Praxis of Social Imaginaries
– a Theo-artistic Intervention for Transdisciplinary Knowledge
Full project description
FROM ACADEMY OF FINLAND application in 2024
Willie James Jennings and others have argued that it was a theological social imaginary formed in the encounters between people who stood at the centre of the establishments of medieval institutions and those at the borders of that world, which created “racial optics” and extractive exploitation practices globally (Heng 2018; Jennings 2010; Carter 2008). This is why our project returns to foundational texts of such a period, asking questions about what we can learn from the past to understand the present and make changes for the future. The chosen medieval travel accounts of this project document a period when European theologians, missionaries and merchants encountered new-to-them peoples and lands, and show early western impetus toward Eurocentric scientistic universalism on materiality, environment, and embodiment (Pratt 2008; Carter 2023; Jennings 2017). When the medieval Christian cosmology, focusing on reading the world polysemously, changed into a universalising theoretical and dogmatic structure, the social imaginary of Western forms of university sciences came to be (Mignolo 2021; Liboiron 2021; Harrison 2001). Thus, it is a theological task to investigate the interconnectedness of social imaginaries and practices in universities. Simone Kotva argues that it is not enough to critique and deconstruct previous theological social imaginaries. To disentangle theology from colonial epistemologies we also need to build something new, based on local practices and receptive to diverse epistemologies (Kotva 2023). It has further been suggested that “wicked problems” – a term social planner C. West Churchman originally coined for issues that resist resolution due to their large-scale interdependency and complexity (Churchman 1967) – are hard to address, due to the siloed nature of Western forms of science (Lawrence et al. 2022; Kimmerer 2013). Thus, our project suggests practicing polysemous reading and creating a platform for transdisciplinary collaboration to explore ways of re-imagining the world.
Transdisciplinary research transcends disciplinary boundaries and involves non-academic societal actors in the research process. Often these collaborations focus on societally relevant, real-world problems and include transformative working processes (Lawrence et al. 2022). However, they are also associated with high risks as there is no guarantee of mutual understanding or quick results (Willamo et al. 2022). Collaborations between researchers, artists and activists may create orientational knowledge, which can show where the societal changes need to go, transformative knowledge that changes how people and organisations work, and systems knowledge that deepens our understanding of complex problems (Lawrence et al. 2022). Kai Lehikoinen’s research shows how artists play key roles in these processes (Westerlund et al. 2021; Lehikoinen et al. 2021). The communication and migration of knowledge also needs non-academic or intermediary actors in order to create change in society (Jonsson et al. 2021). Regretfully, collaborations, particularly between artists and researcher,s are often superficial, not reaching the depths of knowledge possible (Beland Lindahl et al. 2014). Also international state-of-the-art theological projects and researchers engage the arts in new forms of collaboration (Carter 2023; Wigg-Stevenson 2021; Begbie 2000; Baker-Fletcher 2006; Coakley 2013; Lloyd 2011). However, none of these projects bring together actual artists, researchers and theologians for community work while doing their investigations. Research shows that transformative work happen when partners meet under retreat-like circumstances and where collaboration includes experimenting with each other’s practices (Elfving 2019; 2021). Our project thus proposes a theological turn, to artists to gain better skills of practice-based methods – what we call polysemous reading practices – that lead to theo-artistic interventions.
In the Nordic region, Petra Carlsson-Redell and the project ”ECODISTURB: The Ambivalence of Nordic Nature: Gift. Guilt. Grace”, explore the interconnectedness of activism, art and theology mainly in relation to the ecological crisis (Redell 2018; 2020). Particularly, Simone Kotva’s current work on magic and ecology, inspired by ecological thinkers and cultural theorists such as Isabelle Stengers (2023), lays out a framework for how theology and activism are interconnected and how engagement in different artistic and magical practices give rise to new forms of knowledge (Kotva 2022; 2020). Previous fieldwork on interdisciplinary research shows that establishing collaborations does not only require time, but further, training in listening and communication skills so that the project participants can recognise implicit differences that hinder collaboration. Often, epistemological and cosmological questions are only revealed in practice (Hellsten 2022a; 2023b) and need to be clarified. Spending such time together may lead to transformative knowledge both within the group and in the dissemination of the research to a larger audience (Tynkkynen et al. 2023). Our project invites participants to symposia where the community can co-create both transformative and system knowledge. This we call creating theo-artistic interventions. For it we propose a turn to artists and studying the processes of transdisciplinarity. Such action-based research needs observational as well as artistic research tools to follow and record what unfolds.
From pilot sessions conducted in 2023 to test our working processes, we learnt that for there to be a space where polysemous reading may occur two things are needed. The group needs to be a heterogenous community when it comes to cultural and academic backgrounds so that not one discursive practice can dominate the discussions. To our pilot sessions we were able to attract a diverse community of artists and researchers from across the globe, also including people with indigenous and traditional knowledge practices as their tools of inquiry. However, the majority of the researchers came from different fields within the humanities. Thus, our project now works pro-actively towards recruiting researchers from natural and social sciences to the symposia. (See section on risks) The second thing needed is that the artistic practices extend beyond western notions of “fine arts”, and that the practitioners are given more space to create workshops together with the community for exploring the topics and texts we are working with.
