WIRE DOCTUS 2026 Session 3, “The Decadent Gaze as Method in Artistic Research” took place on 26–27 May at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius. The event brought together PhD candidates and artistic researchers from FilmEU partner institutions to explore the decadent gaze as a speculative method in artistic research.
The session combined a theoretical lecture "The performative of political decadence” by philosopher of cinema and imagination Dr. Kristupas Sabolius with an intensive practice-based workshop led by cinema artist and artistic researcher Miklos Tamas Ambrozy. The programme invited participants to reflect on artistic research as an unstable and evolving practice, where ambiguity, slowness, excess, ornament, and imperfection become part of the creative process.
Participants worked with their individual research material, experimented with new methodological approaches, and engaged in critical exchange within the context of contemporary artistic research.
The DOCTUS programme also included a meeting with researchers from the Enact_Now cluster and a visit to their exhibition at the LMTA campus. The researchers presented their artistic research projects and discussed with doctoral candidates the intersections of media, surveillance, artificial intelligence, war, and digital realities, reflecting on how contemporary media shapes our perception of the world around us.
