Abstract
We need to dissent. It would appear that politics of dissensus is the sine qua non for change in the world today. Nonetheless, consensus as a mode of government is an institutionalized gesture of democracy in the so-called civilized world. Consensus is the agreement upon 'one unique reality' despite the acknowledgement of differences in people's values and aspirations. That 'unique reality' apparently becomes the measure of judgment, values, actions, interventions and construction of the politics of exclusion and inclusion in different contexts. Universities and institutions of knowledge production are not exceptions within this global scope, but paradoxically, they are in a serious crisis: Where the norms should be contested, they have succumbed to the common pitfall of conformism – to academic consensus if you like, or 'professionalism', to borrow Edward Said's term. Within this discussion, it is essential to look at institutions for art and architecture research and education through the lens of the politics of dissensus. After all, art should dissent; it should 'introduce dissensus by hollowing out' that 'unique reality'.
The journey in this paper, then, bypasses the question of dissensus, using artistic practice or artistic research not as a walking stick but as an axe to break through the uncompromising walls of institutions. It cuts through the problems of eradication of politics of dissent in the mistaken belief in institutional loyalty, and thereby investigates the potential of dissensus as a methodology in the field of artistic research and practicing it as dissident research.