eva Luating quaLity in artistiC researChWe know that the methodological issues being debated in the arts are also being
debated in medicine, law, etc. Thus we find a comparison between ‘alternative
paradigm research’ in social sciences, and its subsequent adoption or interest in nearly
all subjects in the academy. We also find the issues of non- traditional methods, visual
and non- visual languages, embodied and propositional knowledge, etc., that the arts
often raise but which have impact in areas such as philosophy. We believe that the
‘new paradigm’ of arts research will become a branch of critical theory. Creative and
performing arts research has the capability to contribute to the development of a new
paradigm precisely because it has had to conduct a rigorous analysis of what it means
to do research, especially in an area which does not conform to the current norms of
academic research. The mere appearance of individuality in the arts owing to them
producing artistic outcomes is, in our view, entirely misleading. The arts, in common
with nearly all subjects, would benefit from this critical review and reconstruction of
its aims in research, so its actions could be more in line with its values, leading to
satisfaction in the communities who undertake this work and consume its outcomes.
We propose that what is valued by the community is a function of its worldview,
and some of the problems of intra- national and extra- national harmonization occur as
a result of doctoral- level education trying to reflect the worldviews of both academic
research and professional practice. such an enterprise will always be doomed to failure
since there is only a partial overlap between the interests of the academic community
and the professional arts community. The purpose of training arts researchers should
be to prepare them as professionals in arts research. This is not the same as a career in
traditional academic research nor is it the same as a career in existing professional arts
practice. This is a third professional category that is as yet undefined.
Through a better understanding of what constitutes meaningful actions in the new
field of artistic research, the community can identify criteria for determining significant
production, i.e. the definition of the doctorate as a significant contribution to a field.
This is not a problem that is unique to the arts, but we believe that enduring solutions
that are relevant within subject domains must arise from within the subjects themselves.
This can be achieved by an analysis of the actions that are regarded as meaningful and
productive. Resolving the value system of the community will allow both texts and
artefacts to be evaluated, facilitating the development of a system and terminology that
considers the specificities of various creative genres. evaluation should be transparent
and intelligible enough to be practised on all levels of artistic research, from auditions
to post- doctoral research applications, and replace the present tradition of two separate
juries and requirements leading up to the so- called ‘double doctorates’.
The potential benefits of the new paradigms are rich, as has been shown with
paradigmatic changes in the social sciences in the 1990s. paradigmatic change, or
rather paradigmatic establishment, would directly address what nowotny (2008:
preface) describes as ‘what remains unforeseeable and yet promises to further expand
the range of possibilities’.
Notes1 http://www. elia- artschools.org/ (accessed 20 march 2010).
2 http://www.qaa.ac.uk (accessed 22 February 2010).