Mari
- Name: Mari Bastashevski
- Affiliation: Visual Artist and a Postdoc at Wageningen University Cult Geo Group
Procedural starting point
The way I described my methods or process in my last funding application was: My most recent funding application was connected to NWO, and I have also participated in several Horizon application rounds. I find the process cumbersome and often centered on #jargon, #oversimplifications, and impossible promises, rather than on the value and overall #cohesion of intellectual ideas. Taken too seriously, it can quickly resemble a kind of humiliation ritual. When writing proposals for both art and academic grants, I aim for clarity and authenticity. I prefer to avoid formulaic grant language, unrealistic promises, and managerial persuasion. This often means relying on external editorial support to reshape my proposals so they fit the required model. That said, I use application deadlines as a way to initiate new projects and distill ideas. The #work_begins_regardless, and even #without_funding, something of value emerges from the process. Many colleagues experience rejection as emotionally taxing. I do not take it personally. However, I find that meetings connected to large funding applications are often excessively oriented toward anticipating what might #please_the_funder, rather than engaging with the actual content of the proposed project. This can feel draining and uninspiring. One notable development is the way academic funding programs have begun to #adopt_vocabulary of art and artistic research, while excluding artists and any reflection on the extensive theoretical and practical histories behind these terms. Encountering calls that require #artistic_expertise, #practices, and #research_experience, as a seasoned practitioner with a PhD in artistic research, can feel surreal. There is often little #connection to, or understanding of, what these practices entail. That said, these calls can still serve as useful spaces for forming #networks with like-minded colleagues.
What I actually did was / what I usually do is: I would say my actual method of working is more rigorously organized around #meaning, #process, #attention_to_detail, modes of #collaboration, and value of ideas #concepts and projects to different other projects and people across disciplines. It is geared towards #discovery (including that of interesting questions) over #solutionism. I think being an artist i also take history of #aesthetics and the ethics of aesthetics a bit more seriously. Still, I try to keep my methods of working open to collaboration and productive envenoment.