Practice as Research in Performance: from epistemology to evaluation

AbstractQuestions about the values of practice as research have steadily risen up the research agenda of the creative arts in British universities since the early 1990s. As American practitioner-scholar Richard Schechner writes: ‘the relationship between studying performance and doing performance is integral’ (Schechner 2002:1). Yet, where are the differences between thinking and doing, interpreting and making, conceptualization and creativity located? Are there special conceptual spaces for practice as research per se or do we need rather to consider more broadly the terms ‘writing’ and ‘research’? What kind of academy do we wish to create?This paper focuses on the work of PARIP during the past two years. It introduces the project and contextualizes it with a number of observations on the intellectual directions the project is taking, in consultation and collaboration with the range of artist-scholars in the UK and selected EU institutions. Jointly prepared by PARIP Director Baz Kershaw and postdoctoral ...