The value of cultural research and development

​What is research? How evaluated in the arts

Research is the discovery of new knowledge—knowledge can be conceptual. Artistic research advances knowledge and enhances overall quality of production. “A sustained research enterprise that includes one or more projects or other components, and which is shaped by broad objectives for the advancement of knowledge in the fine arts, through the development or renewal of the field of artistic endeavor concerned.â€? SSHRC, “Artistic, scholarly, intellectual, social and cultural significance of the research, including the use of knowledge in experimental development to produce new or substantially improved materials, devices, products and processes, including design and construction.â€?

In other words, side by side with artistic research that produces new works, artist/researchers also research and write about the key ideas and methods informing this work. An artist/researcher might both be a director and a writer about the role of theatre history within contemporary cinema.

Research must be able to tested, proved or disproved. It must be able to be generalized. It must be provably influencing or have that potential. Research is documented and can be communicated. Dissemination and training are hand in hand with research.

Other criteria for evaluation: tangible contribution to the advancement of knowledge in the arts. Includes peer recognition, originality, innovativeness, creative modes of dissemination beyond academic audiences, degree of originality, opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students.

Why is new media important?

• It is so present that it is invisible
• Machine is favoured over human process
• Growing access to markets in Netherlands and internationally through new media
• Entire new demographies find their cultures in digital media, new media; from skateboarders and rappers, to fashionistas; from games, to information discovery to interactive play; YOUTH IS THERE
• Integrated technology development continues to grow (carbon and silicon)
• Tech sector recovery; again economy on the rise, need to make sense of it
• Integration of technology discover with content and services--reciprocity

What is new media art research?

New media art is a broad category that encompasses most digital art form, interactive art, Internet or networked art, and often reaches to include art and science projects. The designation “artâ€? infers focus on creative process and its expression, independence from commercial pressures or products, and an awareness of the art works within an historical process of art making. Some artists and researchers have included biotechnology art forms and wider arts and science creation into this category. The emphasis on the “newâ€? belies the ubiquitous nature of digital media and tools throughout the world. This field can also be described as art and technology research.

Now moved beyond the digital to MATERIAL, MEDIA and CONTEXT—art and science in the UK, next media at Microsoft and Canada—fusion of experiential material science and shifts in ways of being; communication as one element, designing at the level of the submolecular.

New Media research is a wide field of research that includes the analysis of new media art works, the analysis of the process of making new media art works, research into the technologies that are brought to bear in new media art creation and the creation of new technologies influenced by art works, and first and foremost, new art works created through the medium of technology. New media art research spans theoretical basic research, applied research and practice-based research. It inevitably draws on multiple disciplines.

Key factor in new media research is the DIALOGICAL—bring together discussions that have medium effects on the future. E.G. Carbon versus Silicon, or VSMM

Research activities often bring together artists, designers, programmers, technologists, computer science and other science researchers and at times educators, who interact and collaborate on projects and programs.

A byproduct or link to artistic research is often the developmentment and evaluation of technological tools that will allow designers and artists to visualize and create, using new materials, new media and creative, process-driven or procedural approaches to innovation, the environment and human experience.

Another goal of new media research is to train a new kind of professional - one whose understanding of technology is informed by a strong sense of aesthetics and ethics. In a field that moves so quickly - where today's innovations may be obsolete tomorrow — students and researchers need more than just technical skills. They need an understanding of the underlying structures that fuel the dynamism between technology and creativity. In a collaborative environment there is a strong need for social skills and cooperation as well as individual creativity.

Artists fit at all points in the research cycle. As basic researchers, as applied researchers and as developers. Not all artists are researchers, but artists can also partner with researchers in other domains.

What art and technology research specifially brings to science: · Traditions of iconoclasm within Art and Design institutions means that lines of inquiry will be developed that would otherwise be missing from most technology-driven laboratories—in particular the studio method of production and ongoing critique—artists’ job is to CHALLENGE, see in NONINTUITIVE WAYS. Some of the best discovery in all science is counterintuitive. · Artists and Designers value social commentary and critical analysis, which means that researchers are likely to integrate widely ranging cultural issues into their activities. · Knowledge work becomes creative work and vice versa. · Interdisciplinary Studios depend on the development of common languages. Many laboratories throw researchers with different backgrounds and interests together, and this works best when those divergent opinions to provoke new forms of research and creative practice. · Capacity to think laterally about existing tools and processes · Ability to think from user experience within the design process · Material qualities of what artists want · The combination of experimentation that requires technical intervention while also making use of the rich disciplinary history of areas that have their foundations in craft, classical approaches to visualization (drawing, painting, photography, film, video) and computer assisted forms of creation (digital animation, product and communication design). · Posing hard problems for technology to solve.

