Artful Sociology: Exploring Avenues for Interdisciplinarity Between Sociology and the Art World
Overview
Description
Dr Laura Harris is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. Her current project is called Artful Sociology: Exploring Avenues for Interdisciplinarity Between Sociology and the Art World, and has involved collaborating with Talbot Rice Gallery in the production of the event In Another Tongue.
Laura's research sits in the productive space between the academy and the art gallery. As a cultural sociologist interested in art and its places, she makes it a priority to not simply produce research about art, but with it. Laura's research has touched on art gallery architecture, the ‘invisible labour’ of gallery technicians, and the social life of the ‘private view’—all topics which that have been explored through collaborating closely with art galleries, their staff, and the public.
Working with art galleries has provided opportunities for Laura in terms of creative knowledge exchange. Art can act as a connective tissue, allowing different disciplinary approaches to spark off one another through a shared exploration of an artwork. What’s more, art galleries engage publics in ideas in innovative, compelling, and effective ways from which academics can learn as they seek to make their research public. To support her research, Laura has worked with art galleries to programme events which explore new means to bridge academic work with the public.
In Another Tongue
In collaboration with the Talbot Rice Gallery, Laura recently delivered a public art engagement event, In Another Tongue, as a creative response to artist Angelica Mesiti's gallery exhibition In the Round. Her event intended to celebrate various forms of communication in terms of thinking about borders, cultures, languages and species.
Video
Watch Dr Laura Harris and her colleague Dr Lisa McCormick, also from Sociology, talk about why using art engagement events can be an effective tool to explore new creative methods of communication as a way for academics to engage new audiences: