Artful Sociologies: Exploring Avenues for Interdisciplinarity Between Sociology and the Art World

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Knowledge exchange: Visual sociologists and moving image artistsIn my PhD I identified a limitation in sociological approaches to moving image making: an over-reliance on the mainstream documentary format. This linear, narrative, and language-based way of visualising sociological stories and conducting empirical research limits the potential of the camera as a tool for sociological research. In contrast, artists and related theoreticians use the film camera to creatively explore and represent social life, often moving beyond screen-based moving-image (e.g. Nira Pereg, Angelica Mesiti). However, they often do so without the benefit of sociological methodologies which rigorously and reflexively question the relationship between filmmaker and subject. There is potential for visual sociologists to learn from moving image artists and theoreticians, and to exchange their sociological methodological insights.In conversation with Talbot Rice Gallery (and SDI in advisory capacity) I will organise a knowledge-exchange event putting moving image artists in conversation with sociologists. I will publish academic and practitioner-facing articles on this knowledge-exchange, and develop a book proposal. Collaborative Practice: Sociologists and cultural organisationsMy PhD collaboration with Bluecoat, Liverpool's centre for the contemporary arts, allowed me to do empirical qualitative research in a sustained and embedded way, to develop my theoretical understanding alongside Bluecoat's staff and public, and to share my research outputs through exhibitions and public programming. In a post-COVID world there will be a renewed appetite for platforming critical social research, and cultural institutions will be looking for ways to develop impactful public programmes. Sociologists are well placed to step into this gap, and it is important that the experiences of sociologists who have worked with cultural organisations are mapped out. I will conduct interviews with 10-15 sociologists or artists/ arts professionals who have worked in this way. I will use these interviews, critical reflection on my own experience, and participation in Atelier, the creative arts and the social sciences network at Edinburgh College of Art, to set out the ethical and practical concerns, as well as the knowledge generating potential, of such collaborations. I will submit a paper, 'The Sociologist at the Art Gallery,' to Museum and Society, which I will summarise in an industry-facing precis for Arts Professional. Career and Academic DevelopmentI plan to pursue an academic career in sociology with ties to the cultural industries. Each strand of this Fellowship is designed to give me vital experience and contacts for this. Organising this application into these strands is with a view to applying for a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship in which I will draw them all together and propose an empirical exploration of the installation of various art forms. My mentor will support me in this and mentor the proposed Leverhulme project. I will also use the Fellowship to attend, present, and network at two conferences both of which are important events in the discipline. I will gain academic publishing experience by submitting my own work to two journals, developing a book proposal, and supporting the mentor in the publication of an edited collection. The mentor's expertise will contribute to my intellectual development. While my analysis of labour and material processes is strong (as commented by my examiners) finessing my thinking around 'meaning' will boost the intellectual contribution of my work. The mentor will support me in this and I will develop a paper, 'The Work of Making Art Meaningful' (Cultural Sociology), which draws on my PhD analysis of an exhibition installation and private view at Bluecoat. This will ensure my academic work speaks beyond the sociology of art to the broader fields of cultural sociology and the sociology of work.