Dancing the Thesis : Potentials and Pitfalls in Practice-led Research

Practice-led or multi modal theses (describing examinable outcomes of postgraduate study which comprise the practice of dancing/choreography with an accompanying exegesis) are an emerging strength of dance scholarship; a form of enquiry that has been gaining momentum for over a decade, particularly in Australia and the United Kingdom. It has been strongly argued that, in this form of research, legitimate claims to new knowledge are embodied predominantly within the practice itself (Pakes, 2003) and that these findings are emergent, contingent and often interstitial, contained within both the material form of the practice and in the symbolic languages surrounding the form. In a recent study on ‘dancing’ theses Phillips, Stock, Vincs (2009) found that there was general agreement from academics and artists that ‘there could be more flexibility in matching written language with conceptual thought expressed in practice’. The authors discuss how the seemingly intangible nature of danced / embodied research, reliant on what Melrose (2003) terms ‘performance mastery’ by the ‘expert practitioner’ (2006, Point 4) involving ‘expert’ intuition (2006, Point 5), might be accessed, articulated and validated in terms of alternative ways of knowing through exploring an ongoing dialogue in which the danced practice develops emergent theory. They also propose ways in which the danced thesis can be ‘converted’ into the required ‘durable’ artefact which the ephemerality of live performance denies, drawing on the work of Rye’s ‘multi-view’ digital record (2003) and Stapleton’s ‘multi-voiced audio visual document’(2006, 82). Building on a two-year research project (2007-2008) Dancing Between Diversity and Consistency: Refining Assessment in Postgraduate Degrees in Dance, which examined such issues in relation to assessment in an Australian context, the three researchers have further explored issues around interdisciplinarity, cultural differences and documentation through engaging with the following questions:  How do we represent research in which understandings, meanings and findings are situated within the body of the dancer/choreographer?  Do these need a form of ‘translating’ into textual form in order to be accessed as research?  What kind of language structures can be developed to effect this translation: metaphor, allusion, symbol?  How important is contextualising the creative practice?  How do we incorporate differing cultural inflections and practices into our reading and evaluation?  What kind of layered documentation can assist in producing a ‘durable’ research artefact from a non-reproduce-able live event?

The effective and the evocative : reflecting on practice-led research approaches in art and design

Early in the practice-led research debate, Steven Scrivener (2000, 2002) identified some general differences in the approach of artists and designers undertaking postgraduate research. His distinctions centered on the role of the artefact in problem-based research (associated with design) and creative-production research (associated with artistic practice). Nonetheless, in broader discussions on practice-led research, 'art and design' often continues to be conflated within a single term. In particular, marked differences between art and design methodologies, theoretical framing, research goals and research claims have been underestimated. This paper revisits Scrivener's work and establishes further distinctions between art and design research. It is informed by our own experiences of postgraduate supervision and research methods training, and an empirical study of over sixty postgraduate, practice-led projects completed at the Creative Industries Faculty of QUT between 2002 and 2008. Our reflections have led us to propose that artists and designers work with differing research goals (the evocative and the effective, respectively), which are played out in the questions asked, the creative process, the role of the artefact and the way new knowledge is evidenced. Of course, research projects will have their own idiosyncrasies but, we argue, marking out the poles at each end of the spectrum of art and design provides useful insights for postgraduate candidates, supervisors and methodologists alike.

Practice-led research and the innovation agenda : beyond the postgraduate research degree in the arts, design and media

The rise of the ‘practice-led’ research approach has given us a new way of understanding what creative practice in art, design and media can do in the academy and the world— it can materialise new ideas and forms into being as a form of experimental research. Yet, to date, attention around the world, and especially in Australia, has been chiefly directed at the postgraduate research degrees, most notably the PhD or doctoral equivalents. Recent mapping projects and surveys of practice-led research in Australia reveal much about the institutional conditions of higher degree researchers, supervisors, examiners and research training (Baker et al 2009; Evans et al 2003; Dally et al 2004; Paltridge et al 2009; Phillips et al 2009). Given this focus, we might well ask: is the practice-led approach destined to be a part of the higher degree ghetto only, or does it have an afterlife? What is the place of ‘practice-led’ beyond the postgraduate degree? After all postgraduate researchers do not remain postgraduates forever, and perhaps the practice-led approach to research may have benefits in wider university, professional and communal contexts.

