ABSTRACT

Over the past decades, we have witnessed an increasing orientation towards research in the visual and performing arts in Europe. This research orientation is closely related to reforms in the academic sector. Due to policy initiatives, such as the Bologna Process, art schools were transformed into art universities and had to implement research structures despite not having any genuine, intrinsic research experience. While some philosophical work (Schwab 2013a, 2013b) discusses the arts not just as something which produces artifacts, performances or interactions, but in terms of an ‘experimental system’ (Rheinberger 1997) in which artistic knowledge is produced, to date, the lived realities of people conducting this kind of research have been somewhat neglected. To address this gap, this chapter will draw on approaches from Science and Technology Studies (STS) to examine how members of one of the first projects funded by the Austrian Science Fund’s program for arts-based research describe their research practices, and it will trace what is understood by the concept of arts-based research as it is articulated in these descriptions. The chapter demonstrates that working on the arts-based research project that was analyzed meant working from heterogeneity (drawing upon one’s disciplinary background) towards hybridity (aiming at shared forms of arts-based research). This collaborative move found its prime expression in the transdisciplinary culture of the institution conducting the project, as well as the funding program’s demand to produce knowledge that is based on artistic practice and, at the same time, leads to academic outcomes, such as articles in peer-reviewed journals. The chapter concludes by discussing this tension.