NiTRO Creative Matters

Perspectives on creative arts in higher education

Showcasing + Reporting Creative Practice Research Outputs

Edited by Smiljana Glisovic

The work showcased here is impressive! With this edition, apart from an attempt to do particular work around processes, it’s also just such a pleasure to get a sense of the range of work being made within the research context.

Ellie Coleman Flights of Passage 2022 Stainless steel, wire, taxidermy Dimensions variable (detail)
Ellie Coleman Flights of Passage 2022 Stainless steel, wire, taxidermy Dimensions variable (detail)

With this edition we are continuing the conversation around research reporting and assessment of creative practice research outputs. The first thing to say is that the focus on measurement, accounting, and evaluating is not the only conversation to be having, and that in order to get that part ‘right’ what we need is to seriously engage with the philosophical underpinnings that guide the pragmatics around doing creative practice research in the academy.

For example, are the categories of ‘traditional’ and ‘non-traditional’ still apt? Or are these categories built on certain assumptions that we ought to put into question? Is the best way forward to compare the emergence of new ways of doing research with pillars that were instituted in very different times, or should we be reassessing some of these understandings? And perhaps this is the impulse for the Australian Universities Accord and ARC Review. That Creative Practice Research came into the university relatively recently, allows it to be a good kind of ‘disruptor’ in relation to some much larger questions around ‘knowledge’ and ‘research’.

News

The DDCA in consultation with The Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP) a Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools (ACUADS) and Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association (ASPERA) and Interior Design/Interior Architecture Educators Association (IDEA) have made a submission to the Australian Universities Accord Interim Report 2023.

‘On Friday 30 January 2023 we welcomed the Australian Government’s National Cultural Policy – Revive; a place for every story, a story for every place. The centrepiece of Revive is the establishment of Creative Australia, an expanded and modernised Australia Council, a transformational step in the evolution of the organisation.’ Read more @ Creative

‘The “hub and spoke” research model proposed by Australia’s biggest universities ignores how mid-sized institutions have had a profound influence on advancing knowledge globally.; Read more @ The Financial Review… Read more @ Swinburne…

‘”Implementation of these recommendations will improve the governance of the ARC, strengthen the integrity of decision-making processes and minimise political interference, which has impacted the capacity of our universities to attract and retain world leading researchers” said Group of Eight Chief Executive Vicki Thomson.’ Read more @ Mirage News… Read

Canberra also confirms plans to overhaul research assessment exercise and ‘take the politics out’ of grant decisions. Read more @ Times Higher Education…

‘Using design-led methods, each Design Research Studio will provide a site for collaborators from different disciplines to speculate on and develop possible futures for real-world challenges. The first three Studios are focused on transforming fashion systems, led by Professor Alice Payne, RMIT Dean of Fashion & Textiles; regenerative design practice