In this exhibition we presented projects developed by the KABK Research Group 2018—Rachel Bacon, Eric Kluitenberg, Niels Schrader, Rosa te Velde, Donald Weber—which addressed, through a combination of theoretical, historical and practice-based research, ecological crisis, digital pollution, surveillance infrastructure, coloniality, and affect space.

While some of the artistic outcomes of the research were displayed, the aim of this exhibition was to extrapolate and make legible the research methods which were used to gather, surface and analyse findings. By methods, we meant quite simply the ways one goes about doing research.

Some were personal takes on familiar methods derived from the humanities and social sciences, like interviewing, fieldwork, and text or image analysis; while others, like experimentation with drawing and photography, emerged from the particular sensibilities and material registers of art and design practice.

Some were natively digital like internet scraping, gleaning data from satellite imagery, and the deployment of AR and Machine Learning systems. Others used tactics from activism, like workshop organization, interventions and public debate; others still used fictional and satirical strategies to defamiliarize and destabilise.

By revealing and reflecting upon the normally hidden mechanics and motivations of the research process—the tools and techniques used for gathering, sifting, and evaluating, the references consulted, and the quandaries and breakthroughs experienced—we hoped to contribute to the building of a research culture at KABK that is open and imaginative as well as rigorous and robust.