introduction

Since 2017, around forty research projects have been completed with support from the Fonds de Recherche en art (FRArt) [Artistic Research Fund] and around forty more are currently underway. Each of the sixteen Écoles supérieures des arts [Higher schools of Arts] furthers the development of research within its curricula, and forty PhDs are being pursued at the doctoral school in Art and Art Sciences (ED20). On different scales, different timelines, and each with their own epistemology, the sum total of these research endeavours is a testimony to the fact that this significant part of artistic creation and knowledge production in Wallonia-Brussels is alive and well.

The development of these research activities, coupled with their linked outreach and dissemination missions, has brought the a/r non-profit to update the manner in which it publishes research. Up until now, the A/R periodical mainly featured end-of-project contributions from researchers who have benefited from the FRArt, but we now plan to publish more widely, in the light of what is actually happening within Higher schools of Arts and the ED20. To this end, a/r is adapting its editorial policy and is planning to set up an online publishing platform by 2027.

In anticipation, issue #6 of A/R is the halfway point in the transition between the first five printed journals and the coming platform. As such, issue #6 is still dedicated to the 2023 and 2024 FRArt research projects, a hybrid of printed and web content, and welcomes different types of texts from researchers.

a/r has been making research projects public by publishing interviews since 2018. These conversations have provided information on the methodologies used in various research projects, informed on their evolution between when they were first conceived and when they were completed as well as their potential continuities, taking the reader on fascinating narrative journeys. However, as we were following the research of the last few years, it appeared that writing nearly always had a role in the process, even in cases when the researchers claimed to “not write”. With this issue, a/r has decided to accommodate these unique contributions—autofiction, report, case study, conversation, stories, user’s manual, space journal, almanac, etc.—in order to bring the sharing of research data as close as possible to the specific modalities of artistic research.

This issue also tried to adapt its formats, both printed and online, to a more specific audience relating to the research domains of visual arts, design, music and cinema, as well as the performing arts.

For art/recherche, Céline Chazalviel, director of publication