Doctoral school annual lecture 2024

Abstract

In this Doctoral School Annual Lecture delivered as part of the University of Malta’s Research Expo, 2024, Prof. Robin Nelson explores a tension between an oft-desired “artistic freedom” in creative practice and the inevitable constraints entailed by “academic” arts research in today’s incorporated HE institutions. An established champion of “Practice Research/Artistic Research”, Prof. Nelson’s additional experience as a university research director will afford insights into several perspectives. With reference to some contentious examples, he explores the room for manoeuvre between, on the one hand, practitioner-researchers wishing to be free to do as they wish and, on the other, the hardline, bureaucratic disposition of some Research Ethics Committees, to enforce rules and protocols in an Enlightenment, scientific-rational tradition. Though the emphasis is on Arts Practice Research, the debate has resonances wherever a “blue skies” disposition towards research meets requirements for Research Design and Research Outcomes. Ultimately, he proposes a compromise with a plea for adjustments on all sides, informed by a Levinasian approach to ethics wherein each encounter must be sensitively addressed.