Parasitic projects and the politics of research-creation.

Clarke, Jennifer

Abstract

This chapter considers the possibility of a 'symmetrical' anthropology by examining three 'parasitic' projects – collaborative, public projects at the borders of art and anthropology, which address the politics of authorship, intimacy and knowledge – I have recently undertaken. I consider these and their processes of making through the lens of the parasite, drawing attention to tensions between language and image, in the work of collaboration and translation across cultures, form and time, and to disruptive parasitic qualities including repetition, interruption, and translations, asking how these might serve to create 'new logics ... new orders of exchange'. By bringing such disruptive parasitic qualities into play, this chapter questions whether such work (whether understood as artistic practice, research-creation, or art-anthropology) carries the speculative potential to event concepts, by which I mean, concepts 'express' events, 'creating propositional paths to follow'. I then reflect on the rise of research-creation as way of thinking about research and art in parasitic relation.

Citation

CLARKE, J. 2025. Parasitic projects and the politics of research-creation. In Sansi, R. and Tinius, J. (eds.) The trouble with art: an anthropology beyond philistinism. Abingdon: Routledge [online], chapter 9, pages 171-190. Available from: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003283683-13

• Online Publication Date: Oct 31, 2024
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2025
• Deposit Date: Mar 25, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: May 1, 2026
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 171-190
• Series Title: Routledge studies in anthropology
• Book Title: The trouble with art: an anthropology beyond philistinism
• Chapter Number: 9
• ISBN: 9781032223919; 9781032255156
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003283683-13
• Keywords: Artistic research; Anthropology; Research methodologies
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2531967