Research Resources

Practice as Research:
Approaches to Creative Arts Enquiry

Estelle Barrett, Barbara Bolt
Published by I.B.Tauris, 2007
ISBN 1845114329, 9781845114329

Practice-led research is a burgeoning area across the creative arts, with studio-based doctorates frequently favoured over traditional research. A comprehensive introduction lays out the book’s framework and individual chapters provide concrete examples of studio-based research in art, film and video, creative writing and dance, each contextualised by a theoretical essay and complete with references. More than a handbook, the volume draws on thinkers including Deleuze, Bourdieu and Heidegger in its examination of the relationship between practice and theory, demonstrating how practice can operate as a valid alternative mode of enquiry to traditional scholarly research. Taking pains to elaborate methodologies, contexts and outcomes, and emphasising the process of enquiry and its relationship to the research write-up or exegesis, this is an indispensable tool for educators and students.

Thinking Through Art: Reflections on Art as Research
Katy Macleod, Lin Holdridge
Published Routledge, 2005
ISBN 0415364779, 9780415364775

Art and thought, what is the nature of this relationship? What kind of thought comes from art and how do we define it? When the art in question is academic research, how is it situated both in terms of higher education and art practice in a wider sense?

Thinking Through Art takes an innovative look at artists’ experiences of undertaking doctorates. If the making of art is not simply the formulation of an object but is also the formation of complex ideas then what effect does academic enquiry have on art practice? The artists, philosophers, art historians and cultural theorists contributing to “Thinking Through Art” demonstrate the complexity of interpreting art as research and suggest ways in which the visual in relation to the verbal could more actively engage intellectual debate.

Artistic Research

Annette W. Balkema, Henk Slager
Published Rodopi, 2004
ISBN 9042010975, 9789042010970

Currently, advanced art education is in the process of developing (doctorate or PhD) research programs throughout Europe. Therefore, it seems to us urgent to explore what the term research actually means in the topical practice of art.” “Research is often understood as a method stemming from the alpha, beta or gamma sciences directed towards knowledge production and the development of a certain scientific domain. How is artistic research connected with those types of scientific research, taking into account that the artistic domain so far has tended to continually exceed the parameters of knowledge management? One could claim that the artistic field comprises the hermeneutic question of the humanities, the experimental method of the sciences, and the societal commitment of the social sciences. Will that knowledge influence the domain, the methodology, and the outcome of artistic research? Another major topic concerns not only the specificity of the object of knowledge of artistic research but above all whether and how artistic research and its institutional programs will influence topical visual art, its artworks and its exhibitions. These complex problematics with their various points of view and management models are mapped out through the contributions of theorists, curators, and institutions, from Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands, Finland, Germany, and Sweden. May these contributions be a constructive impetus for a versatile debate which may influence the future role of advanced art institutions and the position of artistic research in the next decade.

Art Practice as Research:
Inquiry in the Visual Arts