university PoLiti Cs and Pra Cti Ce-based researChagain a number of art schools were integrated into the classical university structure
and again the question was raised about the basis for academic teaching in this field.
added to that was the desire from the art schools to get access to the general funding
streams for research (The Research Quantum) or the extra project funding from the
australian Research Council. The problem was described by dennis strand from the
Canberra school of art in a report to the australian federal government in 1998:
The question of what is research in the creative arts is one that has special
significance in australian universities today but little significance elsewhere.
its importance lies in the fact that there are scarce dollars attached to the
definitions of research. This has led to the need to define research in the
creative arts in ways that will give the creative arts in universities a foothold
in the competition for research dollars. attempts to force mainstream creative
arts activities into the mould of scientific research has led to semantic
arguments that often have not been particularly helpful. however, with
only two funded categories – teaching and research – the opportunities for
alternative arguments have been limited.
(strand 1998)in his report he also wrote that a literature search on the topic of research in the
creative arts yielded very little result: ‘it is not the subject of popular or widespread
discussion among researchers or artists, either in journals or other forms of publishing,
the extent of the literature being quite limited’.
it is a bit surprising to note that this statement was made only a decade ago. one
reason for the lack of results in his search was of course that the internet had not yet
been the prime source of information and discussion. But the most important reason is
obviously that the concept of artistic research was only the subject of public discourse
in a limited number of countries.
The fact that national university policies and the structure of the higher education
and research systems triggered a special kind of debate was also underlined by malcolm
gillies, professor of music at the university of Queensland. in 1997 he noted:
our problematic role within this research environment is made more difficult
by the very definition of ‘research’. While in the united states the move during
the 1980s and 1990s has been more for establishment of ‘research equivalent’
categories of professional work in the arts – largely driven by the university
staff in the arts for career progressions and recognition equal to those in other
disciplines – the tendency within australia has been more to agitate for the
broadening of the definition of ‘research’. The reason for this is simple: with
only two funded categories, ‘teaching’ and ‘research’, the opportunities for
‘research equivalent’ arguments have been limited.
(strand 1998)in 2000 i made a review commissioned by the national swedish Board of universities
and Colleges with regard to the international debate on artistic and practice- based
research (Kälvemark 2000). at the time it was obvious that three countries stood out