"In the work on developing the Norwegian Artistic Research Fellowship Programme in 1999–2000, the following statements from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London had considerable influence, because they so clearly describe art as a subject area that communicates in a peer context:"
- Art and design practices are intellectual pursuits in their own right not requiring translation to other terms in order to have sense and coherence
- Art and design works embody ‘meaning’ through their interior symbolic languages and syntax (formal organisation)
- Art and design works embody ‘meaning’ through their discursive relationship to other works in their field and their corresponding cultural positions
- Art and design works can be read by those trained in the subject in the same way that, for example, mathematicians read mathematics or philosophers read philosophy
Another influential voice has been Henk Borgdorff, Professor emeritus of Theory of Research in the Arts at the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University:
(Excerpt from the report, p. 6-7):
"In 2006, Henk Borgdorff described three different terms linked to research and art:
- research on the arts (…investigations aimed at drawing valid conclusions about art practice from theoretical distance…)
- research for the arts (…applied research in a narrow sense…)
- research in the arts (…the artistic practice itself is an essential component of both the research process and the research results…)
Artistic research in Norway takes the artist’s special experience and reflection as its point of departure, and, as such, is in line with the category research in the arts. A high artistic standard is a key requirement for artistic research in Norway. (...).
Artists develop work methods that prove to lead to an artistic result. The methods employed can be individual or specific to each artistic field, such as composition, design or dance. The field of art is experimental in nature, and critically testing, challenging and overturning methods are integral parts of its culture. Questions about and reflection on method are fundamentally interwoven with the artistic work itself. The reflection that is part of artistic practice, on content, process and methods, has a central place in artistic research".
"Borgdorff (2010) has also described how artistic methods and processes produce artistic research, and how this is a crucial quality of this type of research:
We can justifiably speak of artistic research (‘research in the arts’) when that artistic practice is not only the result of the research, but also its methodological vehicle, when the research unfolds in and through the acts of creating and performing. This is a distinguishing feature of this research type within the whole of academic research".
READ:
Borgdorff, H. (2012): The conflict of the faculties. On theory, practice and research in professional arts academies. Chapter 1 in: The Conflict of the Faculties. Perspectives on Artistic Research and Academia. Leiden University Press. p. 16-26.
2003-2018: One national fellowship programme
Until 2018 there was only one research fellowship programme in Norway; the Norwegian Artistic Research Fellowship Programme, and fellows from all disciplines and institutions did relate to the same set of guidelines. These guidelines stated that the final project had to include bort an artistic work and a reflection, but that the fellows had the freedom to choose the format of both - there was no requirement for a written part (excerpt from the guidelines, Section 10, The project, p. 9):
The project should contribute to developing new insight, knowledge and/or experience. The project should be an independent body of work of a high standard with respect to originality, expression, coherence and communication of results. The project shall be of national and international relevance to the subject area. (...). Reflection is part of the artistic work. (...). It is up to the research fellows themselves to select the medium and form in which to submit material that communicates the reflection aspect of the work and any other documentation.
`The Norwegian model´ has been quite inter-disciplinary, with a joint professional training component for the fellows (from 2018 replaced with the Norwegian Artistic Research School). The Artistic Research Forums was also early established as a national meeting place. In 2011 the Project programme was established to support artistic research projects led by Professors or Associate Professors, and several of the projects supported by the program have involved research groups from a diversity of institutions and subject fields.
Research fellow Solmund Nystadbakk share his project at Artistic Research Forum, Klækken 2019. Nystadbakk had his Viva Voce in 2020. Read more about "Singing with the lute" and see his reflection.
2018: The first Ph.D. program is established
From 2018 the national research fellowship programme is phasing out and is to be replaced by institutional Ph.D. programmes. The Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH) in Oslo was the first to establish a Ph.D. program in Artistic Research in 2018, soon followed by the University of Bergen (UiB), the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO), and NTNU in Trondheim. From 2018 fellows from the different institutions are part of separate Ph.D. programs, and must also relate to slightly different regulations. As of today, we have four artistic research Ph.D. programs in Norway, but more are expected to come: A new Ph.D. program in artistic research is being established during the fall semester of 2021 as a joint degree between The Faculty of performing arts at The University of Stavanger and The Faculty of arts at The University of Agder. In addition, The Norwegian Artistic Research Fellowship programme will continue to exist until the last fellows attached to the program have graduated.
