Arts, creation and performance

The study of the arts and artistic performances at the CNRS functions with a diversified and multidisciplinary approach ranging from research into the aesthetic aspects of works, their mediation and use for the analysis of their material and immaterial dimensions. There is a particular focus on those involved in creative activities considered in their broadest dimension and also on the conditions, contexts and spaces of production, different forms of expression and modes of creation, individual and collective creative experiences, creative gestures, the symbolic dimension of works, and the different ways in which works are circulated and received.

From literature and musicology to the study of theatrical performance and, more broadly, the performing arts, from the history of Egyptian statuary to the studies of sound, visual and audiovisual forms, the variety of themes and approach methods characterises the dynamism of this research that is renewing itself to integrate new objects, fields and methods. This means that particular emphasis is given to creative media and techniques (graphic novels, photography, video games, digital arts, etc.) while previous and inherited hierarchies are also of course re-examined.

The types of research carried out can be highly diverse - aesthetic approaches; deciphering artistic productions and the ways they make sense; studies of artistic practices, circulation and cross-fertilisation; analysis of producers, mediators and audiences; study of the cultural and creative industries. The anthropological and historical, philosophical and aesthetic, literary and musical, economic and legal, social and political dimensions of the arts are at the core of several of our laboratories' work and these different dimensions feed into each other. Some laboratories organise their research around resolutely multidisciplinary cultural studies and some opt to take the shared sciences approach to working with artists.

It should also be stressed that the study of the arts at CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences has a considerable scope, both historically - it extends from prehistory to the most contemporary period - and geographically because CNRS units working in areal studies also study the arts. It also involves possible interdisciplinary research initiatives working with other CNRS Institutes like CNRS Chemistry, CNRS Informatics and CNRS Earth & Space.

Research centers and networks