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Paper short abstract:

Building on Law (2004) and Lury & Wakeford´s (2012) quests to invent new methods in STS and the social sciences in general, and drawing on the example of a research and teaching format called artLAB, this paper shows how the inclusion of art may add to conventional ways of doing research.

Paper long abstract:

Building on STS scholars such as Law (2004) and Lury & Wakeford (2012) who have suggested to invent new methods in order to grasp the multiple social realities, this paper will make an argument for the stronger inclusion of art in the exploration of sociomaterial realities. Along with other authors (Salter, Burri & Dumit, forthcoming) it claims that STS can profit from art in different ways: (1) the inclusion of visual and multisensory as well as creative and performative approaches in the research process may add to the more cognitive modes of knowledge production in STS; (2) art works reach other and often broader audiences than written scientific work, thus facilitating the inclusion of more people and wider publics in the reflection on science and technology; and finally (3) art interventions can be regarded as forms of political engagement with sociomaterial worlds and can thus be seen as a particular contribution in STS to the shaping of technosocieties.

This paper will inquire into these issues by focusing on artLAB - a research and teching format dedicated to the exploration of the science/art nexus. Inspired by debates on "Artistic Research", especially criteria developed by Borgdorff (2006, 2010), participants in this format develop artistic research projects which are shown and debated in public. Drawing on a sample of such projects, this paper shows how the stronger inclusion of art practices may add to conventional ways of doing research in STS and in the social sciences in general.