Beyond Equivalency: Repositioning Artistic Research Within Higher Education

Abstract

This book set out to explore not only where and how artistic research has been positioned within the Australian university sector but also the reasons why it may be so positioned. It actively looked for factors that may have influenced the relationship between artistic researchers and their universities: the historical underpinnings of the relationship and its continuing influence and the drivers that shape the perceptions of university staff and leadership as they devise and implement the management systems, which inform artistic researchers’ responses to the university model. It captures how different personal viewpoints of the relationship between art and research can unconsciously affect how systems operate and how individual institutional responses shape this relationship. The findings show that artistic researchers experience their research as poorly positioned within many aspects of the university research management framework, an observation that is given at least prima facie credence by independent data. The examples presented suggest strategies and actions that are needed if artistic research is to avoid negative outcomes. This chapter summarises the current climate for artistic research in Australia and considers ways that it may be better positioned within the higher education sector to deliver advantages for researchers, institutions and government.