Graphic Design by Fiona Koh, Whiskey and Foxtrot
The Arts & Design Practice Research Exchange (ADPRex) is Southeast Asia’s first annual conference dedicated to practice research. ADPRex positions the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), University of the Arts Singapore as the leading centre of arts and design practice research in this region, where artists and thinkers come together to share ideas and insights at the apex of arts and design practice and innovative thinking. Once again, ADPRex is delighted to be presented in conjunction with NAFA’s Southeast Asian Arts Forum. This year ADPRex explores the reciprocal relationship between artistic practice and the way we capture it. The notion of ‘capturing practice’ is slippery. We can be captured (or not) by a performance, observe that a painting has captured its subject, or that a photograph captures a moment in time. We try — and fail — to capture events, feelings, performances, and images in other formats, but there is an inevitable slippage between the various modes of capture. The way we capture and make permanent records of our practice can also shape it, writing can be seen as an event, and performance as a kind of critical communication. Historian Yuval Noah Harari goes further, arguing that documenting creates new realities. Therefore, this conference aims to revisit, but also to move beyond the familiar discussions of how we document practice and the difficulties in trying to capture the ephemeral.