Future Reflections is a research collaboration based at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. The group formed in the spring of 2007 to facilitate a conference, publication and exhibition by the same name. Building on this initial investigation into alternative models of art as research, Future Reflections continues to explore the theory and practice of research through Art and design.

An international team of four student researchers, Future Reflections embodies divergent art practices, skills and sensibilities. Overarching all these differences, however, is a commitment to addressing the group's shared interest in art as research while exploring specific issues related to each member's PhD. The tension between these interests creates 'a third space', which includes and goes beyond each member's individual project and practice - a space that reflects and refracts the collaborative/individual generation of research/art practice through a method of researching without a predetermined outcome.

Future Reflections is currently developing a project for The Art of Research conference.¹ Comprised of surveys, questionnaires and interviews gathered at the conference, this project will use data to playfully interrogate key perceptions about art and research. Using these responses as data for discussion, analysis and as art objects in their own right, this project will explore research as practice and practice as research through a site-specific intervention.

For Detours/Desvios 07, Future Reflections proposes another relational project aimed at destabilising the site/identity of the artwork/practitioner. Working with the event's theme of 'detours', Future Reflections will investigate the productive potential of circuitous conversation as a method of research. The practice and expression of 'the response' will be emphasized in particular. By encouraging, documenting, and representing various kinds of participant response, Future Reflections will map this 'third space' at Detours/Desvios 07, a space defined by the tension between the perspectives of individual respondents and the ethos overarching the conference as a
whole.

1. The Art of Research will be held at the University of Art and Design Helsinki in October 2007.