Abstract
The name Ludics, is derived from the term ludus, meaning “play,” a term that is useful in connection with games and rules of play. As a concept for artistic research, the Ludic method is introduced here as it combines both games and rules of play. Conceptual ludic art explores rules of play, systems of investigation and knowledge acquisition through game mechanics, as well as the fundamentals of perception, experience and cognition. The theory and practice of artistic research are concerned with ludic methods of approaching art and science and epistemic things (Erkenntnisgegenstände), insights achieved through research. Their goals are written fictitiously, presented participatively and made public processually. The methods of artistic research comprise contradictions, and are found in feedback between peers in conference contributions and in exhibitions, between radical artistic uniqueness and the claim of universal validity (which is required for the validation of artistic research). We need to clarify the scientific understanding of epistemic things, and as a consequence, introduce a new concept of a ludic artistic research epistemé. Ludic objects are artefacts that trigger discourse and the application of certain rules of research. They constitute an interplay of art and knowledge. Teaching this understanding is equally tied to a certain playful approach toward serious, rule-driven research. Following a ludic method, we introduce a new trope to artistic research, the idea of a playful movement in thinking that dissolves the established trope of art as a field with no further connections than aesthetics per se. The ludic objective thus stems from technologies and cultural techniques of insight, as well as theories, experiments and philosophical conceptions that are connected to the perceived, conceived and lived world.
