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Venturing out on the thread of a tune: the artist as improvisor in public life. (2018)
Book Chapter
DOUGLAS, A. 2018. Venturing out on the thread of a tune: the artist as improvisor in public life. In Oliver, J. (ed.) Creative practice and the art of association, trajectories of practice as research. Melbourne: University of Melbourne Press [online], chapter 6. https://www.mup.com.au/items/190001

In discussing the work of Wassily Kandinsky of some hundred years ago, Will Grohmann, an art historian, focuses on Kandinsky's effort to develop a new grammar for the visual arts. Kandinsky, Grohmann argues, undertakes a profound rethinking of visual... Read More about Venturing out on the thread of a tune: the artist as improvisor in public life..

Improvisation as experimentation in everyday life and beyond. (2017)
Book Chapter
DOUGLAS, A. and COESSENS, K. 2017. Improvisation as experimentation in everyday life and beyond. In Coessens, K. (ed.) Experimental encounters in music and beyond. Leuven: Leuven University Press [online], pages 159-176. Available from: http://lup.be/products/107961

In this chapter we analyse two interrelated projects across the fields of visual art and music, philosophy and anthropology. Calendar Variations (2010-11) is a visual activity initiated by Anne Douglas, visual artist and researcher. A Day in My Life... Read More about Improvisation as experimentation in everyday life and beyond..

Ethical design: a foundation for visual communication. (2016)
Thesis
BUWERT, P. 2016. Ethical design: a foundation for visual communication. Robert Gordon University, PhD thesis.

The central original contribution to knowledge proposed by this thesis is the setting forth of a conceptualisation of ethical theory specifically in relation to design, with a focus on visual communication design. Building on earlier work by design t... Read More about Ethical design: a foundation for visual communication..

The discourse of cultural leadership. (2016)
Thesis
PRICE, J.F.R. 2016. The discourse of cultural leadership. Robert Gordon University, PhD thesis.

Cultural leadership has been a key concept in cultural policy and training since 2002. Most closely associated with the UKs Clore Leadership Programme, it has been developed through various courses and initiatives domestically and internationally, in... Read More about The discourse of cultural leadership..

Understanding experimentation as improvisation in arts research. (2015)
Journal Article
DOUGLAS, A. and GULARI, M.N. 2015. Understanding experimentation as improvisation in arts research. Qualitative research journal [online], 15(4), pages 392-403. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1108/QRJ-06-2015-0035

The purpose of this paper is to address the following questions: in what sense does experimentation as improvisation lead to methodological innovation? What are the implications of artistic experimentation as improvisation for education and learning?... Read More about Understanding experimentation as improvisation in arts research..

Artist as navigator: understanding how the social qualities of art influence organizational change; a methodology for art as a social practice. (2015)
Thesis
SMITH, H. 2015. Artist as navigator: understanding how the social qualities of art influence organizational change; a methodology for art as a social practice. Robert Gordon University, PhD thesis.

What insights can art reveal in the context of organizational change? How do artistic practices influence the way communities address change? In what ways can an individual artistic practice, concerned with the role of art in society, add new insight... Read More about Artist as navigator: understanding how the social qualities of art influence organizational change; a methodology for art as a social practice..

Drawing paper 8. (2015)
Other
DOUGLAS, A., GENEVER, K. and RAVETZ, A. (eds.) 2015. Drawing paper [online], 8. Available from: http://www.mikesstudio.co.uk/project/drawing-paper-8/

Drawing Paper, the free newspaper based gallery concerned with contemporary drawing practice returns. Our 8th issue was curated and produced in collaboration with Anne Douglas, Kate Genever and Amanda Ravetz.

The graphic line: an event in its own material. (2014)
Presentation / Conference
DOUGLAS, A. and RAVETZ, A. 2014. The graphic line: an event in its own material. Presented at the Making traces symposium, 19-22 November 2014, Odense, Denmark.

Amanda Ravetz is a film maker and anthropologist. Anne Douglas is a visual artist with a background in sculpture. For the past couple of years, they have been collaborating together as associates in Tim Ingold's research project, exploring drawing in... Read More about The graphic line: an event in its own material..

Why drawing, now? (2014)
Journal Article
DOUGLAS, A., RAVETZ, A., GENEVER, K. and SIEBERS, J. 2014. Why drawing, now? Journal of arts and communities [online], 6(2-3), pages 119-131. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1386/jaac.6.2-3.119_1

This article takes the question 'why drawing, now?' as a speculative way to enter the debate on the relationship of art to different understandings of community. Drawing offers a paradox around the place of art in society. Drawing can be thought abou... Read More about Why drawing, now?.

Does the world draw? (2014)
Presentation / Conference
RAVETZ, A. and DOUGLAS, A. 2014. Does the world draw? Workshop facilitated during the 13th European Association of Social Anthropologists biennial conference of collaboration intemacy and revolution (EASA 2014): innovation and continuity in an interconnected world, 31st July-3rd August 2014, Tallinn, Estonia.

Drawing can be explained in at least two ways: exemplifying trace, an inherent capacity or collection of characteristics in an individual (Nancy 2013) e.g. Rembrandt's drawing versus Van Gogh's drawing, the drawing of a particular thing in the world... Read More about Does the world draw?.

