Topologies of Artistic Research.
Notes on the Transformative Turn in Art

Sarah Kolb

Within the past decades, an increasing interest in artistic research practices has brought about new experimental and transdisciplinary forms of knowledge production challenging the rigid borders of traditional disciplines. This turn towards more open-ended and transformational conceptions of knowledge is closely related to a specific interest in mathematical topology, which, in continuation of the pioneering debates within the historical avant-gardes, has had an ongoing impact on the arts since the 1960s. Starting from a non-binary logic of relations, transformations, and ambiguities, artists counter essentialist concepts such as the perfect masterpiece or sovereign authorship with process-oriented, performative, and participatory practices, thus making topology productive on a discursive, but also on a methodological level.