ABOUT US
The Society for Artistic Research (SAR) is an international non-profit society that promotes artistic research. It aims to develop, link, and disseminate artistic research as a peculiar practice of knowledge production. SAR fosters cooperation and communication among those interested in studying and practising artistic research.
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The Society for Artistic Research supports artistic research conducted in and outside academic or institutional settings.
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SAR facilitates co-operation and communication among those interested in artistic research.
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The Society for Artistic Research (SAR) organises and participates in conferences and meetings to facilitate knowledge production through the arts, promote artistic research practices and disseminate artistic research findings.
SAR was established in 2010 in Bern, Switzerland, by 80 artists, researchers, and academics from various global locations. It started as an initiative conceived by the artists Florian Dombois and Michael Schwab in collaboration with Henk Borgdorff.
OUR MEMBERS
The Research Catalogue
The Research Catalogue (RC) is a non-profit, collaborative, and publishing platform for artistic research provided by SAR. The RC is accessible to artists and researchers without any cost. It also serves as a fundamental platform for teaching purposes, student assessment, peer review workflows, and research funding administration. The RC aspires to be an open environment for experimentation and exchange.
Register
The Research Catalogue (RC) provides an online platform for researchers to combine sound, images, video, and text in an integrated format for presentation. Authors can choose the visual disposition and focus on different media formats. With over 14,000 registered users, the RC facilitates individual research outcomes and portal solutions. To register, head to this page.
Journal for Artistic Research
The Journal for Artistic Research (JAR) is an international, online, Open Access and peer-reviewed journal that disseminates artistic research from various disciplines. JAR invites the rapidly growing number of artistic researchers to develop formats that comply to standard academic publication procedures in the sciences and humanities. JAR serves as a meeting point of diverse practices and methodologies in a field that has become a worldwide movement with many regional and local activities.
Current Issue JAR 34
Since our inaugural issue 0, most editorials have addressed in one way or another what expositions of practice as research are, and what they can be. In many of these editorials, ontological, institutional and also political concerns stood in the foreground, as JAR has worked to navigate and contribute to a field... Head over here to read the full issue.
16th SAR Conference 2025 in Porto
The 16th International Conference on Artistic Research is hosted by i2ADS, University of Porto in collaboration with SAR and is the largest conference on practice-based research through the arts. The conference brings together leading practitioners, scholars and policymakers to showcase exemplary artistic research projects while focusing on key issues through critical debate. To learn more, head to this page.
Resonance
The past decade witnessed the appearance of new debating spaces within artistic research. At a time when art and culture, local and global policies and events are haunted by societal challenges as vast as they are unpredictable, what can artistic researchers offer in response to these concerns? How can artistic research resonate beyond its specific contexts and disciplinary borders?
WHAT WE DO
SAR promotes practices of artistic research as undertaken both in and outside academic institutions. We facilitate co-operation and communication through conferences and meetings, and disseminate knowledge on artistic research practices and results.
We encourage risk-taking, quality research.
SAR publishes the Journal for Artistic Research (JAR), an online, open access and peer-reviewed journal for the identification, publication and dissemination of artistic research and its methodologies, from all artistic disciplines.
SAR runs the Research Catalogue (RC), a searchable repository of artistic research, to which anyone can contribute once they have registered (cost free). This is a powerful resource for artistic research and education.
SAR hosts the annual International Conference on Artistic Research bringing together leading practitioners, scholars and policy makers, showcasing exemplary artistic research projects, while focussing key issues through critical debate.
SAR OFFERS
- Opportunities for connecting and showcasing artistic research
- The annual International Conference on Artistic Research
- Facilitation of member-led Special Interest Groups
- Diversity, Expertise and Reach of JAR Editorial Team
- Collective intelligence of the entire membership
- Facilitation and advocacy for artistic research
- Maintenance and continuous development of the Research Catalogue
- Support of early career researchers
- Credibility and experience of SAR representatives
- Engagement with policy makers
- Capacity to build and sustain frameworks for artistic research
- Three regular issues of the Journal for Artistic Research per year
- Experience and expertise of RC Management Team
- Impact of dynamic member-led initiatives
- Dialogue and Collaboration
