2013-2015
Multi-year artistic research project
Funded by The Swedish Research Counsel
The project will explore how this science can be linked to the video essay, as well as to artistic practice in a broader sense.
Microhistories gathers knowledge from artistic practice/artistic research and the field of history. The objective is an investigation of how a mutual exchange can come about between the historical perspective/approach used in microhistory, and visual art, especially the video essay genre. Microhistory has been used as a term for the way in which certain historians and writers bring attention to marginalised phenomena and stories and use them prismatically to gain an understanding of larger contexts.
Microhistories studies the form of the video essay, which can be said to treat its subject matter in a critical and investigative way while at the same time reflecting its processes and its considerations. A characteristic of the video essay is that it takes up the details of a phenomenon in order to show how these details form part of a greater context. It shares this preoccupation with the small, marginalized stories with an approach within the field of history, so-called microhistory. Here one studies habits and routines rather than deliberate actions, underlying mentalities rather than explicit views. In microhistory the exception is more interesting than the rule, including the everyday, the overlooked details – all this that can prove to be as important as the “grand” recognized history. This project brings together prominent practices and theoreticians within three fields – art, artistic research and microhistory – in order to build shared knowledge. It will result in a seminar, a public video program, a publication and artworks (video essays) that will be publically presented on a number of different occasions. The results are meant to act as bridges between the different scientific approaches and to emphasize both a form of history writing and an artistic genre that are becoming increasingly important internationally.
Participating researchers: Magnus Bärtås, Behzad Khosravi Noori, Suzana Milevska, Lina Selander, Lena Séraphin, and Michelle Teran
Period: 2013-2015. The Project is funded by The Swedish Research Counsel. Project manager is Magnus Bärtås.
https://www.konstfack.se/en/Research/Research-projects/Overview-of-finished-projects/Microhistories