Tuesday 1st – Thursday 3rd July 2025
Faculty of Arts – Chulalongkorn University Bangkok, Thailand
Hosted by The Department of Dramatic Arts and the Faculty of Arts, with support from the Office of Research Affairs (ORA), Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
The Asia Pacific Artistic Research Network (APARN), a Special Interest Group of the Society for Artistic Research (SAR) invites proposals for presentations at its upcoming 2025 conference, Artistic Research for Creative Communities.
Conference Theme
The conference will explore the interplay of innovative approaches to research in and through the arts and the formation of creative communities. It asks for contributions that consider how various modes of artistic research can enrich community life and how communities contribute to new ways of artistic knowing and doing. We invite proposals that engage a range of artistic practices, concepts and research methods, and connect to, affect, generate, challenge, and reconstitute community life.
Taking an inclusive approach to artistic research, this conference welcomes contributors working in modes of artistic practice such as architecture, design, fine art, media and digital arts, music and performing arts, creative writing, circus, and inter- and trans-disciplinary work. We encourage proposals from diverse voices and perspectives, whether from academic institutions, artistic collectives, civil society organizations, or independent researchers or artists, particularly those from the Asia Pacific region. We seek contributors to share their innovative modes research and practice, help to foster critical dialogue and collaboration, and to explore the transformative potential of Artistic Research for (re)generating thriving and sustainable communities.
Conference participants will be able to participate in workshops with local artists, arts researchers and to attend performances in Bangkok.
Proposals are invited on topics that engage with these issues:
- Artistic Research for Creative Communities: How can artistic research engage, inform and transform creative communities?
- Art Practices for Place–making and Community Building: How can place-based, community-driven, arts-based projects serve as catalysts for social innovation in a changing environment?
- Transdisciplinary and Hybrid Artistic Research for Reimagining Community: How can inter-, trans-disciplinary and hybrid work of artistic research help to rethink forms of collective life and action to address critical societal, economic, and environmental challenges?
- Connecting Artistic Knowledge to Resilient Communities: How can local artists use their knowledge and practice to generate resilient communities?
- Learning to Create with Communities: How can educators, artists, and communities collaborate to revitalize and empower communities?
- Artistic Research and Innovation Ecosystems: How to integrate artistic research into larger research and innovation ecosystems to drive social innovation?
- Art Transformng Communities: How can collaborations between artists, activists and communities produce creative alternatives and social change?
- Imaginaries of a Better World: How can collaborations among artists, cultural workers, researchers, and communities contribute to building more just and sustainable futures?
In addition to the above, we also hope to receive proposals engaging related themes such as: Placemaking through the Arts, Community-Led Arts Projects, Artistic Collectives, Artistic Heritage Communities, Curating Culture with Communities, Arts Festivals, Artistic Research and Communal Knowledge
We encourage submissions from diverse voices and perspectives tied to the arts, research, and communities, particularly those from the Asia Pacific region, we welcome both those based in the Asia Pacific region and those outside who have an interest in the region.
We are seeking proposals from (but not limited to): Artistic Researchers, Community Organizers, Cultural Workers, Performers, Scholars, Curators, Media Workers, Installation Artists, Social Scientists, Filmmakers & Videographers, Creative Writers, Designers, Architects, Ethnographers, Philosophers, Visual Artists, Industry Practitioners, Activists, and Art Collectives — especially those with a focus on the interface of art, research, and collective life.
Submission Guidelines
Please submit a 300-word abstract (including the title) and a short biography (100 words) by March 31, 2025 at this Google form: https://forms.gle/uToSi94fMYzHEvaP8
All presentations will be 15 minutes plus 5 minutes Q&A onsite in Bangkok, and creative formats are encouraged here.
Proposals will be selected by a committee of peers based on their originality, clarity, relevance to the conference theme, and potential to contribute to a stimulating and diverse intellectual exchange. Acceptances will be notified by April 24, 2025.
Publication options
All #APARN2025 presenters will also have the opportunity to publish their presentation in the APARN channel in the Journal for Artistic Research (these are editorially reviewed but not peer reviewed).
Academic papers from the event may be submitted for potential publication in an issue of Manusya: Journal of Humanities being arranged by Pornrat Damrhung and Lowell Skar.
Graduate students whose programs may require them to speak at an international conference and to have their paper for the conference peer reviewed and issued in a publication with a DOI number will also be able to do so.
Join the Asia Pacific Artistic Research Network Special Interest Group
We invite interested artistic researchers working in or from the Asia Pacific region to join the APARN Special Interest Group. To join, please subscribe to APARN’s Google Group at https://groups.google.com/g/ap-arn
Questions? Please contact the team at: APARN2025BKK@gmail.com
#APARN2025 convenors:
Pornrat Damrhung, Department of Dramatic Arts – Chulalongkorn University – Bangkok
Piyawat Thamkulangkool, Department of Dramatic Arts – Chulalongkorn University – Bangkok
Lowell Skar, BALAC Program – Chulalongkorn University – Bangkok
Gunalan Nadarajan, University of Michigan
Danny Butt, Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne
Kurniawan Adi Saputro, Institut Seni Indonesia (Yogyakarta)
Roopesh Sitharan, Multimedia University – MMU Cyberjaya