[csaa-forum] Beyond Practice-led Research [CFP]

[Paul Magee]

Beyond Practice-led Research [CFP]
 
A special Issue of  TEXT
http://www.textjournal.com.au/
 
Editors: Scott Brook and Paul Magee
 
Practice-led research has come to dominate the discussion and practice of
research in the university-based creative arts. It is hard to imagine that
landscape without it. At the same time, serious questions about its
viability have been raised. In the recent Routledge Companion to Research in
the Creative Arts, Søren Kjørup notes that even after decades of
institutional commitment, the field Œhas not developed any generally known
classics and no stars (while the names of a small group of theoreticians
have become quite run-of-the-mill).¹ Meanwhile Michael Biggs and Daniela
Büchler argue that Œ[a]lthough these actions conform to the conventions of
academic research, they do not result in a significant research activity.¹
Such statements suggest that it is time to move beyond an advocatory stance
on practice-led research, to assess its strengths and limits, and to ask
whether there are alternatives.
 
For instance, does the fact that practice-led research has not been taken up
by stakeholders in the cultural sector (arts funding bodies, curators,
reviewers, audiences) undermine its claim to represent practice? Why are so
many artists reluctant to provide exegetical comment (³What does it mean?²)
on their own work? What do we make of this practice of not-speaking? And if
the rise of an extensive discussion of method in the creative arts reflects
the new regimes of research accountability, can practice-led research be
defended on other grounds? Further, what are the alternatives? Have we
forgotten previous presentations and discussions of the relation of art and
knowledge, for instance, those which focus on the role of art in instigating
inquiry in others?  Are there disciplines, movements and genres outside the
university-based creative arts (e.g. cultural studies, Théâtre du Soleil,
feminism, ethnography, generative art, postcolonial studies, Dada, Third
Cinema, Forum Theatre, culture jamming . . .) that have broached the
arts/knowledge divide according to other paradigms?
 
We are open to papers that are sensitive to institutional pragmatics no less
than papers that argue that there is something uncompromising about creative
work. And we would like to raise the same possibilities for the discussion
of scholarship more generally, including that it involves a commitment to
what the late Foucault theorised as parhessia, or Œfearless speech¹. Papers
are sought on these and any related themes. The editors are open to artworks
that resonate with this topic. They are open to papers that break the mold.
 
Abstracts and expressions of interest for artworks: Dec 31 2011
[This is optional, but recommended]
 
Deadline for papers and artworks:  April 1 2012
 
Publication date:  October 2012
 
 
Email: Scott.Brook at canberra.edu.au & Paul.Magee at canberra.edu.au 
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