Practice Research Unit

The founding aim of Kingston University's practice research unit is to look at contemporary aspects of practice as research (practice led and practice based) within drama and performance, film, music, fine art, dance, and creative writing, with a view to sharing the latest and best ideas in terms of standalone research and research-led pedagogy.

Its methodology is, firstly, to assay the current state of practice as research across all disciplines, and then to take the agenda forward through a number of major events each year, as well as through smaller local workshops occurring more frequently. A pluralism of approach will be a defining trait, and its events will be oriented towards both faculty and graduate students working in practice as research, be they Kingston-based, UK-based, or international.

21 June 2013, 9:00am to 22 June 2013, 6:00pm
Creative Arts and Creative Industries: Collaboration in Practice

Collaboration is an issue at the centre of practice research. It is understood differently in different practices, whether in music, dance, drama, fine art, installation art, digital media or other performance arts. Practice research might incorporate practice-led or practice-based work: practice may be the outcome or the stimulus for the research.

Welcoming the diversity within creative practice and the creative industries, this conference seeks to reassess how such research can be explored while going beyond definitions of practice-led, or practice-based research, different artists engage in research using a variety of objects and performance methods, and report research in diverse ways, which in turn raise questions regarding the research process, its collaborative dimensions, as well as the sharing of research findings. Practice resides within the working processes of performance, installation and practice-led research outcomes when they are articulated to an audience.

This two-day symposium will explore issues surrounding the collaborative process on two levels:

1. as it occurs between academic researchers in the creative arts and professional practitioners in commercial organisations in the creative arts industries (and beyond)
2. as it focuses attention and understanding on the tacit/implicit dimensions of working across different media (including music, dance, design, creative writing, architecture and the creative industries).
3. Download programme

The key themes of the symposium, arising from these two aspects of collaboration, will include:

• Collaboration 1: researchers working alone and together using different media and/or materials”
• Collaboration 2: in relation to knowledge exchange and research “effectively shared
• Performativity: exploring the process of doing research;
• Articulation: how research collaborators communicate their methods and findings to each other and their audiences;
• Ethics: exploring issues of authorship in collaborative projects.

Conference Review Panel: Abstract proposals should be submitted with authors’ details provided separately, so that submissions can be reviewed, blind, by a Conference Review Panel whose identity will not be revealed until the conference programme has been announced. Please submit abstracts to: fass-conferences@kingston.ac.uk

Conference proceedings: will be produced if possible.

The conference will be video-recorded: when the conference programme has been announced presenters should contact the Chair if they do not wish to be recorded.

Keynote addresses include: Mine Dogantan Dack (Middlesex University), with a presentation entitled “Why collaborate?: Towards a philosophy and politics of creative collaboration”, and Anthony Gritten (Royal Academy of Music), with a presentation entitled “Trust in Collaboration, from Policy to Practice”.

Venue: Manchester Metropolitan University, Creative Arts New Building

Hosted by: Practice Research Unit (Kingston University)  MIRIAD (Manchester Metropolitan University), in association with PARCNorthWest, Institute for Performance Research (MMU Cheshire), Centre for Music Performance Research, Royal Northern College of Music.

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