The Cuckoo Cuckooed for a Long Time

Review of: Vytautas Michelkevičius, Aldis Gedutis, Gegutės giesmės: apie meninio tyrimo žinojimus, praktikas ir poveikius, Vilnius: Vilniaus dailės akademijos leidykla, 2025. ‒ 368 p. ISBN 978-609-447-423-1

Abstract

The monograph “Gegutės giesmės: apie meninio tyrimo žinojimus, praktikas ir poveikius” [Songs of the Cuckoo: On the Knowledge, Practices and Impacts of Artistic Research; 2025) by Vytautas Michelkevičius and Aldis Gedutis raises epistemological questions of scholarly and artistic knowledge and explores the possible place of doctoral studies in art and artistic research in academia. When analyzing the peculiarities, differences and possible points of contact between scholarly and artistic knowledge, the authors of the monograph employ logical positivism, sociological, educational and relativistic concepts of philosophy of science. The possible points of contact between scholarly and artistic knowledge discussed in the book are found at the level of epistemological transdisciplinarity, where the methods of producing the two types of knowledge are not strictly separated; on the contrary, they interact and complement each other. Compared with foreign examples, the monograph reveals and unfolds the conceptual logic and administrative structure of the Vilnius Academy of Arts doctoral studies in art, artistic research and the preparation of a dissertation. The reviewer notes that in the practical sections of the monograph (“Practices” and “Impacts”), which validate the internal logic and ideology of artistic research, logical contradictions are often detected. The experimental and avant-garde image of artistic research does not always coincide with the opposing orientation towards the common practice in the art institutional system and the corresponding hierarchical models of “art through career.” This contradiction is explained by the incompatibility of the narratives of academic research and lobbying.