Rephrasing voice : art, practice-led research and the limits and sites of articulacy

While my PhD is practice-led research, it is my contention that such an inquiry cannot develop as long as it tries to emulate other models of research. I assert that practice-led research needs to account for an epistemological unknown or uncertainty central to the practice of art. By focusing on what I call the artist's 'voice,' I will show how this 'voice' is comprised of a dual motivation—'articulate' representation and 'inarticulate' affect—which do not even necessarily derive from the artist. Through an analysis of art-historical precedents, critical literature (the work of Jean-François Lyotard and Andrew Benjamin, the critical methods of philosophy, phenomenology and psychoanalysis) as well as of my own painting and digital arts practice, I aim to demonstrate how this unknown or uncertain aspect of artistic inquiry can be mapped. It is my contention that practice-led research needs to address and account for this dualistic 'voice' in order to more comprehensively articulate its unique contribution to research culture.

A connective model for the practice-led research exegesis : an analysis of content and structure

Since the formal recognition of practice-led research in the 1990s, many higher research degree candidates in art, design and media have submitted creative works along with an accompanying written document or ‘exegesis’ for examination. Various models for the exegesis have been proposed in university guidelines and academic texts during the past decade, and students and supervisors have experimented with its contents and structure. With a substantial number of exegeses submitted and archived, it has now become possible to move beyond proposition to empirical analysis. In this article we present the findings of a content analysis of a large, local sample of submitted exegeses. We identify the emergence of a persistent pattern in the types of content included as well as overall structure. Besides an introduction and conclusion, this pattern includes three main parts, which can be summarized as situating concepts (conceptual definitions and theories); precedents of practice (traditions and exemplars in the field); and researcher’s creative practice (the creative process, the artifacts produced and their value as research). We argue that this model combines earlier approaches to the exegesis, which oscillated between academic objectivity, by providing a contextual framework for the practice, and personal reflexivity, by providing commentary on the creative practice. But this model is more than simply a hybrid: it provides a dual orientation, which allows the researcher to both situate their creative practice within a trajectory of research and do justice to its personally invested poetics. By performing the important function of connecting the practice and creative work to a wider emergent field, the model helps to support claims for a research contribution to the field. We call it a connective model of exegesis.

Aesthetic tensions : evaluating outcomes for practice-led research and industry

This paper explores principles of contemporary aesthetics to suggest a basis for determining qualitative outcomes of artistic works in two contexts: the arts industry and the academy setting of practice-led research. Commonly articulated measures of quality—creativity and innovation—are questioned as mere rhetoric if not framed in specific ways in the two discrete settings. The paper also interrogates generally held assumptions that a longer time to develop work and greater periods of self-reflexivity will produce higher calibre artistic outcomes. The unease produced by apparent differences in qualitative outcomes between art works created in an industry setting and those created through practice-led research is analysed through three interconnected framing devices: intention, contextual parameters and criteria for evaluation, in conjunction with the relationships between the art work, the artist and the audience/viewer/listener. Common and differentiated criteria in the two contexts are explored, leading to the conclusion that innovation is more likely to be revealed in the end product in an industry context whereas in practice-led research it may be in the methodological processes of creating the work. While identifying and acknowledging that the two contexts encourage and produce distinctive qualitative artistic outcomes, both of value to the arts and the academy, the paper recommends ways in which closer formal liaison between industry artists and practice-led artists and supervisors might occur in order to ensure ongoing mutual influence and relevance.

