Auditing Research in the Arts

Abstract

So which is it? Is research a mistake for art or is art a mistake for research? These two questions complement each other. They both encourage the view of a compromise or limitation in the maintenance of art as we know it or research as we know it. The former position, that ‘research is a mistake for art’ is most usually expressed from within the art and design sector. The latter position, that ‘art is a mistake for research’ from outside the art and design sector. Neither of these positions accepts the idea of research as part of a national or global apparatus of art and design, in other words as a part of the totality of social, material, economic, discursive and institutional determinants of a practice. My talk will examine whether government audits of practice led research, in which research in the art and design sector is examined in tandem with research in other academic sectors, discloses or conceals the elements of that totality