Parip/Practice as Research in Performance

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PARIP 2005

International Conference | 29 June - 03 July 2005

Richards: Alison | Australia

Oversight: Practice as Research in Australia

Panel members: Associate Professor Brad Haseman (Chair), Professor Lelia Green and Dr Alison Richards

This panel will introduce and discuss practice as research in the context of the current Australian research landscape. The research establishment in Australia has been wary of practice as research despite some early policy successes and ever-increasing numbers of higher research degree students. This may be about to change as researchers in performance are joining colleagues in other disciplines to shape the Research Quality Framework, a federal government initiative with threats and opportunities for researchers in the arts, media and design. This panel will address those threats and opportunities.

Panel abstract:

The Concerns and Strengths of Australian Performance Research by Alison Richards

Australian efforts to establish performance research as a bona fide scholarly activity within the higher education system began in the late 1980s, in concert with a broad push to give creative arts and creative industries a more secure place on the national research agenda. While there is no uniformity of aims and methodologies, the field is reasonably mature and it is now possible to establish a clearer picture of the concerns and strengths of Australian performance research.

Research is currently being undertaken in a number of different locations both within and outside established traditions of practice and scholarship. It includes the description and analysis of the performance practice of others by scholars positioned as external observers, the application of performance-based techniques and practices to research problems in other areas including non-arts contexts, and reflective research undertaken by practitioner/researchers, employing various perspectives on and positions within performance practice as variables. Major drivers of performance research activity include

national research priorities orchestrated through the Australian Research Council (academic research) and the Australia Council (arts practice) that emphasise ‘industry-linked’ research;
theoretical developments, in conjunction with comprehensive institutional reorganization and technological change, that have contributed to significant disciplinary realignments within university and conservatorium creative and fine arts departments since 1985;
an increase in contemporary cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural performance and scholarship; and
student demand, particularly at postgraduate level, for academic programs with significant practice elements.

This paper will provide a brief background together with an overview of current performance research activity in Australian universities and major studio schools. It will pay particular attention to constraints on growth, for example funding, program development and the establishment of evaluation processes including higher degree examination and peer review, with the aim of identifying the major issues faced by Australian institutional leaders and the problem-solving strategies being adopted. Trends will be analysed and some predictions made on future growth of the field.

Alison Richards is an experienced scholar, theatre practitioner and Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne. She has published extensively on contemporary Australasian performance practice, and was amongst those active in establishing Performance Studies and performance research in Australian universities, particularly through ADSA, the Australasian Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies Association. Her current research program, Performing Community, employs performance research techniques to investigate participatory citizen performance.