NTNU – Artistic Research Week 2020

Monday 21st September, the news came that the Norwegian government has set aside 11.6 billion NOK for the planned campus project, which means that NTNU's plans can finally be set in motion. But what does this have to do with artistic research?

Most likely, the KAMD project will be the first to be built in the construction process of our new campus. The acronym KAMD stands for art, architecture, music and design, and in short, it is a building that will house all artistic research and artistic activities related to NTNU. Several of those involved in this project agreed that if we are to work together under the same roof, we should look at the possibility of starting this collaboration already now. This is one of the reasons why we are now arranging NTNU - Artistic Research Week.

But what is artistic research? What makes artistic research different than other forms of research? This has been discussed and debated extensively and there are many different views on this topic. That is why we have largely given the opportunity to the various artistic research communities to show both what artistic research is and can be, but even more importantly what it represents in their professions. What it means for a musician is not necessarily the same for an architect, something we hope you can experience for yourself during this week.

It is difficult to avoid addressing the ongoing pandemic in this context. Originally we had envisioned many different concerts, film screenings and exhibitions, but we feel morally obliged to keep it at a more sober level. Therefore, we have planned to arrange a digital festival within the festival. Every day we will publish new films that present various artistic projects from the involved professional environments.

I hope that as many as possible take the time to drop by the pavilions at Nyhavna and the events at Dokkhuset during this week, and also visit this website to see what is happening in artistic development work and research at NTNU.

Michael Francis Duch