How to understand + appropriate (media) theoretical texts for your art/design processes

0_ The risk of reading something new

Before starting to read a text, be aware of the possibility that whatever you read may completely transform the way you think and feel about the world, yourself, or the topic that is relevant to you. Try to meet new ideas in a critical, but open-minded and -hearted manner.

1_ Building + expanding vocabulary

During your first read, mark all the terms that are unknown to you. Look each term/phrase up and write it down. If you think you know a word, but you're not sure if you *actually* do understand how it's meant in this context, also look it up. This helps you build a vocabulary which will influence the way you are thinking-feeling with and about your art/design projects.

2_ Most important concepts

What are the most important concepts that the text proposes? What concepts are actually taken from another context and what (possibly new) concepts does the text construct? Writing this down might help you to come up with a new concept/idea/process/experiment yourself, that may be a hybrid/collage/assemblage of one thought proposed by the text and your own. It can be helpful to translate your thoughts into another format (a drawing, a map/cartography, a choreography, an electronics schematic, a chart, a poem, a video log, a 3D-rendering, a voice-memo, ... you name it.)

3_ Situating the text

In what frame of reference is the text situated? Who is the author? At what time, and at what place was the text published? Which discipline(s) is the author trained in? How does this converge into the texts overall narrative? And most importantly: how does this relate to your practice and the topic you are researching? How does your own situatedness align or differ from the author? Is the author/text challenging your assumptions in any way - or does it reinforce and solidify what you were suspecting? Write down whenever you are able to feel your way of thinking going through a process of change.

4_ Noticing weak-points and resisting

While reading you can already mark and note those arguments or passages that don't make sense to you, you don't agree with or you actually find problematic. Every writer has their own particular viewpoint, within which you can embed and align yourself, or you can disagree and sharpen your critical reading skills by refusing to follow the text (completely or partially). Write down what you disagree with and why. This might lead you to another text that offers a complimentary perspective, or it might let your project become a site of resistance against.

5_ Resonances, synesthesia, poetics

What are the things that your body and mind hallucinate/associate while you are reading the text? Can something from the text become a metaphor for something else? Do you feel strongly about a particular thing from the text? (Even boredom might tell you something about your feelings towards the text as a form of subconscious disagreement, sensed inaccessibility, or as a feeling of missing engagement or relevancy.) Whether you feel angry, suspicious or inspired after reading the text, how can your feelings actualize or materialize into something else?

6_ Contextualizing the text and your thoughts/feelings

After you finished reading (and perhaps re-reading) the text, try to work out the different various relations the text holds towards your topic, as well as your general thoughts/feelings. In an imaginary cartography, how would your research question be mapped out through this text and how does it relate to other artistic/design/theoretical/scientific/social/etc. references that are relevant to you? What kind of wider discourse do you see your work contributing to?

7_ Proper referencing = Contributing to a shared art and design knowledge

If you find a reference that significantly enriches your project, then you should definitely properly reference the author/artist that inspired you. This is not only helping to cultivate a healthy (non-egoist) culture of giving and taking within the arts, but it is also makes the embedding and contextualizing of your own work within a wider discourse visible for other people.

This document is part of the list of Conceptual Support Resources for Students. A first version was written by Lotta Stöver for the WiSe24/25 seminar Embedded + Embodied. Interfacing within Networks on Earth.