BRICOLAGE

Workshop
a.pass, 2015

Research as crafting.

A bricoleur never starts – s/he is continuously working on “whatever is at hand.” Using the concept of the bricoleur, described by Claude Levi-Strauss’ in The Savage Mind this workshop is a framework to investigate the momentary state of artistic research practices. With the help of our “totems“ – found or constructed objects, objects of personal resonance and desire, daily objects and precious ones, or objects of thought and discourse – this workshop for a.pass participants tried to quest the landscapes of the student’s individual research models and methodologies.

Like many artistic practices, bricolage crafts the object of knowledge without knowing its shape. In opposition to the engineer, the bricoleur’s tools and materials are heterogeneous but – working only with what is there – his/her universe of instruments is finite and the result of circumstance.

The engineer tries instead – in the most rational manner – to overcome the constraints of his/her current reality and work under the underlying assumption of infinite possibilities. The engineer, as much as the scientist, creates events by employing structures – whereby the “bricoleur“ creates structures through events.

Maybe artistic practice can create events by employing structures that are triggered by events?