University of California Institute for Research in the Arts
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: As the only system-wide arts research unit, the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts provides a crucial level of support for projects that represent the most innovative and relevant arts research taking place within the UC system. In this proposal, we offer a new and expanded vision for the Institute. Building upon our work of the last four years in promoting a system-wide presence for the arts and recognizing the value of an interdisciplinary and interrogative arts research practice, three key thematic and programmatic initiatives will be developed in the next five years of the Institute’s presence at UC Santa Barbara. 1. SOCIAL ECOLOGIES: California-centric embedded arts research Through limited partnerships, projects and curatorial initiatives, UCIRA will provide opportunities for artists to investigate the radically diverse terrains of the state. Embedding artists within California institutions and field contexts provides support for researchers interested in topics as diverse as agriculture, land and water use, emergent technologies and new forms of knowledge production. In support of this initiative, UCIRA has formed partnerships with the Desert Studies program at the UC Riverside Palm Desert Graduate Center, the Art of Regional Change at UC Davis, the UC Humanities Research Institute at UC Irvine, the Visual Arts and Public Cultures program at UC San Diego, the UC Berkeley Institute of the Environment and key sites within the UC Natural Reserve System. 2. SOCIAL TECHNOLOGIES: new models of value exchange Current economic conditions have precipitated a re-emergence of forms of collectivism, exchange and ‘anticipatory’ practices, i.e. those that seek to imagine and address possible future economic and social modalities. UCIRA will establish opportunities for artists from across the UC system to enter into situated partnerships with artists, collectives and other agencies/ institutions in these and related areas of inquiry in order to explore new methods of value and idea exchange. 3. INTEGRATIVE METHODOLOGIES: re-negotiating the art/science paradigm Artists generate unconventional and imaginative knowledge systems that emerge from aesthetic reflection and risk-taking processes. Their creative energies and skills can be used to catalyze, visualize and recontextualize the work of scientists, encouraging alternative investigative methods and oblique approaches to problem-solving. UCIRA will support art/science and artist/scientist collaborative configurations designed to facilitate new, hybrid, and fusion models of exchange, co-creation and research practice. This will take place through targeted partnerships and program funding via UC science centers and focus on the public presentation of collaborative research results. UCIRA is represented by co-Directors Kim Yasuda and Marko Peljhan, an 18-member Policy Board, Associate Director Holly Unruh, Program Coordinator ZouZou Manos and 3 additional part-time staff positions.