The Physicality of Research

What does research look like, how do we see it, what happens if we poke it?

…….activity and change are a matter of fact

Alfred North Whitehead, 1968

  • What is the value of research when we push it towards a physical form?
  • How do we remain open to what research is and can become?


The Physicality of Research is a co-investigation into the multiple ways in which research manifests itself. Comprised of a series of collaborative interventions, actions and experiments facilitated by Emily Pringle as part of her AHRC fellowship and Kimberley Foster, artist and PhD candidate at Goldsmiths University of London. The Physicality of Research invites curators, artists, educators and academics alike to position themselves in the midst of not knowing, of forming possibilities, asking questions and intentionally playing with risk. The aim is to create a space to co-consider the materiality of research and question research spatially and visually.

The Physicality of Research materialised at Tate Modern on Thursday 7 June 2018 with a gathering of researchers and research objects in Tate Exchange, the objects all weighing exactly 500g acted as conduits for action and dialogue throughout day. The film about this event was commissioned by Tate Research Centre: Learning and filmed by Gordon Beswick.

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