Inflexions, an initiation of the SenseLab, is an open-access online journal dedicated to housing and supporting styles of writing and creativity that emerge from the nexus of research-creation. Where ‘inflexion’ is defined upfront as “a tendency that precedes not the obscure, not the unformed, but that which is apprehended only as it is transformed – a creative in-between”, Inflexions pitches itself as “an in-between journal of transformative tendency at the creative crossroads of philosophy, art and technology”.
As outlined in a measured statement of purpose, prepared by the journal’s editorial collective (including SenseLab mainstays Erin Manning and Brian Massumi), the overriding goal for Inflexions is to promote experimental practices that combine research and practice in such a way as to foster symbiotic links between philosophical enquiry, technological innovation, artistic production, and social and political engagement. Through exploring and connecting these terrains, authors contributing to Inflexions are led to question how their efforts may renew and recast relations between the concrete and the abstract, perception and conception, or the body and technology. As such, topics of interest include inter/trans/non disciplinarity, emergence of new modes of collaboration, micropolitics and the life and death of institutions, the ethics of aesthetics, and subjectivity and collectivity in cultural production.
Significantly, Inflexions is divided into a dual-layer schema guided by the titles Node and Tangents – roughly conceived of as the ‘articles’ and ‘practice’ sections, respectively. Node is comprised of a selection of contributing authors’ articles that are conceptually linked to a specifically titled problematic or theme being addressed in the current issue that sensibly relates to the journal’s overriding goals (eg. title of issue no. 1 “How is Reasearch-Creation”; no. 2 “Rhythmic Nexus: the Felt Togetherness of Movement and Thought”). As authors are encouraged to approach their subject matter via creative or experimental methods, the content of Node ranges from scholarly prose to poetry, ficto-theory, multimedia formats and beyond. In taking advantage of the online format, articles may, for example, present texts and artworks together in such a way as to facilitate their interaction and response with each other within the virtual space of the article – see The Stroboscopic Trilogy by Antonin de Bemels with accompanying text by Stamatia Portanova.
Tangents demonstrates the results or bi-products of artists’ and academics’ individual contributions to the theory and practice of research-creation. While the entries in Tangents strike off in directions of their own and resonate across their own divergences, grouping them together in Inflexions allows for the suggestion of connections between each other, as well as questions being posed in the issue’s Node. Tangents often includes actual artworks made available via any web-presentable medium or media mix; beyond this differing ephemera, writing in various genres, art or political reportage, and reviews or reassessments of old but relevant material are also presented.
The advisory board of Inflexions includes members of a far-reaching, international network of scholars.