Artistic research is a methodology so expansive that it amalgamates everything it touches while remaining loyal to no particular form. That it cannot be defined so singularly is both a point of contention and source of potential when we speak of artistic research. It is, as Lucy Cotter states in the introduction to Reclaiming Artistic Research, “...fundamentally different from academic research, however, because it follows its own inner logic in resonance with the wider languages and sensibilities of art, rather than the logic of any external discipline.” Expanding on this text, this course will engage a variety of research methods and focus on working with primary source material within art, design, and creative writing practices. We will have the opportunity to work with numerous local archives and special collections. In addition to engaging related texts, we will look at the work of Sadie Barnette, Carolyn Lazard, Zoe Leonard, Leslie Hewitt, Walid Raad, Cameron Rowland, Hồng-Ân Trương, Forensic Architecture, and Goat Island, among others. Over the course of the semester, students will build a personal database of source materials (citations), and through a series of iterative and multifaceted making processes extrapolate form and experiment with layered meaning making in response to their research interests. To that end, students are encouraged to bring with them their practice, across disciplines. Together, we will expand the inner logic of our respective processes by instinctively following research threads, remaining tethered to scholarship as we allow the gravitational force of this enigmatic approach to pull us and our practices away from the established and towards the unknown.