Your thought will find the contours. (2014)
Presentation / Conference
DOUGLAS, A. and RAVETZ, A. 2014. Your thought will find the contours. Presented at Sewing lines, growing surfaces, breathing atmospheres: towards an ontogeny of things workshop, 2-3 July 2014, Weimar, Germany.

Our aim in this presentation is to report on research we have been doing around drawing and filming. As associates of Knowing from Inside, we are interested in discovering in what sense drawing and filming can be considered experiential ways of 'know... Read More about Your thought will find the contours..

Encounter in art. (2014)
Presentation / Conference
DOUGLAS, A. 2014. Encounter in art. Presented at the 2014 Art and encounter seminar: beyond audience development: why do artists engage publics in participation? 14-30 March 2014, Melbourne, Australia.

This presentation explores how 'encounter' is different from 'event' and making this differentiation has important implications on how we imagine the relationship of art to audience. The author introduces some theoretical foundations to the notion of... Read More about Encounter in art..

Leading through art: exploring action and improvisation. (2014)
Presentation / Conference
DOUGLAS, A. 2014. Leading through art: exploring action and improvisation. Keynote presentation at the Macgeorge fellowship, Centre for creative partnerships, 4 March 2014, Melbourne, Australia.

A keynote such as this raises the expectations of a new beginning to a discourse, of presenting another way of thinking about a shared set of issues. The process of arriving at the focus of the keynote has been collaborative and discursive through a... Read More about Leading through art: exploring action and improvisation..

Movement and moment: in-between discreteness and continuity. (2014)
Journal Article
DOUGLAS, A. and COESSENS, K. 2014. Movement and moment: in-between discreteness and continuity. Somatechnics [online], 4(1), pages 149-167. Available from: https://doi.org/10.3366/soma.2014.0117

This paper explores a paradox. We breathe in, and then out. We walk by making paces, alternating left and right feet. Walking and breathing are made up of discrete intervals of space and time, involuntary actions of the living body, sustaining contin... Read More about Movement and moment: in-between discreteness and continuity..

Improvisation and embodied knowledge: three artistic projects between life, art and research. (2013)
Book Chapter
DOUGLAS, A. and COESSENS, K. 2013. Improvisation and embodied knowledge: three artistic projects between life, art and research. In Frisk, H. and Östersjö, S. (eds.) (Re)thinking improvisation: artistic explorations and conceptual writing. Malmö: Lund University, Malmö Academy of Music, pages 29-41.

In life there exists no script. The primacy of experience in the form of 'trying out' or improvisation, a moving from an indefinable and undifferentiated state to feeling our way by creating a direction. In art, improvisation is differently nuanced.... Read More about Improvisation and embodied knowledge: three artistic projects between life, art and research..

Drawing and the score. (2013)
Book Chapter
DOUGLAS, A. 2013. Drawing and the score. In De Assis, P., Brooks, W. and Coessens, K. Sound and score: essays on sound, score and notation. Orpheus Institute series. Leuven: Leuven University Press [online], chapter 14, pages 206-217. Available from: https://lup.be/collections/series-orpheus-institute-series/products/100421

Traditionally a score in Western classical music has ensured the music’s presentation and replication to an audience. Drawings as blueprints in architecture/engineering ensure that designs are translated into real structures in ways that are more or... Read More about Drawing and the score..

Imperfect art: working in public: a case study of the Oakland Projects (1991-2001). (2013)
Thesis
LACY, S. 2013. Imperfect art: working in public: a case study of the Oakland Projects (1991-2001). Robert Gordon University, PhD Thesis.

In Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art (1994) the author called for a new language of critique for the transient and publicly located art practices known today as social, or public, practices. Since that time authors have taken up the challenge... Read More about Imperfect art: working in public: a case study of the Oakland Projects (1991-2001)..

Altering a fixed identity: thinking through improvisation. (2012)
Journal Article
DOUGLAS, A. 2012. Altering a fixed identity: thinking through improvisation. Critical studies in improvisation [online], 8(2), article number 2122. Available from: https://doi.org/10.21083/csieci.v8i2.2122

Replacing artist with player as if adopting an alias is a way of altering a fixed identity. And a changed identity is a principle of mobility, of going from one place to another¦ (Kaprow, Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life 125-6) This paper explo... Read More about Altering a fixed identity: thinking through improvisation..

Experiential knowledge and improvisation: variations on movement, motion, emotion. (2012)
Journal Article
DOUGLAS, A. and COESSENS, K. 2012. Experiential knowledge and improvisation: variations on movement, motion, emotion. Art, design and communication in higher education [online], 10(2), pages 179-198. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1386/adch.10.2.179_1

Improvisation is a way of knowing that is experiential, pivotal to the body's movement and growth in the world. It allows us to manage constraint and freedom in a rich world of possibility. Within this article we trace a trajectory from improvisation... Read More about Experiential knowledge and improvisation: variations on movement, motion, emotion..

Calendar variations. (2011)
Book
COESSENS, K. and DOUGLAS, A. 2011. Calendar variations. Banchory: Woodend Barn.

This small book offers a visual and verbal reflection on the process of artistic practice and the ephemeral traces left by these. It is part of the exhibition 'Calendar Variations', held at the woodend barn, Banchory, Scotland in April 2011. It consi... Read More about Calendar variations..