Practice/Research: debates and dialogues

Practice/ResearchDebates and Dialogues

The social construction of ‘research’Many different traditions of enquiryDominated in the West by a particular version of ‘scientific rationality’Social science attempts to bring a disciplined approach to the study of societyBut postmodernism critiques objectivity, rationality and ‘high’ culture as profoundly ideological – as constructsFor example: researching in/through popular music or media studies, or participatory arts, is a complex hybrid making use of multiple perspectives Disciplinary boundaries under challenge; but a need to justify/defend the approaches/methods used

MashingUp: research/practiceConversational forms of learningWorking between universities and other research/practice communitiesNetwork spaces: spaces which enable interchangeReflective practice: practitioners/professionals analysing and reflecting on their own situations/dilemmasco-construction of knowledge – we have technologies which enable more individualised learning interests

…Using Youtube as piano tutor

Distributed, networked forms of learning and researching?Tech etcBlogs, web etcMore individualised, self-managed learning environments? Communication tools?

What we’re doing at UWSKey relationships:CCA, FACT Liverpool, Film City Glasgow, BBC, STV plus other universities and collegesWe have multiple campuses, multiple programmes, multiple interests so have to find ways of working togetherInitiatives: Scottish Production Archive, Scottish Centre for Island Studies, Glasgow Creative Enterprise Cluster, Scottish Centre for Enabling Technologies etcTrying to be a productive part of the cultural ecology of the West of Scotland and beyondResearch in and through arts practice as well as publishing in more traditional journals and media

High stakes researchWho gets to produce knowledge?What forms of knowledge are recognised, valued… ….and funded (Lyotard: mercantilization)In universities, push towards instrumentalism and performativity – justification in terms of ‘impact’ and economic applicabilityAt same time, multiplying fields of study/methods/approaches/radical interdisciplinarityThis has impact on professional identitiesThe entrepreneurial subject – professional identities in education/business/commerce/the arts: policy/practice discourses construct subjectivities

Practice/ResearchPractice-as-research (the mode of enquiry is also the form – i.e. dancer enquiring into the world physically, through choreography/artist as image-makingPractice-led research (in which the research includes/is driven by practical enquiry)Practice-based research – research into or through practiceIs it sometimes better to do “parallel” research rather than go into the hall of mirrors of self-reflection on practice? I.e. research analogous fields, not just a kind of narcissistic view of self – research should be enriching, not narrowing

Researching art…Art as a form of knowledge (knowledge in and through art-making)Knowledge about art (borrowed from Phil Taggwww.tagg.org, who in turn borrowed it from Herbert Read: knowledge about art, knowledge in/through art, knowledge for art)

Ways of ‘knowing’Academic discourse privileges languageBut artistic communication encompasses more than language – music, art, dance, performance, image-making etc. Otherwise why wouldn’t we just write it?Writing, speaking and acting are different – academia often privileges writing and more ‘fixed’, apparently less fluid ways of knowingAcademic research requires argumentation and ‘proof’ – can practice provide this?

‘Theory’ and ‘practice’Theory – theorein (Greek) – to see – contemplate - essentially to think aboutPractica – to do, practice (complex word)Praxis – the interplay between theory and practice – reflection in actionUnderpinning every practice there are sets of theories – an implied ways of seeing the world – worldviews, standpoints, set of values and learned behaviours – research unpacks this. Raymond Williams: from medium to social practice: making work in the arts and media, (we can reify the products as ‘objects’ AND think about them as a social practice).

Interweaving theory and practicePractice is embodied, intuitive, discursive, improvisatory – but isn’t theory too? Highly skilled disciplinary knowledge requires ‘soft’ intuition as well as teleological thinkingChance and accident can play a useful role Narrative and autobiography as a starting point for thinking about evolution of practiceSophisticated research cultures blend the formal and informal in reflective communities of practice

different approaches?A methodological menuReflective practice –(Schon)Action researchEmbodied practice – e.g. knowledge about/learned skills in performance, communication in dance/acting/music etcParticipatory methods – documenting, storytelling, narrating, mapping, gathering information, Collaborativeresearch – with artists and arts organisations beyond the universityApplied, critical theory – mobilising theory to illuminate, analyse and understand practiceIs design research a useful analogy? Practical and applied problem solving – the designer as the new hero of the performative academy, because the work is ‘useful’? Researching practice – learning and showing how to do things better, more skilfully - in applied waysReflexivity (Bourdieu) –– research is itself a form of practice with its own internal logics – “objectification of the process of objectification”

Overview of symposiumPerspectives on practitioner-research: Creativities: individual/artisticParticipatoryProducts/outputAcknowledging that artistic/academic/researcher identities are complexMultiple perspectivesFocus on active, engaged approaches Raising some questions…

KnowledgeIn traditional research/schooling – “acquiring knowledge is largely separated from the situations in which, through knowing in action, knowledge is constructed and used” (Gordon Wells)(Friere – ‘banking’ theory of education)

…and knowing (in action)We mobilise knowledge through practice.

Implications…So how do universities enable this? More reflexive? Dialogical? Multiple spaces and relationships? Resources needed for this?What is the role of the practitioner-academic in this knowledge ecology?How should we work differently?

Open knowledge ecologies?Lyotard: Postmodern Science as the Search for InstabilitiesPublishing – new ecologies, new economies, but also old rivalries and status gamesOwnership vs free culture/open source…IP issues etc

Contradictions, glitches, fissures, not just seamless network culture: power struggles; institutions are difficult

Universities don’t have a monopoly on innovation or research…far from it…!

Creativity and ‘research’The point is to generate the newResearch processes – discovery, invention, synthesis, analysisArriving at a method in and through the process – not just grounded theory More creative cultures in institutions require more creative approaches to time, space and resources..and the will to make collaborations work properly

“If we knew what we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”(Albert Einstein)

Contacts/webgeneralpraxis.blogspot.comGraham.Jeffery [at] uws.ac.ukuwspracticeresearch.blogspot.comuwscreative.blogspot.comtwitter.com/grahamjefferytwitter.com/UWScreative

Practice/Research: debates and dialogues

More Related Content

Similar to Practice/Research: debates and dialogues (20)

More from Graham Jeffery (14)

Recently uploaded (20)

Practice/Research: debates and dialogues