We have four objectives with our theo-artistic interventions. Firstly, by observing the past and following how the formative practices of othering and objectification became part of the church’s and universities’ teachings, we will better understand how such mechanisms work in our society today. Secondly, by engaging with practices derived both from the world of artistic research and local indigenous epistemologies, we aim to deepen our understanding of the relationship between the formation of specific social imaginaries and practices. Thirdly, by inviting minoritized voices to stand in the centre of our theo-artistic interventions, we want to probe at the ”cracks” of a colonial matrix of power (CMP) while also re-telling the historical accounts of the West from new points of view (Anzaldua 1987; Mignolo et al. 2018). Finally, by making the symposia a platform for studying the processes involved in transdisciplinary research, we will develop and evaluate tools and skills needed for transdisciplinary collaboration.
- Research questions and/or hypotheses:
This project works with two central claims. The first is that new knowledge, about the past and the present can be gained in transdisciplinary investigations. We work under the premises that practices like listening, slow reading, storytelling, and community action will enhance transdisciplinary research as well as create awareness of otherwise taken for granted epistemological and imaginary starting points both in the reading of historical texts and in the dialogue based upon them. Particularly, different forms of artistic research opens up dimensions in the texts that otherwise would go unnoticed (Carter 2023; Chaganti 2023). The symposia we create for our investigations are spaces where communities experiment with practicing theo-artistic interventions to test how polysemous research can be done. Furthermore, this claim entails that when participants are confronted with the non-western and non-secular ontologies present in the narratives we are reading and activated by the indigenous artists, researchers and keynotes we have invited to the symposia, a valuable re-evaluation of our colonial practices and imaginaries may follow (Johnsen 2022; Robinson 2020; Ahmed 2012; Asad 2011; Coakley 2022; Djampour et al. 2021; Drury 2021; 2022; Finbog 2015). For the investigations of the texts, we ask questions like what can be learnt from the minority or silenced voices in colonial accounts describing encounters with ”the Other” and ”unknown” lands, creatures and places? How can historical reading about and writing on silent and unseen voices be done in ethically responsible ways? Is there a way to re-imagine what has previously been imagined and which role can different artistic practices play in re-imagining different worlds and re-telling of ”lost” stories?
The second claim is that transdisciplinary investigations require a dedicated time and place to be established and to flourish. In the project we will both conduct transdisciplinary research, experiment with creating theo-artistic interventions, and study the process of transdisciplinary collaborations. We ask how migration of knowledge happens when historical accounts are read in transdisciplinary settings? For deepening the current level of systems knowledge about transdisciplinary research we further ask: how does learning happens in them, and which are the mechanisms that support or hinder the knowledge processes of the collaborations?
SVENSKA utarbetat format från 2025
Projektet är nydanande i hur mötet mellan akademi och samhälle, samt olika kunskapstraditioner och vetenskapsfält formas. Vi för samman studenter och forskare främst från Åbo Akademi, med konstnärer, studenter och samhällsaktiva i hela Norden. Bland medskaparna finns även indigenous forskare och konstnärer. Från tidigare forskning om transdisciplinaritet vet vi att processen med att etablera relationer och spendera tid tillsammans är central för att parterna skall mötas som likvärdiga medlemmar. Därför utformas projektet som en rad symposier där medverkandena tränas i färdigheter som att lyssna, läsa, berätta och leda dialogsessioner. Vi har även genomfört en pilotstudie under en studiecirkel i Nordiskt sommaruniveristets regi från vilken vi hämtar lärdomar till detta projekt.
Som underlag för symposierna använder vi oss av medeltida reseskildringar där vi ta del av berättelser om hur mötet mellan olika människor och kulturer skedde, men även av hur den medeltida resenären – ofta teolog och missionär men även handelsman eller upptäcktsresande – beskrev de för honom nya markerna, djuren, växterna och naturfenomenen. Texterna skildrar tidiga koloniala tendenser som senare kommit att dominera modern västerländsk vetenskapssyn där exstrakivistiska praktiker berättigas. En av de centrala texterna är Olaus Magnus Historia om de nordiska folken (1555). Under symposierna tränas deltagarna att se på världen och sin egen verklighetsuppfattning på nya sätt. Detta sker genom att symposierna förflyttar oss i både tid och rum. Deltagarna möts på olika platser, för att tillsammans med människor från olika kunskapstraditioner och med olika livserfarenheter, läsa, reflektera och skapa dialog kring en text som för oss till en “främmande värld”. Deltagarna inbjuds ytterligare att experimentera med olika lyssnande och berättande praktiker när vi leds både av medverkande konstnärer, och dem som bär på traditionell och lokal kännedom om de platser och miljöer vi besöker. Härigenom möts flera kunskapstraditioner kring frågan, vad är det vi kan lära oss från det förgångna för att göra något nytt med samtida utmaningar av biologisk och samhällelig hållbarhet.
Projektets forskningsbidrag sträcker sig mot tre olika fält. Den första gruppen använder sig av de transdisciplinära symposierna för att närma sig de historiska texterna. Speciellt intresserade är de av att utveckla metoder för att lyfta fram nedtystade röster och kunskap som blivit åsidosatt eller hållits gömd bortanför det vi finner i texten. En andra grupp fokuserar sig på utvärdering och metodutveckling kring transdisciplinärt lärande genom att samla material från symposiedeltagarna genom inlärningsdagböcker och deltagande observationer. Speciellt intresse finns det för att se hur samarbetena med konstnärer bär på kapaciteten att belysa traditionell och lokal kunskap på nya sätt. Den tredje gruppen fokuserar sig på att samla in och återge den kunskapsöverföring som sker mellan olika medverkanden, speciellt när det kommer till samspelet mellan praktiker och kunskap om biodiversitet.
Ifall du är en konstnär, forskare eller samhällsaktiv som är intresserad av att jobba på detta sätt, är det bara att höra av sig till oss för att få mer information om våra kommande symposier och evenemang!