dear crumb
what joasia raises for me is the deep fear of measurement !
and triggering an attempt at getting some thoughts down following a
3 year practice based research residency at dundee university - which
mixed production, curation and organisation
their seems to be a fixation with empirical evidence and (mostly half
baked) rhetoric of research methodologies within Universities
(desperate for the kind of collaboration that benefits them)
- is formal research the adoption of language sets (from science?)
devised for providing evidence, to who ?
the realities of those actually involved in research seems to be that
half their time is spent researching research funding and that the
other half of the time is spent devising forms of evaluation and
separating processes out - the practice - be it curation or artistic
production potentially becomes something one never gets around to or
alternatively becomes a process reliant on fairly conventional forms
of hierachial employment and artsts/curators potentially become
managers
of course research income is essential to universities in meeting
their funding shortfalls-this seems to be the same across the country
(and beyond these shores), leading me to believe that most research
funding is actually commercial in the current post thatcher economic
environment pervasive in the public services and education
dundee university makes a packet out of bio-medical research, but
departments with less commercial products are under similar pressures
to make a return through research within a competitive market driven
environment
arts research funding has enabled some great projects to exist -
however the financial value of those projects is relatively tiny and
it is only the sympathetic deans and presidents within institutions
that can both see the value and benefits of what are mostly soft
outputs
equally the drift to alternative forms of methodology and evaluation
for the arts and culture (or is new media - technology ? - sorry!)
seems slow and where processes of self evaluation appear to put
control back in the hands of the pracitioner - this can be a double
edged sword in terms of workload and emphasis
progressing your practice from past experiences surely is evaluation
in practice?!
lets acknowledge different types of knowledge - not cave into to the
demands of pseudo commercial or empirical/scientific cultures, whilst
of course recognising that the 'market' has always been a great place
to trade - be it vegetables, art or knowledge
it maybe that a more reflective, less 'doing' oriented society is
emerging and research culture maybe part of the process - a new
renaissance ? - however world events of late and the hard edge of
global commercial operations in relation to them, make me feel more
resistant and less trusting in the authorities defining 'education
outcomes'
is this all wrapped up with the (british) art profession being so
mixed up with strategies for inclusion, education and therapy? how
does art exist (funded?) outside of these governmental remits?..
the what why, who for, where and when have become translated into
aims objectives methodologies, management and evaluation strategies
thanks for stimulating me into starting to unravel recent experiences
(or is this self evaluation of the non-validated type ?) and i am
curious to hear why your experiences at i-DAT would make a good case
study Joasia
best mike
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