Artful interviewing: Conducting oral history interviews for practice-led research

Recently, there has been an increased use of oral history as source material and inspiration for creative products, such as new media productions; visual art; theatre and fiction. The rise of the digital story in museum and library settings reflects a new emphasis on publishing oral histories in forms that are accessible and speak to diverse audiences. Visual artists are embracing oral history as a source of emotional, experiential and thematic authenticity (Anderson 2009 and Brown 2009). Rosemary Neill (2010) observes the rise of documentary and verbatim theatre — where the words of real people are reproduced on-stage — in Australia. Authors such as Dave Eggers (2006), M. J. Hyland (2009), Padma Viswanathan (2008) and Terry Whitebeach (2002) all acknowledge that interviews heavily inform their works of fiction. In such contexts, oral histories are not valued so much for their factual content but as sources that are at once dynamic, evolving, emotionally authentic and ambiguous. How can practice-led researchers design interviews that reflect this emphasis? In this paper, I will discuss how I developed an interview methodology for my own practice-led research project, The Artful Life Story: Oral History and Fiction. In my practice, I draw on oral histories to inform a work of fiction. I developed a methodology for eliciting sensory details and stories around place and the urban environment. I will also read an extract from ‘Evelyn on the Verandah,’ a short story based on an oral history interview with a 21 year-old woman who grew up in New Farm, which will be published in the One Book Many Brisbanes short story anthology in June this year (2010).

Six rules for practice-led research

Recent experience of practice-led postgraduate supervision has prompted me to conclude that the practice-led research method, as it is currently construed, produces good outcomes, especially in permitting practitioners in the creative arts, design and media into the research framework, but at the same time it also generates certain recurring difficulties. What are these difficulties? Practice-led candidates tend to rely on a narrow range of formulations with the result that they assume: (i) the innovative nature of practice-led research; (ii) that its novelty is based in opposition to other research methods; (iii) that practice is intrinsically research, often leading to tautological formulations; (iv) the hyper-self-reflexive nature of practice-led research. This set of guidelines was composed in order to circumvent the shortcomings that result from these recurring formulations. My belief is that, if these shortcomings are avoided, there is nothing to prevent practice-led from further developing as a research inquiry and thus achieving rewarding and successful research outcomes. Originally composed for the purposes of postgraduate supervision, these six rules are presented here in the context of a wider analysis of the emergence of practice-led research and its current conditions of possibility as a research method.

Undertaking practice-led research through a Queensland-wide women’s history project

This paper focuses on a practice-led research project where the author as artist/researcher participates in a Queensland-wide women’s history project to celebrate Queensland’s Suffrage Centenary in 2005. The author participated in the Women’s Historical Shoebox Collection, where Queensland women were invited to decorate and fill a shoebox with personal and symbolic items that speak about their lives and the lives of their women forebears. This paper explores the practice-led research process that enabled the artist/researcher to design and assemble her contribution. Fredericks describes the iterative process of developing the shoebox and the themes that developed through her artistic practice. She also describes the content of her shoebox and explains the symbolism underpinning the items. The Women’s Historical Shoebox Collection is now owned by the State Library of Queensland and the Jessie Street National Women’s Library.

Dancing as Knowledge Production/Dancer as Researcher in Practice-led Research

This chapter discusses research undertaken for a PhD in dance, highlighting the oscillating and ambivalent nature of practice-led research methods. Holding an unusual position within the field of practice-led research in dance, the researcher adopted the role of dancer within four creative processes led by four choreographers. Although instigating and leading this research, the author produced new knowledge of dancing practices whilst being directed creatively by the choreographers in the research environment. In line with many definitions of practice-led research, the methods used were emergent from the research arena and responsive to the requirements of the project. Deeply imbricated in the research environment, the researcher used her embodied self as a research tool, as the one who participated, discovered and recorded. This outsider/insider role of researcher/participant produced a series of meta-positions, leading to a mixed-modal outcome that encompassed live performance, a movement treatise and a written thesis.

