Research in the Creative and Media Arts

Part I. Critical Parameters

Chapter 1. Creative arts and media research: key terms and perspectives






Introduction
Defining the key terms
The distinguishing characteristics of artistic research
The main types of artistic research
Modelling artistic research

Chapter 2. The research that artists actually do







Introduction
Re-evaluating "background" research
Artist reflections and critical dialogues as research sources
The artist interview as a research tool
Case study: found footage film-making

Chapter 3. A research turn in the visual arts?







Introduction
The dynamics of contemporary art practice
Conceptualism
Curational strategies
Relational aesthetics
Performativity
The practice turn in contemporary theory
Conclusion





Chapter 4. The spectre of science







Introduction
The methodological drive in artistic research
Understanding the logic of scientific discovery
The specificity of artistic research
Against method (and for art)
Artists and science
Case studies of art-science collaboration
Conclusion





Part II. Antecedents and Foundations

Chapter 5. The historical antecedents of artistic research: the Renaissance







Introduction
Renaissance vision
Leonardo, science and invention
Assessing the Renaissance contribution to the advancement of artistic research





Chapter 6. A science of art?: theory and practice in the modernist avant-garde







Introduction
A science of art?
Founding fathers (and mothers) of twentieth century artistic research
Theory and practice in the work of Wassily Kandinsky
Art as expression
Founding texts and axioms of modernist artistic research
Conclusion

Chapter 7. Utopian visions and material realities: artistic research and the revolution











Introduction
Artistic research for a revolutionary moment
The auspices of non-objective art: from the analysis of style to language and system
Malevich as pedagogue: the UNOVIS experiment
The Constructivist challenge
From Suprematist painting to Constructivist imaging
The eclipse of the avant-garde
Conclusion









Part III: Interdisciplinary Dialogues

Chapter 8. Art and the sciences of man: reframing history



Introduction
Method, craft and science in history
Material memory: exploring a family archive (case study)
The artwork as historiographical intervention: interpreting the Spanish Civil War
Imaging the past: The Enigma of Frank Ryan (case study)
Contemporary art and the engagement with history: Hito Steyerl's Der Bau and Free Fall
Conclusion

Chapter 9. Artistic research and the human sciences: staging anthropology



Introduction
An ethnographic turn in the visual arts?
The tarnished legacy of anthropology
Lens-based ethnography: documenting Dublin's docklands (case study)
Susan Hiller: a coming to terms with anthropological method
Trinh T Minh-ha: speaking nearby
The auto-ethnographic impulse in artistic research

Chapter 10. Artistic research and critical theory



Introduction
Theory in the creative arts and media
Paradigms of the theory-practice relation
Exemplars of contemporary creative arts practice in the critical tradition
Conclusion: artistic research and critical theory