Catalysis refers to the acceleration of a reaction by some agent that promotes that change. In the context of artistic research, catalysis can be understood as an action that causes reactions and continues to activate critical thinking that provokes further actions and reactions.

This special issue of RUUKKU explores the various forms, interpretations and possibilities of catalysis, as it is related to artistic research activity. The catalyst can be the artist-researcher herself or the artwork itself; challenging established ideas and producing new thinking, new knowledge, new experience, new praxes and poetics. Catalysis can be considered as the active trope within a particular research process, or in relation to larger contexts and realms of art, politics and society. Alternatively the expositions can challenge and redefine the notion of catalysis, as in the accustomed definition the catalyst itself would remains unchanged. Is that really the case in artistic research, can the catalysts themselves remain unchanged?

The RUUKKU special issue Catalyses supplements the Art of Research VI conference organized on 29-30 November 2017 at Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki, Finland. 

We invite artist–researchers — all participants of the Art of Research VI conference as well as others interested in the issues addressed in the call — to submit theme-related research expositions and contributions for the tenth issue of RUUKKU. The issue is edited by Susanna Helke, Harri Laakso and Maarit Mäkelä.

We ask you to write your proposals for research expositions in the RC catalogue at www.researchcatalogue.net. Note! The catalogue requires user rights and registration (see ‘register'). Please submit your proposals via the Research Catalogue (‘submit to publication', ‘submit unlimited publication to', and ‘ruukku') no later than 15 January 2018.

New extended deadlines:

31 March 2018: call for proposals
15 April 2018: editor's decisions
31 May 2018: final exposition submissions

For any queries and assistance about preparing the submission for RUUKKU in the Research Catalogue, please contact: tero.heikkinen@uniarts.fi

RUUKKU is a multidisciplinary, multilingual, peer-reviewed journal on artistic research launched in 2013. This biannual journal is published and supported by the University of the Arts Helsinki, Aalto school of Arts, Design and Architecture and the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland, with a particular focus on multi-lingual publication. The primary languages of publication are Finnish, Swedish and English.