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i nterdisciplinarity & practice-based research: some REF 2014 dilemmas

i nterdisciplinarity & practice-based research: some REF 2014 dilemmas. Graham Jeffery University of the West of Scotland u wscreative.wordpress.com. s haping our submission…. Small- ish School in large university

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i nterdisciplinarity & practice-based research: some REF 2014 dilemmas

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  1. interdisciplinarity & practice-based research: some REF 2014 dilemmas Graham Jeffery University of the West of Scotland uwscreative.wordpress.com

  2. shaping our submission… • Small-ish School in large university • Very wide range of work/disciplines within teaching & research – media, film, performance, (commercial) music, digital art: fast moving, fast evolving (not the same school we were in 2008) • Growing but inevitably patchy research activity, driven mainly by interest/expertise of individual academics (but with underpinning strategy) • Lots of practice-based PhDs plus knowledge exchange activity plus extensive collaboration/partnership with arts/media organisations

  3. strategy • enhancing research environment/infrastructure • strong emphasis on interdisciplinarity – large groupings of staff to develop critical mass • centre of gravity is UoA 36 (as that’s our heritage as a “media” school): elements of submission could easily fit into other UoAseg34, 35 – but probably not enough volume to go in ‘on their own’

  4. principles/problems/possibilities • ‘New knowledge’ - created at intersections of subject boundaries? • Convergence & contemporary cultural practices • Media is about mediation/communication – it’s a connective field between disciplines • Media practice can be intensely collaborative and quality production requires multidisciplinary expertise • So media/communications studies a hybrid field which constantly services/interfaces with other fields • Artists, as well as scientists, conduct experiments – where are the spaces for experimental/experiential modes of discovery/knowing – and what types of research projects/outputs demonstrate this?

  5. guidance • UoAs “do not have firm or rigidly definable boundaries” (38 - p 83) To cross-refer or not to cross-refer? If so, how? • Institutions are “free to submit their research in the way that represents the activity most effectively” (40 – p. 83) How to represent the range ‘effectively’ within the container of UoA 36?

  6. practice based work likely to be submitted (25% of submission?) may include • New media art (Alison Clifford, Lumen Prize finalist) • Curated exhibition/event on Cultural Hijack at Architecture Association, London (2013) (Ben Parry) – live event/exhibition, building on publication • Outcomes from citizen journalism/participatory arts/media projects (egCitizen Relay, Remaking Society) • And - potentially - some radio/TV programmes, underpinned by extensive research – eg David Scott’s “Classic Scottish Albums” (BBC Radio Scotland commission)

  7. Alison Clifford/Graeme Truslove: ‘interstitial articulations’ • http://vimeo.com/46141915 • http://vimeo.com/26733648

  8. Citizen media projects/participatory arts/media projects • Odd Numbers project in Milton, Glasgow (AHRC Connected Communities pilot demonstrator: link to critical work on participatory arts practices and community regeneration/development) • Citizen Relay project : tracking the Olympic torch across Scotland (link to critical and participatory work on mega-events, festivals and social media)

  9. Innovative methodologies – but outputs submitted may be more reflective/conventional than practice/action based – how do we document/account for research practice, especially when it is highly mediated?

  10. coherence? • Focus on research into production/action – impact? • Building on strengths as a post-92 institution with strong vocational/applied tradition – but embedding this into critical/theoretical discourses • Challenges of describing all of this as “media, communications, library and information management” – when it’s about a broader collection of interdisciplinary cultural practices • How to develop a narrative that captures interdisciplinary strengths? • Metanarrative: Creative Futures Research Institute

  11. resolving the paradox…? • Emphasisingintermediality in contemporary cultural practices • Is it risky to go for interdisciplinarity as key to submission when UoAs are about assessing outputs within subject boundaries, fields of knowledge? • Are we going to be told that some of our outputs are submitted to the ‘wrong’ UoA? [internal/external debates] ? • Mediated outputs – rooted in different disciplinary traditions: performance, cultural studies, fine art etc • Being clear about the disciplinary field(s) outputs relate to

  12. Keeping in touch www.uws.ac.uk/cci www.twitter.com/uwscreative uwscreative.wordpress.com www.creativefutur.eu www.twitter.com/grahamjeffery Graham.Jeffery@uws.ac.uk

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