ABSTRACT
This chapter is an analysis of the tensions arising between participants during an interventionist and collaborative action research project ACHiS (Art Critics and Art Historians in Schools). Such tensions are a necessary and productive component of interdisciplinary research despite the discomfort and destabilisation they engender. The simple premise of ACHiS was to place art critics and art historians in secondary schools to work alongside art and design teachers to develop critical studies (critical, contextual and historical studies) in studio education. Critical studies is theorised as an integral component of all courses in art and design but research suggests that it is a ‘fragile’ one (Davies 1995); ACHiS was thus partly conceived to address a perceived need. The primary aim of the project was formulated to test and evaluate the significance of recent art historical methods for the analysis and interpretation of visual and material culture in secondary schools. It was hypothesised that this would both inform modes of investigation and contextualisation and provide reflective tools for the evaluation of studio practice.
