foreword by hans-Peter sC hwartzxxxas the working environment of the arts increasingly suffers under the constraints
of the creative industries, space and time for avant- garde experiments will soon be
completely sacrificed to the dictate of efficiency. it may take some time before it is
understood that only universities can provide the space required for experiments.
however, owing to the persistence of the traditional understanding of teachers at
traditional universities as described earlier, it may also take a while before the
innovation potential of art- based research projects is included in the teaching
curricula in a targeted and organized manner. however, this may not be as easy as
it sounds. Very little experience is available on just how this transfer of knowledge
can take place. usually, a transfer of knowledge is assumed by the teaching staff, who
together frequently carry out the research as well. nonetheless, should the transfer of
knowledge be successful, to which some of the contributions to this volume provide
optimistic proof, then universities of art could find a way out of the dilemma that the
measure for valuing successful practical art is defined not within the university but
outside it: in the opera house or on the art market, in the ballet company or at the
state theatre.
a need for art- based research is therefore recognized in both the permanent
development of university curricula and in the transfer of these ‘autonomous’ curricula
into the socially integrated institutions of art production and art reception.
if we recognize that differentiated and differentiating art- based research is of
fundamental importance for the development of both, art production and art reception,
then the question concerning the position of the art- based researcher in society is
superfluous: as is the case in every system of research, the genuine place is mainly
the university itself, both for persons who consider themselves as ‘full- time’ art- based
researchers and those who practise art- based research occasionally to advance their
own artistic activity.
on the other hand, a publishing culture based on non- verbal forms of discourse
should be developed or, rather, different discourses on art- based research should be
released from their segregation and their results made comparable and made available
to the necessary criticism by peer groups, thus providing them with a really animated
research environment.
While i am not sure that in the future universities of art will actually be required to
make this happen, merging the different disciplines of art into one institution facilitates
the trans- disciplinary approach of the discourse on art- based research, and i am certain
that the way that universities of art perceive themselves must change. The centre of our
efforts concerning research at universities of art should not focus on the competition
between research and teaching, on the apparent disagreement between theory and
practice, or on the differences among research cultures, but on a creative and critical
willingness to cooperate that can endure the conflicts that have always boosted the
arts.