PARIP 2003

NATIONAL CONFERENCE: 11-14 September

CONTRIBUTORS

RUBIDGE: SARAH
school of visual and performing arts
university college chichester
artists, practice and research

In this presentation I will be examining the notion of ‘pure practice’ and its relation to ‘practice as research’, and along the way questioning whether each necessarily involves the employment of different methodologies. In the context of the academic arts community it is frequently implied that ‘pure practice’ is not genuine ‘practice as research’. The grounds given are to my mind a little dubious (e.g. it is not supported by retrospective reflection on the nature of the practice, or is executed by an artist working outside of an academic framework), and do the work of those artists engaged in ‘pure practice’ no justice. I will argue that this position belies the claim that artistic practice is research in its own right, and indicates that we are in danger of sliding into an inappropriate epistemological framework. Using my own practice, and that of artists working outside of academia, as case studies I will suggest that we need to formulate a more appropriate epistemological framework which will genuinely support the position we purport to take, which is that artistic practice constitutes a valid mode of thinking and that its thinking is first and foremost evidenced in the work. I will also suggest that, if that is so, then the context in which that practice takes place does not alter that fact.

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