{"id":170,"date":"2023-09-29T08:55:26","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T08:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/datastories.maynoothuniversity.ie\/?p=170"},"modified":"2023-09-29T09:03:45","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T09:03:45","slug":"data-stories-and-arts-based-methods-introducing-the-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/datastories.maynoothuniversity.ie\/?p=170","title":{"rendered":"Data Stories and Arts-based Methods: Introducing the Artists"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re pleased <\/span>and excited to introduce the first cohort of artists to join the Data Stories team.\u00a0<\/span>Joan Somers Donnelly, Mel Galley and Augustine O’Donoghue will<\/span> be<\/span> help<\/span>ing<\/span> the<\/span> team to explore arts-based methods as a means for research-creation.<\/span> Typically<\/span>,<\/span> arts-based methods are integrated into research projects toward their conclusion<\/span> to<\/span> communicate findings to the public<\/span> in novel ways<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

What makes this method stand out is that, with the integration\u00a0of our artists and their specific skill sets<\/span>,<\/span> we <\/span>will embed <\/span>creative <\/span>approaches<\/span> throughout the<\/span> entire <\/span>research process.<\/span> So rather than giving the artists our findings and asking them to share them to the public, they are working with us at the onset to change the way we approach our own work and challenge our pre-conceived understandings of Dublin\u2019s planning, property and housing systems.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the coming <\/span>months<\/span> each artist will team up with one<\/span> Data Stories<\/span> researcher to <\/span>create<\/span> data stor<\/span>ies<\/span> that respond to issues and challenges raised during our mapping of the policy, planning and housing data ecosystem in Ireland. While <\/span>working <\/span>with our researchers and various external stakeholder organisations, each artist will also develop their own data story concepts\u00a0that express <\/span>their<\/span> unique approaches to artistic practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

We hope you look forward to seeing the outcomes as much as we do.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joan Somers Donnelly<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Photo credit: Elien Ronse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I am an Irish artist based between Brussels and Dublin, with a collaborative practice that moves between performance, writing, research and organising. Previous work includes a human choir that performed for cows; a piece for swimmers in the Irish sea; an interactive fantasy about the politics of housing in Dublin; a video essay about social spaces of gig economy workers made with my father; and performances and other invitations for lamp posts, zoom calls, U-bahn stations and apartments.<\/span><\/p>\n

My practice is primarily concerned with examining existing social rules and structures and creating not-yet-existing ones, using performance and other live situations as a testing ground for experiments in different ways of relating. Much of my recent work has focused on the creation of frameworks for playful encounter, exchange, and co-creation, such as the group improvisation practice\u202f<\/span>messing<\/span><\/i>, the platform for collaboration\u202f<\/span>You and Me<\/span><\/i>, an\u202f<\/span>Anger Club<\/span><\/i>, and a first manifestation of a practice-sharing space for women and non-binary multimedia artists called\u202f<\/span>In practice(s): The wood and the trees<\/span><\/i>. My work is currently supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and radical_house, Brussels.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was drawn to the Data Stories project because of a long-standing engagement with the politics of space and space-making in Dublin, both in and outside of my artistic practice. I am also looking forward to working as part of an interdisciplinary research team, and to the new challenge of working with stakeholders across the public, private and civil society sectors. A practice-based research approach has become increasingly present in my work, particularly around the question of how to create conditions for collaboration between diverse actors from and in different contexts, so this residency presents an interesting next chapter in that trajectory.<\/span><\/p>\n