Maybe most interesting are the relationships between research and production. Artistic creation interpolates basic research with deliverables. Makes instantiation and documentation critical as part of the process. Creates application moments for theory.

What are models for collaboration between art and technology researchers?

· Each defines their own agenda, mutual object or not, individual outomces · Mutual outcomes, also with separate agendas · Merged outcomes

What is the value of artistic research? Qualities of artistic research: potentially transformative nature of research undertaken by artist-researchers to the larger field of research methodologies in general; centrality of artist-researchers to the current interdisciplinary research and humanities scholars demands on integrity in research. One of the unique advantages of artistic research is the practice of placing new knowledge in a holistic cultural and social context.

Research into the innovation process can be a key contribution of artistic researchers. Combining the study of creativity with innovation theory (how ideas get made, how environments can support creativity) brings together the worlds of the arts, leadership, and technology research. Understanding creativity and its role in innovation is one of the key challenges of our times in that the combination of both help us discover how we can actually change institutions, cultures, and individuals, creating ecologically and culturally sound societies. Knowledge gained from cultural disciplines and methods can impact business, political, health and wellness, spiritual, economic, and other domains. Studying cultures in transition is a critical element of understanding for new media, how are former forms and practices sustained, transformed, discarded? How do historical cultural forms inflect into contemporary forms? How are forms revitalized? When do cultural appropriations and hybrid forms constitute new knowledge?

· How do particular creative practices reflect and influence the context of the culture in which they are produced? For example, what is the impact of cultural difference on culture as whole? · Should artists attempt to affect social and economic structures? What are effective current and past practices in this realm? · What are emerging economies that support artistic expression? For e.g. open source models from software may have resonance with content.

Of key importance is research into globalization, culture and technologies. This is true in an international environment with huge pressures towards globalizations on one hand (both conservative, religious and radical) and localism on the other. How do forces outside of cultural practice affect artists and their creativity? For example, how does globalization affect local cultural expression? Results of such research might be: · The creation of methods, tools, and techniques that are culturally specific as needed, and those that are generalized as needed. · A contribution to the understanding and development of emerging economies, ones that support cultural and artistic expression as well as other forms of wealth generation. · A better insight into the value that culture adds, both economically and in terms of social capital; in its own right and when combined with other areas of society. · A better understanding of the ways that culture and arts are specific and valuable in their own right from cultures that make culture central. · An understanding of hybridity, adoption and adaptation processes and effects · An understanding of how language effects cultural expression and tools themselves · CEE++

New Media Research and Social Science

We have already talked about the ways that new media research develops new forms and can result in technological innovation. Although many new media artists are capable of inventing tools and making content on their own, still, interdisciplinary collaboration is a fundamental component of new media arts creation. (Ede, 2000, Diamond, 2004, Manovitch (2002); Rush (1999); Sommerer and Mignonneau (2002). Social science and humanities research methods explore how collaboration occurs and the ways that technologies are designed and then used by collaborators. Actor-network theorists and ethnographers examine the ways that power relations and identities emerge and change through the actions of human and non-human agents. (Law, 1999; Butler, 2002; Broome, 2000), Wakeford, Cohen, 2002) “Material culture methodologies enrichâ€? design practice. “This is how people produce, design, advertise or consume objects, but also how objects influence people, how objects are important in the creation of identityâ€?(Wakeford, 2002). How are tools and methods adopted, and the ideas inherent to their design naturalised? Any act “linked together with all its influencing factorsâ€? reveals the nature of relations between the human and the technical. Despite each network appearing unique the “ topology of networks in general is non-local… semiotic artefacts are often the 'boundary objects' that mediate non-local, scale-breaking interconnections.â€?(Lemke, L.J) Theorists also draw on complexity and ecology studies, relating these to social organisation and processes. (Sha, Xin Wei, These methods allow researchers to understand the impacts of the scale of a collaboration or network. Artist-researchers bring social context and critique to technologies and science; they are able to think laterally about existing applications. (Sha Xin-Wei, 2000, 2003)