The Ph.D regulations
While the regulations from NMH and UIB are quite similar, and also to a large degree relate to the former guidelines for the national fellowship program, there are a few quite important differences between these regulations and the regulations for KHiO and NTNU. For example, at KHiO the relationship between the artistic result and the reflection is described like this (Regulations, KHiO (§ 11-1)):
Artistic practice is at the core of the artistic doctoral result. At the same time, the artistic practice is to be accompanied by an explicit reflection, which, when the project is presented, grants others access into the working methods and insights that emerge from the artistic research.
NMH has a more detailed description of what the reflection must contain (Regulations, NMH (11-1)):
The artistic reflection shall be documented in the form of submitted material, especially in relation to processes concerning artistic choices and turning points, the use of theory and methodology, dialogue with various networks and professional communities etc.
NTNU is the only institution where the candidate must give a trial lecture before the public defense, and the only institution with a regulation that covers both artistic and scientific research.
In the institution's Ph.D. regulations, the criteria for awarding the artistic doctorate are described. These regulations will inform the assessment committees work, and it is extremely important that both the fellow and the supervisor(s) are familiar with the institution´s regulation:
- Regulations for the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
- Regulations for the University of Bergen (UiB)
- Regulations for the Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH)
- Regulations for the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO)
- Regulations for the Inland Norway University of Applied Science (INN)
- Regulations for University of Stavanger (UiS) and University of Agder (UiA) (joint degree)
LISTEN:
New developments in the European space of Artistic Research
Christo Doherty discusses new developments in the European space of Artistic Research with Professor Stefan Winter, Head of the Institute of Artistic Research at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF in Potsdam, Germany. A podcast from Arts Research Africa Dialogue, Wits School of Arts, South-Africa (recorded October, 2019).
LISTEN:
Journal of Artistic Research
Christo Doherty in conversation with Michael Schwab, the co-initiatior and inaugurial Editor-in-Chief of JAR, in a podcast from Arts Research Africa Dialogue, Wits School of Arts, South-Africa (recorded August, 2020).
READ:
Artistic Research as a decolonising strategy in Africa
In 2020, Witts University organized the ARA conference Artistic Research in Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa. In this reflection, the organization looks back and reflects on Artistic Research as a decolonising strategy in Africa.
The European Society for Artistic Research (SAR) was established in 2010. SAR describes itself as an organization that `promotes practices of artistic research as undertaken both in and outside academic institutions´ and ´encourage risk-taking, quality research´. SAR has influenced the development of artistic research in Europe, through several initiatives:
- SAR publishes the JAR - Journal for Artistic Research (JAR), which is an international, online, Open Access and peer-reviewed journal that disseminates artistic research from all disciplines. The journal was launched in 2011, and you can take a look at Issue 1 here.
- SAR runs the Research Catalogue (RC), a non-commercial, collaboration and publishing platform for artistic research. The RC is free to use for artists and researchers. It serves also as a backbone for teaching purposes, student assessment, peer review workflows and research funding administration. It strives to be an open space for experimentation and exchange
- SAR hosts the annual International Conference on Artistic Research.
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SAR Special Interest Groups – SIGs with the aim of conducting a particular activity, theme or focus area
VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research is a digital journal presenting artistic research, with a special emphasis on the Nordic region, launched in 2018. ´It highlights the importance for Nordic artist-researchers of reflection as a mental discipline that, when interwoven with artistic practice, generates new knowledge´. The journal is the result of a cooperation between Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH) and the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme (part of the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills). You can take a look at Issue 0 here.
Other influential journals is RUUKKU Studies in Artistic Research and PARSE Journal of Artistic Research. In addition, the different fields, like music and fine arts, will normally have their subject specific journals that influences the discourse about artistic research.
