creative encounters

How can research-creation methods in universities connect with creative practices beyond academic settings?

Research-creation methodologies have something to offer to the wider artistic, creative and innovation communities, and vice-versa.

Research-creation – understood here as a process that uses creative or artistic practice to explore a research question, which arrives at new insights through the act of making and doing – has shown the value of putting creative production at the heart of processes of research and innovation. It has established principles of documentation and elucidation of discovery that are accessible and can lead to new insights. It has also enabled diverse creative practices to gain recognition, and enabled marginalized voices to be heard.

However, the professional value of research-creation for artists and creators outside of post-secondary institutions has been largely overlooked. We are committed to research with real-world impact, and recognize that strong connections between public, industry, and academic work are highly valuable. Therefore, research-creation practices cannot remain largely sealed and isolated within the academy. We need to share and integrate its insights with the wider artistic community and foster dialogue across these boundaries. This project aims to unlock its broader potential.

We have three specific objectives:

1. To generate new knowledge and understandings about the relationship between research-creation practices in higher education, and the practices of artists and creators outside of academia – and what each sphere can learn from the other.

2. To develop transdisciplinary platforms, systems or spaces that support a fruitful, comprehensive and ongoing dialogue between creators in these two spheres.

3. To explore the ways that different environments – higher education, and artistic and creative scenes – with distinct norms and practices, influence artists’ and researchers’ experiences, creativity, critical thinking and social engagement.

RESEARCH TEAM

David Gauntlett (he/him) is a Canada Research Chair in The Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). Author of several books, including Making is Connecting and Creativity. He is the founder of TMU’s Creativity Everything Lab and the principal investigator of this project.

Fiona P. McDonald (she/her/elle) is CE2 Lab Director, Assistant Professor, Department of Community, Culture and Global Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Natalie Alvarez (sheDean of Scholarly, Research and Creative Activities and Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies in the School of Performance at Toronto Metropolitan University, with research specializations in performance studies, art activism, and scenario-based pedagogy.

Luísa Cruz (she/her) is a Project Researcher and Project Manager on the SSHRC-funded Practices of Knowing project, Luisa Cruz is a graduate of the joint MA Communication and Culture program at Toronto Metropolitan University &York University.

Ashley Jane Lewis is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Creativity Everything lab, Ashley Jane Lewis is an internationally-celebrated creator, researcher and thinker at the intersection of art, technology, nature and social justice.

Julie Marsh is an artist-filmmaker, practice-based researcher, and educator. At the core of her research lies a collaborative approach to arts-based research conducted at both local and global scales.

FUNDED BY

SSHRC Insight Grant