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For more than twenty years, Lenka Sýkorová has supported emerging artists and designers as an independent curator. At the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, she also works with doctoral students and serves as the academic lead of their conference. In an interview for INFO.zcu, she talks not only about the conference but also about the significance and possibilities of artistic research.

What led you to found the doctoral conference at the Sutnar Faculty, and what kind of scholarly debate did you want to develop at the faculty through it?
The doctoral conference was founded to create a stable academic platform at the Sutnar Faculty for the public presentation of ongoing doctoral research. It is only natural that the individual relationship between a doctoral student and their supervisor should be complemented by presenting the research to the academic community, by further consultations, and by confrontation with different disciplinary and methodological perspectives. The opportunity to formulate one's own research before a broader scholarly forum, to discuss it, and to receive feedback is what we consider an important part of doctoral study.

The first edition offered this opportunity within the faculty; the second, subtitled Between Theory and Practice, opens up for the first time on Thursday, October 1, to doctoral students from other art universities in Czechia and Slovakia. Why the change?
From the beginning, we saw the conference as a project that should gradually extend beyond the boundaries of a single institution. The aim is to present current doctoral research in art, design, and related fields, and to create a natural environment for exchange, comparison of methodological approaches, and scholarly discussion across institutions. What matters is precisely the chance for different forms of doctoral research to meet, from artistic research and theory-oriented projects to interdisciplinary approaches. The conference should therefore work not only as a place to present results, but above all as a space where research can be introduced while still in progress, where its questions and methods can be discussed, and where participants can receive feedback that matters for the direction of their work.

What can an artist or designer discover through the act of making itself? How does a research question emerge, and how does one go about answering it?

That is a very complex question. Art and design always reflect, in some way, the reality we live in. And today, that reality is very fragile: we find ourselves in a period of extraordinarily rapid technological acceleration, as well as of social, environmental, and other crises. Art and design can not only respond to this situation, but also investigate it and help us understand it. This is where I see great potential in artistic research. In it, the creative process yields not only a final artifact, whether an artwork or a design product, but also new knowledge. The creative process becomes one of the tools of research. What is essential, however, is that doctoral students clearly define what they are investigating, why their topic is relevant and innovative, and what question they are asking through their practice.

Could you illustrate this with a specific doctoral project from the Sutnar Faculty?
It is clearly visible, for example, in Michal Poustka's project, which explores the relationship between human perception and augmented reality technologies. One of the fundamental questions of his research is where the reality we perceive through our senses ends and where the reality constructed by our mind begins. He does not seek the answer through theory alone. He creates experimental augmented reality environments in which, for example, he alters our ordinary perception of time, space, or gravity and observes how participants respond to these changes. Artistic creation itself thus becomes the means through which the research question can be explored. The next phase is then important: presenting and verifying the results. Artistic research cannot remain confined to the studio. The results need to be presented to both specialist and wider audiences, discussed, and tested against audience reactions; what is learned must then be fed back into further research and creative work. This gives rise to a kind of cycle: the research question leads to a creative experiment, the experiment yields new knowledge, and its presentation and reflection, in turn, allow the original question to be refined and the research to develop further.

The conference also makes room for work in progress. What can critical debate with people from other disciplines and backgrounds mean for the future direction of these projects?
Above all, the conference is a space for critical debate about doctoral projects still in progress. Doctoral study at the Sutnar Faculty has a strong focus on interdisciplinary approaches, which are also an important part of artistic research. The doctoral conference is therefore an ideal environment for sharing new findings across disciplines. Confronting diverse methods, experiences, and ways of thinking can help doctoral students sharpen their research questions, test their chosen approaches, and view their own projects from a fresh perspective.

One of this year's thematic strands is devoted to identity, power, and historical memory. Which of the selected contributions do you think shows especially well what artistic research can bring to public debate on these issues?
Two projects by our doctoral students show it very well, approaching the theme of identity from different perspectives. In her research, Nicole Langrová examines the self-presentation of the digital native generation and how digital environments and social media transform how we perceive and present our "self." Through the motif of the mask, she opens up questions of authenticity, performativity, and the conscious construction of identity in the digital realm. Karíma Al-Mukhtarová takes a different route to the theme of identity, starting from her own experience of a culturally hybrid identity. In her doctoral project, she links it with experimental plant growing and breeding. Biological hybridization becomes a parallel for exploring cultural hybridization, migration, adaptation, and cultural memory. In my view, both projects show well how artistic research can start from personal experience and current social issues, examine them critically through artistic practice, and then open them up to specialist and wider public debate.

What do you see as distinctive about doctoral study at Sutnarka? For what kinds of creative or research projects does it offer especially good support?
I see the distinctiveness of doctoral study at Sutnar Faculty above all in its openness to interdisciplinary and experimental research. Visual art and design practice here is understood not only as a path to a finished work or an aesthetic effect, but also as a way to understand and critically reflect on the reality that surrounds us. I think this is especially important today, when visual culture and ways of communicating are changing very rapidly. A major advantage of the Sutnar Faculty is its facilities. Doctoral students can use technology and multimedia laboratories, experiment with new media and technologies, and work across individual studios and disciplines. Another important part of the program is the opportunity for study stays abroad, international consultations, and involvement in exhibitions, research, and other projects outside the faculty, which can be supported by grants. In my view, it is this combination of creative experimentation, technology, theoretical thinking, and international experience that creates a good environment for projects seeking new ways of visual understanding and communication, and responding to current social and technological change.

Whom would you like to meet in the audience, other than doctoral students? What can the conference offer someone interested in contemporary art but with no experience in artistic research yet?
I look forward to meeting colleagues at the conference whom I have already encountered professionally during my more than twenty years of practice, but I also believe that space will open up for new contacts and professional relationships. Since I have focused on supporting emerging artists and designers from the very beginning of my practice, I am looking forward above all to the younger part of the audience. Master's students, or those at the start of their creative path, are precisely the people for whom the conference can open new horizons and show where they might direct their creative energy after graduating. For those who have no experience of doctoral study yet, it can also use concrete projects to present artistic research as one of today's ways of developing one's own creative thinking through systematic research, from formulating questions and finding one's own methods to new ways of sharing the knowledge gained with specialist and wider audiences.

The second edition of the doctoral conference, subtitled Between Theory and Practice, takes place at Sutnarka on Thursday, October 1. Those interested in taking part can register by September 25, 2026, using the registration form.