Art and designs’ developing contribution to the frontiers of contemporary research theory and practice

Abstract

As part of developing appropriate and meaningful framings of their work as research, artists and designers regularly find themselves engaged in wider debate on the theory and practice of research, a condition not demanded of researchers in disciplines where shared and agreed principles and methods already exist (Scrivener & Chapman, 2004). With the history of practice-based research in art and design schools now at the twenty year mark, this material is building in volume and complexity. Conceptualising artistic practices, processes and products in research terms artists and designers are challenging traditions and influencing interpretations of knowledge, serving to balance perspectives from other disciplines. Barrett and Bolt have described practiceled research as a new species involved in generative inquiry that “draws on subjective, interdisciplinary and emergent methodologies that have the potential to extend the frontiers of research” (2010: 1). This paper surveys this building contribution, identifying and exploring connections to critiques of long-standing academic research practices and contemporary theories of knowledge. Specifically, I consider: • those values fundamental to art and design research as an autonomous domain and their potential application in other inquiry-based subjects. • the situation that ‘methodology’ emerges out of the working process rather than being a pre-determined aspect of the research trajectory, and how this links with current critiques of the norms associated with qualitative research methodology (particularly the work of education researcher Elizabeth St Pierre on post qualitative inquiry). • that our specialist research area is what happens in the studio; the processes that lead to artistic outcomes. I look at how this feature of the location of our research holds significance for new thinking about knowledge and ways of knowing that recognize the critical role of contingency, instability, self-doubt and pluralism in how we understand our world.