EARN (European Artistic Research Network) was formally established in 2006. The network was originally established through a series of meetings between 2004 and 2006, and for many years primarily based on the cooperation between a group of colleagues working across ten European art academies:
EARN (as described on the webpage) was established "to share and exchange knowledge and experience in artistic research; foster mobility, exchange and dialogue among artist researchers; promote wider dissemination of artistic research; and enable global connectivity and exchange for artistic research. (...) Throughout the 2010s the (...) key task of the group during this period was to advocate for forms of research and enquiry realised within and through artistic practices, and to provide various platforms to profile these. (...). However, since 2020 the agenda for EARN has evolved. There is now a new approach to cooperation and co-development of research through thematic working groups; a new emphasis on active research generation; and a process of expanding membership (beyond any provincial boundaries imagined as ‘Europe’)". (...).
Changing Terms of Artistic Research
The term ‘artistic research’* broadly describes research which entails actual practice within the arts. The network is not limited by a single model of artistic research but based on a pragmatic recognition that research which entails actual practice within the arts is a specific and dynamic space of cultural creativity. This allows of a range of models, interpretations and paradigms (practice-led research, practice-based research, art research, research in and through the arts, etc.) while establishing a shared core concern with research grounded in actual art practices.
These models are divergent and range from institutional constructions such as the AHRC’s – ‘Research in which the professional and/or creative practices of art… play an instrumental part in an inquiry’ – to internalist constructions that see art practice as not only then means, but the as the primary object of enquiry such as Hannula et al’s description – ‘Artistic research means that the artist produces an art work and researches the creative process, thus adding to the accumulation of knowledge.’ (Hannula et al, 2005. p. 5.)
In 2021, the Postresearch Condition conference considered the need to renew the terms of engagement after a “research decade” which saw some versions of artistic research becoming mainstreamed. The conference website announced that:
it is important to start from the three conceptual spaces that fundamentally determine what we mean by research: creative practice (experimentality, art making, potential of the sensible); artistic thinking (open-ended, speculative, associative, non-linear, haunting, thinking differently); and curatorial strategies (topical modes of political imagination, transformational spaces for encounters, reflection and dissemination) – and to comprehend these spaces in their mutual, dynamic coherence as a series of indirect triangular relationships.
The network seeks to explore these different conceptions and modalities of artistic research and to enable exchange and critical dialogue across these different paradigms. It does this in order to enhance the international research environment and to support researchers in the development of creative work.
Four Traditions of Practice-led Research
Excerpt from Butt, Daniel. 2017, Artistic Research in the Future Academy, chapter, 3, p. 75-76):
The recent story of institutional developments in the UK-derived university systems is well documented, and as Rust et al. note in their review of practice-led research in the creative arts: “our impression through the various aspects of this work, supported by anecdotes encountered in past debates, indicates that the main focus of practice-led research is to be found in Northern Europe (particularly the United Kingdom and Scandinavia) and Australia.”21 This can be traced to the widespread restructuring of higher education in the 1970s and 1980s in the United Kingdom that led to the development of new degree-level programmes in the creative sector, and the integration of independent art schools or polytechnic programmes into the university sector in the British Commonwealth.22
Despite the United States being the home of the doctorate in fine arts debate in the midtwentieth century, the institutional setting of the United Kingdom is a primary driver of the creative practice Ph.D. from the 1990s. Jones traces three generations of “practice-based” Ph.D.’s in the United Kingdom:
1. “Early ‘practice-based’ Ph.D.s, such as those at the University of Wolverhampton and elsewhere gave students some dispensation in the word length of the written thesis that had to accompany the work.” These theses sometimes entailed twice as much work as a standard Ph.D. (with two resolved bodies of work to be assessed).
2. “The second generation of ‘practice-based’ Ph.D.s, such as those initiated at the Wimbledon School of Art, did not prescribe a word count as such and envisioned a sliding scale of portfolio and text, whilst retaining a requirement for the written element.” While this was a laudable attempt to reduce the duplication of effort, it had the unintended downside of presuming an equivalence between text and practice without addressing their very different functions.
3. A third generation emerged at the Glasgow School of Art, where a distinction was made between “the material submitted for examination and the documentation of it for the purposes of future reference to the research content.” For Jones this is where the practice-based Ph.D. becomes equivalent to any other Ph.D., except for the manner in which outcomes are presented.23
READ:
Butt, Daniel, 2017. Artistic Research in the future Academy, Chapter 3, Artistic Research: Defining the field, from Intellect Books, Briston, UK (also available as a pdf below).
