What is Research Now? (WIRN) presents a full year of programming around interconnected strands that ask us to think more curiously, critically and open-endedly about the role and practice of the arts.
Consisting of a series of festivals and gatherings spanning from 2025–2026, the project is led by the question ‘Can research in the arts enable us to live and better inhabit the world together?’ It brings together artists, curators, writers, scholars, activists, and thinkers from a range of different backgrounds to think together through lectures, performances, conversations, and hands-on workshops at the Paul Mellon Centre and elsewhere.
So far, What is Research Now? has comprised of two summer festivals and two spring gatherings and we have more events to come in the Autumn.
May 14–16, 2025
In our first edition in May, events explored two interconnected strands: Ongoing Colonial Worlds, asking what research is under conditions of occupation and unrest and On Looking, showing us that how we look, changes how we understand the world around us.
Participants included: Sussan Babaie, Sria Chatterjee, Cooking Sections, Lee Douglas, Kitso Lynn Lelliott, Sahar Qawasmi, Tiara Roxanne, Tina Campt, Avinòam Shalem, Nida Sinnokrot, and Sarah Victoria Turner.
Watch a short film about the festival:
You can watch a number of event recordings from the festival here.
2 to 4 July 2025
Following on from the strands introduced in May, the July festival explored three strands. Artificial Futures looked at art and AI in relation to how we work, our relationship with alterable histories and realities, and the ethics (environmental, social, emotional) of our collective artificial futures. Artists on Research featured a series of conversations with artists reflecting on research-based practice. Seeing in the Dark asked how the acts of seeing and looking must go beyond the visible world as we grapple with our entangled colonial and capitalist presents.
Participants included: Ekow Eshun, Shiraz Bayjoo, Alberta Whittle, Sria Chatterjee, Grace Ndiritu, Sophia Yadong Hao, Emilija Škarnulytė, Anne Barlow, Nora Khan, Nick Mirzoeff, Ayesha Hameed, Maya Indira Ganesh, Sam Lavigne, Wesley Goatley, Pedro Oliveira and Nora Al Badri.
Watch a short film about the festival:
You can watch a number of event recordings from the festival here.
26–28 February and 26–28 March
The spring programme was devoted to one strand: Disabled Legacies, Beyond Access and Inclusion. It asked whether the legacies of Disability Art and Culture take us beyond “access” and “inclusion”? Can Disability Justice help us create and lead all of us to live better lives?
The programme explored not only histories of disability but ways of thriving and being, arguing that disability justice can be not just a subject of study but a method and mode of being. The series was co-convened by Kenny Fries, Khairani Barokka and Sria Chatterjee.
Participants included: Jill Casid, Resting Museum, Simon Watney, Abi Palmer, Sandy Ho, Hannah Wallis, Quiplash, Jaipreet Virdi, Tony Heaton, David Johnson, Sandie Yi, Cat Chong, Naomi Ortis, Theo Jean Cuthand, Syrus Marcus Ware, Roo Dhissou, Saleem Hue Penny, Cat Chong, Roo Dhissou, Jameisha Prescod.
Watch a short film about the February gathering:
Watch a short film about the March gathering:
You can watch a number of event recordings from the February gathering here and from the March gathering here.
A further edition of What is Research Now? is planned for autumn. Sign up to our newsletter to be the first to hear about when tickets are available to book for future events.