foreword by hans-Peter sC hwartzxxviiiThe present volume, which contains outstanding and exceedingly well- written
studies on different conceptions of art- based research, is proof of the fruitful
existence, liveliness and viability of art- based research in all european countries and
in the institutionalized art education systems developed along european traditions in
america and australia. it also becomes evident – and that is not a drawback, but
rather an advantage – that art- based research does not exist as a monolithic instrument
of epistemology, but as a multitude of equilateral approaches based on the different
traditions in the various disciplines of the arts. The present condition of literature and
music, the visual and fine arts, architecture and design, and let us not forget media
art which came about as a result of the media revolution that emerged over the past
few decades, was formed in a long process of development characterized by mutual
attraction and rejection. This differentiation should not be covered up by a research
model that is normative or defined too narrowly.
however, even if we assume that it does not makes sense to dispute the justification
of integrating young art- based research into the circle of traditional systems of
epistemology, it is very much justified, even necessary, to petition for specific art-
based research. and there undeniably is a need. There is an internal need in terms
of research that aims at developing the toolbox further, the instrumental resources
of art production. Formerly, the aim was to continue developing the basic material
conditions, which in terms of researching new colour pigments and binding agents
resulted in the formation of entire industrial sectors. in the 1990s, demands coming
mainly from the united Kingdom from so- called creative industries for exploitable
results, including among others from the arts and art teaching institutions, stimulated
the discourse concerning the necessity for an independent research infrastructure.
often however, under the veil of ‘applied research’, they served the economic interests
of companies whose image as ‘creative’ entities stemmed from their market acumen.
understandably, this nourished the fear of most artists, regardless of whether they were
researching or producing, that they were instruments of purely economic interests. in
Central europe, at least, economically driven controlling systems recommended by
organizations promoting public art contributed significantly toward the discrimination
of art- based research. The new relationship between the arts and technology, especially
to digital media technology, which in the 1980s developed into the driving force of post-
modern globalization cultures, finally ensured that the issue of art- based research was
transported from the highs and lows of academic dispute to the to- do list of education
policy. The digital toolbox of media technology faces instrumental art- based research
with completely new tasks of undreamt of and unusual complexity. not only do digital
tools expand the possibilities of art production, but they also expand the horizon with
regard to the meaning of art reception.
This has led to an oscillating process that questions all disciplines in the arts which
formerly had been clearly separated. The parameters of these processes resulted in
a hybridization that not only demanded new forms of knowledge production from
traditional scientific forms, but also developed into those hybrid art forms which
in cultivating the possibilities of the virtual space of digital interaction apparently
provided some of the post- modern utopian promises made in the writings of the
german philosopher Jürgen habermas. This so- called interactive media art, especially,
opened up art discourse to the ideas of art- based research which extended far beyond