Exegesis as manifesto

Abstract

ABSTRACT There is an increasing need for creative practitioners in higher education to justify their creative works as measurable research outputs. The impact, worth, relevance and contribution to new knowledge of such works is evaluated by tools such as the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the U.K., or the Excellence in Research Australia (ERA), and each creative work, or Non-Traditional Research Output (NTRO) is to be accompanied by a REF or ERA research statement in order to be counted as research. Similarly, any creative work (or artefact) presented for a Higher Degree in the U.K. and Australia, New Zealand and Canada needs an accompanying exegesis or critical component, a contextual declaration that justifies and grounds the work in a theoretical, historical context of artistic practice. These ERA/REF statements, and especially the exegetical component, can be seen as a form of manifesto, a declaration of the artist's intention and outcome. Equating the exegesis (or REF/ERA statement) as manifesto frees the creative practitioner from a prescriptive, mechanistic account of the work's impact and towards a more performative declaration of artistic endeavour. The exegesis as manifesto allows the artist in the academy to declare themselves, create presence and subvert traditional discourse binaries of academic/creative.