What does it meme? The exegesis as valorisation and validation of creative arts research

This paper will draw on Richard Dawkin's idea of the 'meme' to discuss how the creative arts exegesis can operate as valorisation and validation of creative arts research. According to Dawkins, the rate and fecundity of replication permits an artefact to achieve recognition and stability as a meme within a culture. The value and application of traditional forms of research is underpinned by a secondary order of production, publication, that establishes visibility of the work and articulates its empirical processes and findings as sources of social benefit and cultural enhancement.

In the arts, conventional modes of valorisation such as the gallery system, reviews and criticism focus on the artistic product and hence, lack sustained engagement with the creative processes as models of research. Such engagement is necessary to articulate and validate studio practices as modes of enquiry.

A crucial question to initiate this engagement is: 'What did the studio process reveal that could not have been revealed by any other mode of enquiry?'

Re-versioning of the studio process and its significant moments through the exegesis locates the work within the broader field of practice and theory. It is also part of the replication process that establishes the creative arts as a stable research discipline, able to withstand peer and wider assessment. The exegesis is a primary means of realising creative arts research as 'meme'.

What does it meme? The Exegesis as valorization of creative arts research

This paper will draw on Richard Dawkin's idea of the 'meme' to discuss how the creative arts exegesis can operate as valorisation and validation of creative arts research. According to Dawkins, the rate and fecundity of replication permits an artefact to achieve recognition and stability as a meme within a culture. The value and application of traditional forms of research is underpinned by a secondary order of production, publication, that establishes visibility of the work and articulates its empirical processes and findings as sources of social benefit and cultural enhancement.

In the arts, conventional modes of valorisation such as the gallery system, reviews and criticism focus on the artistic product and hence, lack sustained engagement with the creative processes as models of research. Such engagement is necessary to articulate and validate studio practices as modes of enquiry.

A crucial question to initiate this engagement is: 'What did the studio process reveal that could not have been revealed by any other mode of enquiry?'

Re-versioning of the studio process and its significant moments through the exegesis locates the work within the broader field of practice and theory. It is also part of the replication process that establishes the creative arts as a stable research discipline, able to withstand peer and wider assessment. The exegesis is a primary means of realising creative arts research as 'meme'.

A creative twist: management theory, creativity and the arts

For many theorists and practitioners in the area of organizational theory, HRM, marketing and other domains of organization studies, organizational creativity is something to be distilled and managed as an element of organizational performance. The article argues, however, that this process of appropriation from the creative arts is subject to a number of problematic transitions. The article's starting point is the notion of creativity itself. Within the creative arts, the question of what constitutes creativity and its relationship to artistic practice is subject to considerable debate. This debate centers on the question of whether creativity represents an essentialist and inexplicable (even spiritual) component of artistic practice or whether creativity is a trait of work and cannot be attributed as a unique aspect of art. The mantra of creativity provides nothing more than a means to control individuals and provide them with a false hope that contributing to the success of business will provide a means to self fulfillment.

Inspiring connections: The student experience of an online creative arts journal

This study investigates the learning potential of students' experiences working as editors and publishers for a university's creative arts e-journal. The study is based on a project which aimed to strengthen creative arts students' graduate attributes and employability skills associated with interpersonal and written communication skills, specifically editing and e-publication. The participants were surveyed prior to and after e-publication of each issue of the journal over a two year period. The study focuses on students' and teachers' perceptions of participating in a non-graded, discipline-based work-integrated learning (WIL) activity. The data were analysed in order to explore students' and teachers' attitudes and responses to the challenges with participating in an e-publication process. The findings indicated that students chose to participate in the activity to address certain employability skills as well as desiring an authentic work-based challenge that enhanced the university experience. The results revealed that students require more guidance and informal set lesson plans. The teachers' responses indicated that the most important teaching methods were: (i) provide authentic communication to students and (ii) illustrate relevant industry experience. Recommendations are made for the careful implementation and integration of the online creative arts WIL project into the University's curriculum in order to: (i) connect WIL pedagogy, courses, policies and objectives in higher education, (ii) provide career and self development for WIL teaching and learning practices, and (iii) continually redevelop and evaluate the WIL activity in order to pursue accreditation.

