Contemporary Frameworks for Research and Creative Practice

What do situated knowledge, new materialisms, the ethics of care, more-than-human ecologies and diffractive methodologies have in common? Rather than presenting these currents as a body of theories, the capsule explores how they are transforming the ways we research and create.

Across six sessions, the capsule offers an introduction to these debates and to the key thinkers and intellectual traditions that have shaped them, providing the conceptual tools needed to understand the transformations currently unfolding across art, design, architecture, science and the humanities. From the crisis of modern notions of autonomy and objectivity to new ways of thinking about matter, care, ecologies and research itself, the programme traces some of the major conceptual shifts in contemporary thought and explores the new possibilities they open up for research and creative practice.

Conceived as the core capsule of the Indisciplinary Studies programme, it serves as a gateway to the rest of the curriculum while providing participants with a shared vocabulary from which to develop their own practice from an indisciplinary perspective.
 

The capsule aims to provide a conceptual framework for interpreting some of the transformations that are reshaping contemporary research and creative practice. By the end of the programme, participants will have acquired a shared vocabulary and a set of conceptual tools that will enable them to engage with key debates in contemporary thought, establish connections across disciplines and critically situate their own research and creative practices.
Rather than transmitting a body of theories, the capsule seeks to cultivate a particular way of approaching the challenges of the present. Participants will develop the ability to formulate questions, analyse complex situations and explore new ways of researching and creating in a context shaped by the social, technological, ecological and cultural challenges of our time.

Lara García Díaz, PhD in Social Sciences, lecturer and researcher specialising in social design, material culture, critical theory, feminist epistemologies, and research-through-design methodologies.

María García Ruiz, PhD in Philosophy, artist, researcher, and lecturer specialising in artistic research and the study of the relationships between bodies, environments, and architectures.

Pilar Cortada Boada, PhD in Philosophy, researcher and lecturer specialising in ecosystemic creativity, ecological perception, aesthetic attention, and experimental methodologies applied to research, creation, and knowledge production.

Carla Lupa, visual artist, cultural manager, and lecturer specialising in artistic research and the development of critical projects exploring contemporary social practices and imaginaries.

The capsule brings into dialogue perspectives drawn from philosophy, art, design, architecture, the social sciences, physics, ecology, and science and technology studies, on the understanding that contemporary challenges require forms of research and creative practice that move across disciplinary boundaries.

• Contemporary transformations of thought.
• Situated knowledge and the production of reality.
• Ecologies of existence, interdependence and vulnerability.
• New materialisms, material culture and technical ecologies.
• Ethics of care, social reproduction and the maintenance of forms of life.
• Expanded temporalities, planetary scales and more-than-human design.
• Practice-based research and artistic research.
• Experimental, diffractive and transdisciplinary methodologies.
• Crossings between philosophy, art, design, architecture, science and the humanities.
• Conceptual tools for contemporary research and creative practice.

Each session combines a theoretical introduction with the analysis of texts, case studies and references drawn from art, design, architecture, science and the humanities. The first part of each session is structured around a conceptual shift that challenges some of the assumptions of the modern tradition and introduces the key contemporary debates surrounding each topic. Building on these shifts, participants will explore new ways of understanding, researching and creating. The second part of the session is devoted to collective discussion and practical exercises that relate the concepts addressed during the session to the participants' own interests and projects. The capsule prioritises the exchange of perspectives and the construction of a shared vocabulary as the basis for developing research and creative practices from an indisciplinary perspective.

The capsule is intended for people interested in research, creative practice, art, design, architecture, science, the humanities and other fields of knowledge who wish to broaden their conceptual framework and incorporate new conceptual tools into their own practice.

No specific prior knowledge is required; only a curiosity to engage with the debates that are transforming the ways we research, create and produce knowledge

Session 1 · From the Subject to Entanglement

Date: 17 September
Teaching: Pilar Cortada and Carla Cánovas

The first session addresses the crisis of the modern conception of the autonomous individual and the emergence of an ecological and relational understanding of existence. Through concepts such as interdependence, systems thinking, ecologies of existence, emergence and co-constitution, the session examines the shift from understanding the subject as an independent entity towards conceiving beings and processes as constituted in and through their relationships.

