By Professor Cat Hope
If we can look up and away from the ongoing challenges to both the arts and tertiary sectors, we may see some opportunity. Ways of doing things differently, working together in new ways, trying methods we may not have previously, looking at sustainability in different ways. As artist academics, we have a complex duty of care toward two sectors – arts and academia – sectors that will surely not be the same when the pandemic begins to fade.
Already, arts organisations are cancelling programs for the remainder of 2020, perhaps as a way of providing some kind of certainty, but also giving themselves the chance to redefine what they might be doing on the other side. Perhaps as we all learn to live with these unprecedented levels of uncertainty in our everyday lives, we have started to become cross disciplinary. Areas that may not normally be our radar are impacting our practices in various degrees: statistics, epidemiology, civic freedom, the health care system, our own dependencies, workplaces, the role of mainstream and social media, federal and state political structures, and of course, each other.
The way I see it, this is an enormous opportunity to do things differently, to reboot in a better way. How can we all work together more effectively, in new structures where learning from each other and working together are part of our core aim. We need to invest in methods that make better and more sustainable outcomes. Now is the time to chat to our colleagues in other disciplines, if not just to see that they are OK.
The review of the ANZSRC Fields of Research classifications[1], in which the DDCA made a submission, could be seen to have created a further siloing of fields, in the very act of making them more precise. Whilst risking the ability to meet threshold for some smaller disciplines, artist researchers can be clear about our research strength and quality, rather than try to “make them fit” into fields that often, were only tangentially relatable. Further, the clear articulation and ever more specific measurement of the value any research has to our communities is an ever-growing expectation of university and Australia Research Council Engagement and Impact (EI) assessment exercises[2].
Whilst many of us resist making a case for the value of the arts, and indeed have little expertise in doing so, we can get others to do it for us by way of association. This may come across as flippant, however having the arts work with other disciplines, alongside, within or indeed driving them, provides new ways to articulate our value in the world, when we know it is needed more than ever.
In this edition of NiTRO, our contributors share their experiences and viewpoints on this important topic.
Samuel McAuliffe (Monash) shares a PhD student’s perspective of interdisciplinarity and offers suggestions for improvement
Roger Dean (WSU) explains how understanding research method in all disciplinary collaborations is needed for authorial credibility and can offer new artistic avenues
Christopher M. Conroy (UTS), Craig Batty (UTS), Noel Maloney (La Trobe) and Carl Rhodes (UTS) show how creative writing can expose ethical leadership issues in a way that formal management reporting cannot
Kim Cunio and Denise Ferris (ANU) explore the importance of interdisciplinarity at one institution and the supportive steps being taken
Clive Barstow and Lyndall Adams (ECU) discuss the interdisciplinary learning that takes place working with industry in a public art project
Keely Macarow (RMIT) issues a call to artists for greater interdisciplinary collaboration
Ionat Zurr (UWA) and Oron Catts (UWA) outline the essential contribution of artists to mitigate the ideological risks posed by scientific approaches alone
Kit Wise and Dr Ruth de Souza (RMIT) share their discussion on Ruth’s fellowship appointment as a health researcher in the School of Art.
References
[1] ANZSRC Review https://www.arc.gov.au/anzsrc-review/anzsrc-consultation
[2] Australian Research Council, Engagement and Impact (EI) https://www.arc.gov.au/engagement-and-impact-assessment