Linking and sharing data in the humanities and creative arts: building the HuNI Virtual Laboratory

The Humanities Networked Infrastructure (HuNI) is one of the national Virtual Laboratories that are being developed as part of the Australian government's National e-Research Collaboration Tools and Resources (NeCTAR) programme. This paper examines the methodologies and technical architecture being deployed by HuNI to link and share Australian data in the humanities and creative arts.

Aggregating data for social linking in the humanities and creative arts : the "Humanities Networked Infrastructure (HuNI)"

This paper reports on the development of the Humanities Networked Infrastructure (HuNI), a service which aggregates data from thirty Australian data sources and makes them available for use by researchers across the humanities and creative arts, and more widely by the general public. We discuss the methods used by HuNI to aggregate data, as well as the conceptual framework which has shaped the design of HuNI’s Data Model around six core entity types. Two of the key functions available to users of HuNI – building collections and creating links – are discussed, together with their design rationale.

Creative arts practice, creative industries : method and process as cultural capital

The value of artistic research is related not only to the products of creative arts practices, but also to methodological, material and social processes through which they operate.

This paper argues that although creative arts research methods – the use of personally situated, interdisciplinary and emergent approaches – contradict what is usually expected of research, such approaches underpin the innovative capacity of studio enquiry and its implication for extending practice-led research pedagogy across all research disciplines.

The new arts leader: the Australia Council and cultural policy change

One consequence of the development of cultural policy has been a demand for more creative leadership in arts organisations. This article provides a case study of how leadership of the Australia Council changed from the 1970s to the beginning of the 21st century. It argues that changes to the way in which Australia Council chairs approached their role was shaped by, and contributed to, the trend towards constructing the arts as an industry. Part of this change sees the Australia Council subjected to aspects of reform, which were widely endorsed by the Australian public sector. The article identifies three styles of leadership exhibited by the chairs over the period: visionary, statesman and reformer, in three phases of the Council's history. It examines the political and social imperatives shaping these leadership styles.

Creative arts research : a pedagogical perspective

This paper emerges from current work related to a number of research projects across several creative arts disciplines. It poses the following questions: What implication does creative arts research have for extending our understandings of the role of experiential, problem-based learning and multiple intelligences in the production of knowledge? How can the application of such understandings influence policy and enhance opportunities for support of creative arts research in the university and the broader arena? In a previous paper examining the function of the exegesis (Barrett, 2004), I referred to the suggestion made by Lauchlan Chipman that: in a knowledge economy, it is necessary for a large number of people to comprehend the creative output of others in order for such output to be sufficiently taken up for the enhancement of society. This paper is an extension of the previous one in its attempt to promote wider understanding of the value of creative arts research. I will focus on the dialogic relationship between the exegesis and studio practice in painting, creative writing, performance and dance, in order to demonstrate that creative arts enquiry can promote a more profound understanding of how knowledge is revealed, acquired and expressed. Four successful research projects will be examined as 'case studies' to show how creative arts research methodologies may be applied in the development of more critical and innovative pedagogies and to argue that the role of creative arts research is still to be fully realized and acknowledged in the knowledge economy.

Valuing arts & culture in the community

Despite the hype surrounding the mobilisation of the creative arts as a vehicle for social and physical regeneration, there are few systematic assessments of the success or otherwise of this agenda. This paper will present a framework for assessing the social, economic and cultural sustainability of a changing arts agenda in the regional city of Geelong, Australia. It will draw on general principles and local revaluations of the arts to present a historical account of why and how the value of the arts in this one community changed over time to produce a sustainable outcome.