Research at EKA

Research at the Estonian Academy of Arts is oriented towards keywords such as practice, technology, theory, society and culture. Alongside high level humanities research projects in art history, visual culture and Soviet culture, our priority is to develop artistic research on an international level.

Artistic research at EKA is conducted in a variety of fields and encompasses different ways and tools of knowledge production:

• artistic research in contemporary art,
• design research,
• practice based research in architecture and urban design,
• conservation combining both practical elements and theory-based research and
• cultural heritage research.

Artistic research as a field of knowledge production is experimental, process-based, and expands borders of creative fields. Its criteria include applicability, innovation, public-facing and/or communicative artistic activity.

Research conducted at the academy is mostly focused on connecting information technology with spatial organisation and user-centred thinking that utilises design processes to notice, map and solve problems and networks of problems, synthesising innovation in technology and materials sciences into a comprehensible, well-functioning and sustainable environment.