A Delay of Meaning – itinerant space

itinerant space: a journal of art, design and communication research practices, is an experimental online platform for doctoral researchers at RCA.

Editor-in-chief: Professor Teal Triggs
Founding editors: Nick Bell, Karen Bosy, Kirsty Smith
Editors, Issue 2: Nick Bell, Karen Bosy, Kam Rehal

Contact: itinerant.space@rca.ac.uk
itinerant space, School of Communication, Royal College of Art, Garden House, Dorando Close, London W12 7FN

Peer review panel:
Karen Bosy, Gabrielle Mowat (School of Arts and Humanities)
Nick Bell, Carmen Hannibal, Kam Rehal (School of Communication)
Orla Fahey (School of Design)

Website design: Regular Practice.
Site development: Mads Kullberg

Call for submissions

Guide to submitting

Peer review panel

Application form: peer review panel member

Notes from the Founding Editors, itinerant space issue 1: pilot (2021)
Karen Bosy, Nick Bell, Kirsty Smith and Editor-in-Chief, Teal Triggs

Communication research is emerging internationally as a robust interdisciplinary practice. We find ourselves up against a sense of urgency to address rapidly shifting socio-political-cultural-technological environments. Postgraduate, post-doctoral and early career researchers are playing a substantive role in leading research into, for, and through critical communication theories, methods, and practices. New knowledge emerges out of radical and often disruptive approaches, but can only be successful if underpinned by a sympathetic understanding of those we are working with. At the same time, we are seeing an increase in the importance of the ways communication research is informing, shaping, and challenging the precarity of change; and, with this, a questioning of the way in which communication research and practices are ‘made public’ and disseminated as conversation.

KS: Questioning the role of communication, democracy and diversity within academic publishing, our aim is to examine what these standards of communication symbolise, and query systems of publishing.

itinerant space sets out to explore, interrogate and critically reflect on communication research practices, and we begin with the contributions of School of Communication postgraduate researchers. The gestation period of the journal has been lengthy. We began the process in a world reeling from the arrival of COVID-19 in 2020, and continued with the key conversations taking place during a period of lockdown and reliance on online platform technologies. The ongoing debate between the editorial team and the broader cohort of postgraduate researchers and external guests focussed on radically rethinking what communication publishing might mean. If we have learned anything, it is that a slow, generative process steeped in dialogue, and reflection, can lead to new ways of thinking and making.

KB: For me the keyword grammar of itinerant space can function as a diagram, an assemblage, supporting an ongoing process of interaction and iterative conversation.

NB: Ongoing dialogue can meander; it can be unruly and perhaps should not be packaged in the same way.

itinerant space is an ongoing project. Its very nature is developmental, continually transformed through an engagement with its readers. We invite you to join us as we move forward on our research journey.

Contributor Biographies

Archive

Issue 2 is a milestone for the journal.
Prior to the launch of itinerant space issue 1: pilot (2021), research conversations took place within the School of Communication’s supportive environments. As editors we used the opportunity to bounce research ideas between each other, engage in critical debate, and reflect on findings with our PGR cohort and supervisors. The pilot stage was useful. Our agreed approach served a purpose: to establish academic publishing confidence, to road test itinerant space as an online platform, and fine-tune journal processes.

Issue 2 is a catalyst for knowledge sharing.
It was always in the journal’s five-year plan that issue 2 would build on the learning of the pilot issue to iteratively develop an expanded network of the RCA’s wider doctoral research community, and to stretch beyond the academy. We felt the urgency of our own research, but also the desire to connect with other PGRs in learning more about individual research practices. As an experimental platform, the journal offered a unique opportunity to inform interdisciplinary conversations and modes of research dissemination.

Issue 2 is a process.
The editorial team methodically explored academic peer-review models in the development of processes that would align with the journal’s values and aspirations. We expanded our learning network to include doctoral researchers from the RCA’s Schools and Research Centres, by inviting them to participate as contributors and peer-to-peer reviewers. The intent was to establish a publishing process based on a critical, yet supportive, dialogue between editors, reviewers, and contributors. We also explored a new vocabulary to describe alternative ways of talking about published research. For example, moving from ‘fragments’ to ‘extracts’, and from ‘articles’ to ‘research-in-progress’. This mirrors the intellectual development of PGRs and their individual research journeys. We invited RCA’s PGRs to join in debate, foreground their research experiences, and help shape and inform doctoral-level research conversations.

Issue 2 is an iteration.
To give a taste of this process, each editor has responded to the keyword ‘iteration’:

‘Iterative process affords differences and the act of differing, in the sense of Derrida’s notion of différance. My research argues that artists use dispersal as a strategy to open the potential for political debate, an iterative process. Dispersive strategies put pressure on the frame(s) or ‘structures’ in moving image works. The potential for political debate comes out of the freeing up of thought.’ – Karen Bosy

‘In longitudinal, constructionist participatory practice, multiple versions of methods iterated by community leaders, each operating in different yet overlapping social contexts, expand the possibilities through which participation in social infrastructure can be entered into and experienced.’ – Nick Bell

‘Iterating is an active process of moving toward or closer to a sense of understanding. The practice (or doing) of research invites us to generate the conditions within which iteration might emerge.’ – Kam Rehal

‘Each stage of our research leads to seeing something fresh – an iteration is borne out of curiosity, the experiential, and making sense of the world at that moment.’ – Teal Triggs

Issue 2 is a call to action and a contribution to new knowledge.

The Editorial Team would like to thank the fifteen contributors whose work features in issue 2 and those who worked tirelessly behind the scenes as the journal’s six peer-to-peer reviewers.

A Delay of Meaning
Hengzhi Gong

Project overview —

In the context of escalating cultural censorship, artists face the challenge of expressing social and political concerns when direct speech is restricted. One potential solution is to embrace a delay of meaning, wherein artists craft apolitical pieces that allegorically represent political issues. When employing allegory, the narrative in paintings ceases to follow a linear trajectory—akin to the axiom ‘seeing is believing’—and instead adopts a more intricate curvature, encouraging both seeing and disbelieving (Elkins, 1994). Consequently, this not only postpones the revelation of meaning but also delays comprehension.

In my own artistic endeavours, I harness allegory derived from the historical memories of ancient Chinese culture. I draw inspiration from the emptiness and implicit speech present in literati paintings: the more ambiguous a narrative becomes, the larger the interpretive space it offers (Jullien & Todd, 2012). My paintings attempt to blur distinctions between the private and public spheres by weaving personal narratives. At a cursory glance, a viewer might perceive a tale tinged with subjective, dark humour. However, upon extended observation, the imagery reveals a more sinister deviation. Subtle cues within the painting hint at social and political issues, which, for many Chinese artists, remain challenging to articulate overtly.

Ref

Elkins, J. (1994). The poetics of perspective. Cornell University Press.

Jullien, F., & Todd, J. M. (2012). The great image has no form, or on the nonobject through painting. University of Chicago Press.

Biography

In 2018, Hengzhi Gong graduated with a BA in Industrial Design from the Beijing Institute of Technology and, in 2020, with an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art. Now, he is completing his PhD in Arts and Humanities at the RCA. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Royal Academy of Arts, Southward Park Galleries, No.20 Arts, Josh Lilley Gallery, Fold Gallery, Hockney Gallery, West Bund Museum (Shanghai, China), A/W Space (Nanjing, China), Western Exhibitions (Chicago, US) and Gallery LVS (Seoul, Korea).

Conversation: where critical friends of itinerant space are invited to comment on journal submissions as part of an ongoing research dialogue.

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