When you think of a research, probably the first images that show up to your mind are of a lab coat, huge eye goggles, and explosions in a scientific laboratory. And you were probably confused why this abstract art piece was the cover photo for an article called “The researcher.”

Let me explain

Three years ago, my idea of research was very similar to the first line of the blog post. Science. Science. Science. However, after spending two years in a research lab, I have found that all research is doing is asking a question. The thing that I did not realize before arriving in Lyon three years ago is that art is also asking a question. Adding those two ideas, one can call the contemporary artist a research. Hence the title, “The researcher.”

We first observed this notion when we met with artist Jan Kopp, and he called himself a researcher and compared himself to a scientist. I thought, “what?” He shared his research process with us when he talked about planting poppy seeds where the Berlin Wall was without any treatment to the soil. I thought to myself, “we were coming to hear from an artist, right?” That was my first introduction to contemporary artists as researchers

Contemporary artists, as contemporary artist Jérémy Gobé puts it, ask questions about every day life. They are not removed from it, and their experience is just as valid as anyone else’s experience. We tend to listen to engineers, scientists, economists, or politicians when it comes to life questions. However, the contemporary artist is able to express a complexity about the problems in this earth that goes beyond words and titles.

So go back to the featured image. Someone did that, and they had a clear intention and question(s) they were asking. Now it’s up to you to interpret what that is.

Love,

Hugo