But what makes it doctoral? Taking on the traditionalists : interdisciplinary, practice-led doctoral research in the creative industries - a case study in academic politics, research, rigour and relevance

This paper examines a Doctoral journey of interdisciplinary exploration, explication, examination...and exasperation. In choosing to pursue a practice-led doctorate I had determined from the outset that ‘writing 100,000 words that only two people ever read’, was not something which interested me. Hence, the oft-asked question of ‘what kind of doctorate’ I was engaged in, consistently elicited the response, “a useful one”. In order to satisfy my own imperatives of authenticity and usefulness, my doctoral research had to clearly demonstrate relevance to; productively inform; engage with; and add value to: wider professional field(s) of practice; students in the university courses I teach; and the broader community - not just the academic community. Consequently, over the course of my research, the question, ‘But what makes it Doctoral?’ consistently resounded and resonated. Answering that question, to satisfy not only the traditionalists asking it but, perhaps surprisingly, some academic innovators - and more particularly, myself as researcher - revealed academic/political inconsistencies and issues which challenged both the fundamental assumptions and actuality of practice-led research. This paper examines some of those inconsistencies, issues and challenges and provides at least one possible answer to the question: ‘But what makes it Doctoral?’

Heathcote’s practice-led teaching: Pioneering research as well as pioneering pedagogy

It is widely recognized that Dorothy Heathcote was a dynamic and radical teacher who transformed and continually reinvented drama teaching. She did this by allowing her emerging thinking and understandings to flow from, and be tested by, regular and intensive ‘practicing’ in the classroom. In this way theoretical claims were grounded and evidenced in authentic classroom practice. And yet, for all her impact, it is rare to hear the claim that Heathcote’s pedagogic breakthroughs resulted from a legitimate research methodology. Clever and charismatic teaching yes; research no. One of the world’s best teachers certainly, but not a researcher; even though every lesson was experimental and every classroom was a site for discovery. This paper investigates that conundrum firstly by acknowledging that Heathcote’s practice-led teaching approach to discovery did not map comfortably on to the established educational research traditions of the day. It argues that traditional research methodologies, with their well-established protocols and methods, could not understand or embrace a research process which does its work by creating ‘fictional realities’ of openness, allegory and uncertainty. In recent years however it can be seen that Heathcote’s practice led-teaching, so essential for advancing the field, closely aligns with what many contemporary researchers are now calling practice-led research or practice as research or, in many Nordic countries, artistic research. A form of performative research, practice-led research has not emerged from the field of education but rather from the creative arts. Seeking to develop ways of researching creative practice which is deeply sympathetic and respectful of that practice, artist-researchers have developed practice-led research “which is initiated in practice, where questions, problems, challenges are identified and formed by the needs of practice and practitioners” (Grey, 1996). This sits comfortably with Heathcote’s classroom priority of “discovering by trial, error and testing; using available materials with respect for their nature, and being guided by this appreciation of their potential” (Heathcote, 1967). The paper will conclude by testing the dynamics of Heathcote’s practice-led teaching against the six conditions of practice-led research (Haseman&Mafe, 2011), a testing which will allow for a re-interpretation and re-housing of Dorothy Heathcote’s classroom-based teaching methodology as a form of performative research in its own right.

Integrating Creative Practice and Research in the Digital Media Arts

Research is often characterised as the search for new ideas and understanding. The language of this view privileges the cognitive and intellectual aspects of discovery. However, in the research process theoretical claims are usually evaluated in practice and, indeed, the observations and experiences of practical circumstances often lead to new research questions. This feedback loop between speculation and experimentation is fundamental to research in many disciplines, and is also appropriate for research in the creative arts. In this chapter we will examine how our creative desire for artistic expressivity results in interplay between actions and ideas that direct the development of techniques and approaches for our audio/visual live-coding activities.

Content, structure and orientations of the practice-led exegesis

The emergent field of practice-led research is a unique research paradigm that situates creative practice as both a driver and outcome of the research process. The exegesis that accompanies the creative practice in higher research degrees remains open to experimentation and discussion around what content should be included, how it should be structured, and its orientations. This paper contributes to this discussion by reporting on a content analysis of a large, local sample of exegeses. We have observed a broad pattern in contents and structure within this sample. Besides the introduction and conclusion, it has three main parts: situating concepts (conceptual definitions and theories), practical contexts (precedents in related practices), and new creations (the creative process, the artifacts produced and their value as research). This model appears to combine earlier approaches to the exegesis, which oscillated between academic objectivity in providing a context for the practice and personal reflection or commentary upon the creative practice. We argue that this hybrid or connective model assumes both orientations and so allows the researcher to effectively frame the practice as a research contribution to a wider field while doing justice to its invested poetics.