The place of artistic research in the contemporary university

Creativity and artistic inquiry—“bringing something new into the world, at times by severing, isolating, reconnecting, or testing the breaking point” (Hansen, 2018, 37–38)—has been increasingly recognised and validated as research within Australian universities, since the Dawkins reforms. This recognition was cemented through the work of scholars and practitioners in conjunction with the Australian Research Council and Department of Education, Science and Training to develop a framework (implemented in 2010) that was ‘suitable’ for the evaluation of artistic research. With the dissolution of the Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) framework and questions and fears about what process might replace it, there is a perceived need to showcase the strengths of artistic research and to place it front and centre in current and future discussions. In this session we hear viewpoints from three leaders across different artistic disciplines about the place of artistic research within the Australian university ecosystem.  

Speakers

Professor Neal Peres Da Costa FAHA (Chair)

Neal Peres Da Costa is Associate Dean Research and Professor of Historical Performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney.

Winner of a Fine Arts ARIA (2008), he is a world-recognised performing scholar on historical keyboards. His monograph Off the Record (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) is ‘go-to’ text globally, and he has published a suite of influential book chapters and practice-led recordings.

Neal is lead chief investigator on three prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Projects and is a member of the ARC College of Experts. Neal performs and records regularly with several of Australia’s finest historical performance industry partners including Ironwood, Bach Akademie Australia, and the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (ARCO) of which he is also Artistic Advisor.

Professor Roger Dean FAHA

Roger Dean is a composer/improviser, and research professor in music cognition/computation at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, Western Sydney University. His research folds into his creative work, through machine learning, computational models and defined algorithmic approaches. He has more than 100 journal articles in music science, as well as 220 in biochemistry, his former field. His publication output also includes 17 books (h-index 84, >28000 citations). He directs the creative ensemble austraLYSIS, which has appeared in 30 countries. With Will Luers and Hazel Smith, he received the international Robert Coover Prize of the Electronic Literature Organisation (2018). He has performed as bassist, pianist and computer artist in many contexts: from the Academy of Ancient Music and the Australian Chamber Orchestra to the London Sinfonietta, and from Graham Collier Music to duets with Derek Bailey and Evan Parker. About 70 commercial recordings and numerous radio and online digital multimedia pieces represent his creative work. Current research concerns improvisation; pitch, timbre and rhythm generation and perception; music learning in older adults, and music computation. Previously, he was a full professor of biochemistry in the UK and then an academic CEO for 18 years, first as foundation Director of the autonomous Heart Research Institute, Sydney, and then as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canberra.

Associate Professor Erin Brannigan

Erin Brannigan is Associate Professor in Theatre and Performance at the University of New South Wales. She is of Irish and Danish political exile, convict, and settler descent. Her publications include Dancefilm: Choreography and the Moving Image (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), Choreography, Visual Art and Experimental Composition 1950s -1970s (London: Routledge, 2022) and a companion monograph to the latter, The Persistence of Dance: Choreography as Concept and Material in Contemporary Art (Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press, 2023). She has published various chapters and articles in film, performance and dance journals and anthologies and regularly presents on dance for ABC Radio National. Her research project Precarious Movements: Dance and the Museum (2020-2024) with Tate UK, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of NSW, Monash University Museum of Art, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Shelley Lasica and Zoe Theodore produced an online sector resource, precariousmovements.com, and an anthology Precarious Movements (Melbourne: NGV, 2024).

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