From practitioner to practitioner-researcher

Robin Nelson

pp. 23-47

in: Robin Nelson (ed), Practice as research in the arts, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

Abstract

When introducing PaR in presentations, I have come to speak about it as located at the confluence of different, but interlocking, spheres, notably "the arts world", "the mediasphere" and "the academy" (Figure 2.1). Though this grouping is a section from a much larger constellation of interconnected praxical spheres, it has proved a productive means to emphasize what I call "both-and" spaces in which aspects overlap. But there is a historical as well as a conceptual dimension. In the early days when PaR became a possibility, a number of established professional arts and media practitioners entered the academy perhaps to teach as part-time tutors, to undertake research or to work towards a PhD. Where misunderstandings arose about the differences between professional practice and research through practice, a number of issues needed direct address.