Session 2 · Situated Knowledge and the Production of Reality

Date: 24 September
Teaching: Pilar Cortada and Carla Cánovas

The second session explores the crisis of the idea of universal objectivity and examines how knowledge is always produced from specific conditions, perspectives and contexts. Drawing on situated knowledge, observation as a practice that participates in the production of reality, and the partiality of all perspectives, the session considers different ways of understanding how knowledge practices contribute to shaping the worlds we inhabit.

Session 3 · Sensitive Matter

Date: 1 October
Teaching: Júlia Lull

The third session introduces new materialisms as a framework for understanding matter, bodies and objects not as passive entities, but as active participants in the configuration of the world. Drawing on concepts such as agency, affect and intra-action, the session explores different strands of contemporary thought that challenge the modern divisions between nature and culture, subject and object, knowledge and reality.

Session 4 · “Contaminating” and Being “Contaminated”

Date: 17 November
Teaching: Pilar Cortada and Eulàlia Rovira

Creative processes do not follow a linear progression but are continuously transformed through the relationships, interferences and encounters that unfold throughout the process. This session explores how every creative practice involves both affecting and being affected by people, materials, technologies and contexts. Drawing on the work of Anna Tsing, it proposes understanding “contamination” as a constitutive condition of creative practice, whereby every encounter transforms the way we think, perceive and act.

Session 5 · Unlearning

Date: 24 November
Teaching: Pilar Cortada and Marc Padró (Taller Estampa)

We perceive the world through categories, habits and modes of attention that shape what we are able to recognise as meaningful. This session explores how these perceptual structures configure our Umwelt, or meaningful environment, and, in doing so, our possibilities for creative practice. Through a series of exercises, participants will work on suspending habits, expectations and preconceptions in order to make room for new ways of perceiving, thinking and creating.

Session 6 · Problematizing

Date: 1 December
Teaching: María García Ruiz

Problematizing means questioning what we take for granted and transforming apparently resolved situations into new questions for research and creative practice. This session cultivates an inquisitive attitude that embraces uncertainty, nuance and ambiguity, exploring different strategies for redefining problems and opening up new possibilities for thought and action.

Session 7 · Exploring

Date: 9 December
Teaching: Pilar Cortada and Ignasi Aballí

Exploration involves actively directing our attention towards the environment in order to discover relationships, patterns and possibilities that had previously gone unnoticed. Rather than serving as a means to achieve a predetermined goal, exploration becomes a practice of perceptual openness that expands our capacity to learn, create and respond to complex situations.

Session 8 · Attending Aesthetically

Date: 15 December
Teaching: Pilar Cortada and Claudia Claremí

This session explores aesthetic attention as a perceptual disposition that expands our capacity to attune to the environment and perceive new possibilities for action. Through a range of observation and experimentation practices, participants will cultivate a state of openness that fosters more receptive, sensitive and responsive ways of relating to a more-than-human world.

Session 9 · Articulating

Date: 22 December
Teaching: Pilar Cortada and Ada Castells

This session starts from the premise that articulation is itself a creative act. When we express an idea through words, images or gestures, we do not simply communicate it—we transform it and give it a new form. Articulation therefore serves a dual purpose: outwardly, by enabling communication and exchange with others; and inwardly, by allowing us to clarify, refine and expand our own thinking. Through experimentation with different modes of articulation—oral, written, visual and performative—the session explores how these modes do not merely communicate ideas, but actively generate new possibilities for understanding and creative practice.

The programme fee is €468. Places are limited. 

You can register by clicking the link below.

Discounts:

— Register before 1 September to enjoy a 10% early bird discount by entering the code EARLYBIRD2026 at checkout.