INTRODUCTION
In the present day, Higher Music Education (HME) is in a process of renewal and revision, aiming to develop “an inclusive and diverse curriculum, embedding employability skills and utilizing digital technologies in teaching and learning” (Minors et al., 2017, p. 458). This exposition seeks to explore in what ways teaching which draws on artistic research practices may contribute to such issues and challenges. More specifically, our argument builds on an understanding of artistic research in music as a set of laboratory practices, aimed at creating learning situations in which artistic experimentation plays a central role. We are interested in what ways artistic research has become a vehicle for renewal in Higher Education in the Arts, and we believe that its potential initially lies in the learning processes launched in the research practice of the individual researcher. As expressed in an interview with Chan Ming-Long Sunny, a teacher at the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts:
In my usual practice as an artist, I clearly would observe, think, draw conclusions and make new attempts. However, the whole process merely occurred within myself. I could not share it with other people … It helped me turn my observations and experimentations into something concrete, something that I can share with my students. Moreover, PaR helped me find clear traces of ideas. In the past, those ideas only stayed in my mind. I remembered them, but they could not be seen. However, if I try to document everything and [carry out] dialogues with others, those ideas become something visible … Not only does it benefit my teaching, but also my creative practice as an artist. (Murphy, 2022, p. 134)
Our argument in this exposition is that artistic research (and Practice as Research (PaR), as Chan Ming-Long Sunny refers to in the interview cited above) provides a platform for such learning through the creation of laboratory situations.
In the central section of this exposition, three of the authors share examples from artistic laboratories they created and how such practices have been shared with their students in HME. Ann Elkjär (Lab 1) presents a cooperative approach with the students of her flute studio, linked to her ongoing experimentation with metaphors in musical context. The laboratory was of playful design, through which all participants—including Elkjär herself—could expand their artistic thinking. In Lab 2, Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir shares how her artistic research into agency became a catalyst for curriculum revision within the degree project preparation seminars. Furthermore, she demonstrates how artistic research method development, linked to stimulated recall and presentation formats that extend beyond the written format, affords students altered phenomenological insights and alternative modes of expression in their own practice-based investigations. Markus Tullberg's case (Lab 3) addresses the lack of attention to practice methods. Drawing from prior experiences, he developed a project that transforms the practice room into a laboratory space. In this setting, students design self-studies to explore aspects of their own practice they wish to change, develop, or investigate—demonstrating how artistic thinking and student-centred pedagogy can go hand in hand.
