production due to political restrictions.
The Invisible Knowledge programme seeks to expand existing models of research and programming partnerships by connecting with the general public as an audience for research produced by, and in collaboration with, artist-researchers and participants from different backgrounds. This allows for experimentation on behalf of researchers, who will have the opportunity to present their research to the public in a different format and for non-academic and non-specific arts audiences to engage with research in an institution such as the CCA.
In this sense, the Invisible Knowledge programme acts as a platform for profiling and giving visibility to researchers and their attendant research practices across the arts in Glasgow and Scotland on an individual and collective basis. It operates as a bridging project between the work happening in the GSA, CCA and other external art and non-art institutions. Members formed pairings and clusters, based on common ground (or antagonisms) between their research and practices, and produced public events/projects.’
For more information about the project or future events please contact