Call for Contributions:

Artistic Research in Practice

We are calling for contributions to an edited book exploring the impacts of artistic research and practice-based research PhDs upon creative practice. This book will be edited by Brad Haylock, Jessica Wilkinson, and Charles Anderson of RMIT University, and published by Valiz.

A research turn

In the last three decades, creative practice disciplines, such as art, design, architecture, creative writing, fashion, and others, have undergone a ‘research turn’ through their integration into the academy. The rise of artistic research or practice-based research is subtly transforming these disciplines. The integration of research into practice, however, has not always been smooth, and the transformations not unequivocally positive.

There are many reasons why an individual practitioner might decide to undertake a PhD: a desire to uplift one’s practice, to contribute to the intellectual climate of one’s discipline, to teach, to pursue an academic career, or some combination of these, or other reasons besides. Upon graduating, and beyond, the value of the PhD experience may have shifted significantly from these initial desires, intentions, and expectations. What are the impacts, urgency, and significance of the PhD for creative practitioners? How are these understood, captured, communicated?

Of course, one might even ask: should creative practitioners undertake a PhD in the first place? We tackle this question in an open way, to acknowledge, equally, the advantages and disadvantages of the creep of the PhD into practice.

Across disciplines

Whereas most discourse on practice research is siloed by discipline, this book will offer a cross-disciplinary view by capturing a range of reflections by creative practitioners on the value that has emerged, for them, from their PhD research. We focus on the impact of the PhD for practitioners who are not principally academics and seek to draw out patterns and important differences across diverse fields of creative practice.

We are calling for contributions from practitioners who have undertaken a PhD from across a variety of creative disciplines including art, design, architecture, writing, music, performance, fashion, and beyond. We welcome contributions from practitioners who undertook a practice-based or artistic research PhD as well as from creative practitioners who undertook a ‘traditional’ thesis-mode PhD.

Audience

This book will be of value to creative practitioners currently undertaking a PhD and those who are considering it, to supervisors of practice research, and to graduate research leaders and educational policymakers who are concerned with the ways in which ecologies of and infrastructures for practice research training might be designed, implemented, and sustained, and why.

As a starting point for your thinking, we offer a number of prompts, as follows. (We don’t expect all contributions to tackle all of these questions.)

On the background for your undertaking a PhD: Why did you choose to enrol in a PhD? What were your initial motivations? When in your practice career did you undertake the PhD?

On the model of PhD you undertook: What was the model of PhD? What were the institutional expectations and/or guidelines for how the examinable submission was to be presented, and how did these affect the work you did? Are there aspects of the model that worked for you? What could have been better? What would you have changed? Are there things that didn’t work? If so, what were your workarounds?

On the impact of the PhD on your practice: What do you do differently in your practice now, or what can you do now that you couldn’t do beforehand? Are there projects you do now that you wouldn’t have done before the PhD? Or vice versa? Has your community of practice changed? Do you now speak about your practice differently? Or position it differently?

On the word ‘research’ in your practice: How do you describe ‘research’ concisely in your own way? And is this description now different from how you perceived it before starting your PhD? Did you identify ‘research’ as one of your capabilities before the PhD? Do you do so now? If you did beforehand, how has your understanding of research changed? How does ‘research’ now play out in your everyday practice?

Abstracts

Proposed chapter/contribution title.
Contribution type [single-authored chapter, multi-authored chapter, interview, conversation, etc.].
250–500w abstract.
An indication of what images, if any, your contribution might include.
Contributor bio of 100–150 words (given the nature of this book, please expressly mention in your bio where and when you undertook your PhD).
Please email submissions or questions to:
submissions@research-in-practice.com

Final contributions

2,000–3,000 words in length.
Contributions may be single-authored reflective texts, or may be interviews, conversations, or group discussions.
Contributions may be illustrated, including documentation of process documents, diagrams, before/after comparisons, and so on.
Upon selection for publication, you will grant us permission to use your text and any images under the Creative Commons 4.0 license CC-BY-NC-ND.

Timeline

Deadline for abstracts of 250–500 words: 1 February 2024
Authors notified: 1 March 2024
Deadline for full contributions (2,000–3,000 words): 1 June 2024
Editing: June–July 2024
Anticipated publication date: December 2024

Fees

Abstracts selected to proceed to full draft stage will receive a flat fee of €100.00.
Published contributions will receive an additional flat fee of €150.00.