How artistic research ends

The term ‘artistic research’ shadowed the growth of graduate study in studio arts in the late twentieth century, including the integration of many art schools and polytechnics into a tightly integrated and networked higher education sector, and an accompanying interest in art’s relationship to traditional academic disciplines. As the art education sector grew, the key debates were concerned with what the future of artistic research should look like as it expands. However, given the impact of neoliberal austerity measures and funding cuts that have resulted in programme closures and declining enrolments, we now consider the likelihood of artistic research contracting. What if artistic research is now approaching the end of its university life, a fate shared by the humanities and critical social sciences? This essay considers the potential ways artistic research may end.