Mirror, mirror: towards ‘something like’ a value system for art research by way of critique and dialogic art

ABSTRACT

This speculative paper stems from an anxiety that will be familiar to many working in art research: The values of Research are thwarting the field's development because the former are ill suited to support the latter on the latter's own terms. Research with an uppercase ‘R’ is used here to designate the vague but powerful sense of what this entails as it permeates the cultures of art research. The following reflections spring from my sense that engaging Research as a theory to be interpreted through the practice of art research could more effectively correlate the theory and practice of this field. To explore this I begin by canvassing relevant literature for reference to three cherished values of Research: knowledge, originality and collaboration. Observing ways they trouble art research, I go on to speculate that Stephen Scrivener's account of art's practical value as negation may help with identifying alternative values that are more indigenous to art. I consider this possibility with reference to my practice-based Ph.D. on dialogic art before concluding this speculative paper with the conviction that both auto-critique and institutional critique hold tremendous potential for art research as this field seeks to self-realise on its own terms.

KEYWORDS:

• Values
• research
• art research
• dialogic art
• negation
• theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Marsha Bradfield is an artist, curator, writer, educator and researcher. She is currently a visiting scholar at Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London and also co-directs Pangaea Sculptors’ Centre. For the last decade, Marsha has worked almost exclusively in collaboration, exploring cultural production through coauthored projects. This research-based approach often results in experiences that Marsha later re-presents in publications and performative lectures. Her accounts combine the rhetorical styles of fact and fiction as she works with sites, objects, images, structures and processes. Marsha's current body of work explores the intersection of economies and ecologies in co-production and has developed through practicing with Precarious Workers Brigade, Critical Practice Research Cluster and many more people besides.

Notes

1. STEM is an acronym used in the UK to designate science, technology, engineering and maths, subjects recognised as making a major contribution to the nation's prosperity and hence are being prioritised. See Department of Business Innovation and Skills, ‘Policy paper 2010–2015 government policy: public understanding of science and engineering,’ May 8, 2015. www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-policy-public-understanding-of-science-and-engineering/2010-to-2015-government-policy-public-understanding-of-science-and-engineering.

2. For further discussion on these cultures, see Elkins (2016).

3. This definition is based on the one offered in the Oxford Dictionaries, www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/theory.

4. See Christopher Frayling's important discussion distinguishing research into/through/for art and design for the particular goals of each mode (1993/1994).

5. The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education recently published an updated version of this document; however, the vagaries of originality here remain broadly the same as the earlier one. See The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2011, 2015).

6. Stephen Scrivener supervised my Ph.D. at Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London 2006–2012. Like so many who went through this doctoral programme, I was hugely influenced by Scrivener's thinking, especially around the theory and practice of art research.

7. See, for instance, Bruno Latour (2005).

8. See, for instance, Graham Harman (2002).

9. Consider the example of the collaborative Ph.D., ‘Pedagogical strategies in contemporary art’ undertaken by Marianne Guarino-Huet and Olivier Desvoignes and supervised by Neil Cummings and David Cross at Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts London. Although a joint initiative, the candidates are each required to produce the written aspect of the thesis individually.

10. The type of unconference featured in the Ph.D. is a barcamp. This format developed in the early stages of the Internet as an informal and discussion-based approach to problem-solving programming issues. Programmers would meet in person, to address a particular issue by way of short presentations followed by lengthy discussion. Art-based groups like Critical Practice Research Cluster have adopted and adapted this format in the service of socially engaged art. Visit www.criticalpractice.org for more information.

11. See my paper, ‘Future resource: Ph.D. student collaboration,’ co-authored with Katrine Hjelde in this edition of Journal of Visual Art Practice for more discussion on Future Reflections Research Group.

12. Critical Practice is a cluster of artists, designers, curators, researchers and others based at Chelsea College of Arts. Visit www.criticalpracticechelsea.org for information.

13. Precarious Workers Brigade is a UK-based group of precarious workers in culture and education who call out in solidarity with all those struggling to make a living in this climate of instability and enforced austerity. Visit www.precariousworkersbrigade.tumblr.com for more information.

14. The original reference to novelistic fiction is as follows, ‘Rather we are advocating “fiction” in its complex sense, as “literal lie for abstract truth”. Or: “true lies minus facts”. This is “fiction” in a novelistic sense, but fiction that is more than novels.’ Mary Anne Francis (2009, 155).