PARTICIPATORY DESIGN Cultural and gender studies provide an opportunity to understand the ways that structures and roles of work and collaboration may be culturally specific or gendered. (Balsamo, 2002, 2003; Butler, 2002; Wakeford 1999; Senft, Horn 1996) Reception theory and user response studies examine the ways that all participants construct meaning within collaborative processes. (Cooke, 2004). Psychological studies allow the study of institutional cultures and the personality and cultural openness of the individuals within the team. Some tools inhibit creativity and others enhance trust and imagination (Simington, 2000; Smith, 2002; Smith, 2002). Literary and performance studies combine to ask, “What are the metaphors that facilitate collaboration, which inhibit?â€? Are these specific to context? Performance theory explores the ways that game structures and role-play occurs in social exchange (Goffman 1963; Smith 2002; Turkel, 1995, 2001, 2002). Why is it that under some conditions, despite technological breakdown, collaborators continue to work together, and work around or subvert the technology? In other examples, collaboration grinds to a halt.

What kinds of institutions can engage in the art and technology research cycle most effectively?

· Institutes within established universities that can gather researchers, resources and create structures—need documentation capacities · Research centres within existing strong arts organizations, Banff (though a struggle), SAT, artist run centres that define a piece of their work as research, but very challenging to sustain, V2 · Capacity to lever partnerships · Capacity to develop and maneuver corporate support

Where do companies fit into the research partnership cycle?

· Consortium models · Sponsors · Partnered or contract research · Commercialisation · SME formation or support

Need for autonomy of artistic research that can tackle basic issues—companies have observation based relationship—OR Run two kinds of research and funding support side by side—one wihich is for cultural and technological, other for incubation (Banff model)

Labs inevitably require corporate partnership unless miraculously government funded (then there are other demands)

Intellectual Property

Different models: · Centre or consortium owns · Researcher owns · Researcher owns percentage · Open source

Research networks

· Flexible creative tools that various communities can use · New forms of two way (or multipoint) communication—collaboration on-line around a shared object for e.g. · Brings variety of knowledge together · Amortize resources (capital, gird computing) · Provides management resource for complexity · New forms of interaction within the research process · Tests of capabilities of broadband · Networks are also unpredictable as they are larger than the s um of their parts

Strengths and limits of art labs—

· Cannot attract university level researchers for long term because of the loss of status—either juniour or turn over · Respect for artist · Tendency towards weak project management and over extension

Are there aesthetic characteristics of r and d work?

· Technological dominance · Process based · Unfinished · Emerging aesthetics · Theory is more articulated than realization—finished works often really prototypes · Institutional branding—beware! MIT

How do we address issues of power?

· Flexibility in leadership process · Collaborate out of desire

Here are some of the trends that I observe in current research:

· Into the process of creating new media art, including a strong current emphasis on collaborative How does creativity occur? · How do participants/audiences engage with artistic works? How are they transformed by the process of engagment? · Methods and the analysis of these, using ethnographic research and other methods · Into collaboration studies is a large part of engineering and humanities research, with some take up in social science · Into global versus local expression · Into performance and new media · Into the language of new media and its expression, including grammars, metaphors (chaos theory for example) · Into virtual reality and advanced visualization that includes cognitive science, aesthetics and inteface development · Into on-line games and participatory culture · Into wearable computing and other forms of design ubiquity · Into mobile expression and tools to support this · Into what practice based research is · Into the economics and rights of new media creation · Into the relationship between individual and social identities within the network · Into the history of new media art · Into how to curate and present new media art to publics · Into literary forms of new media · Into nanotechnology and its potential relationship to new media art · Into the Internet and multi-casting as content · Into intelligent agents and other forms of AI as used in new media creation · Into emotion and computing including AI · Into biological media as carrier for digital media · Into convergence media, working with narrative content · Into mathematics, its representation and art

Examples of new media research initiatives (some)

· Banff Centre, NewMIC and TR Labs creation of a Western Network to research “socially adept technologiesâ€? · Banff already is a research centre · Encart: ZKM, V2, Ars Electronica, C3 · Collaboration engineering network in Canada (NECTAR) · CalIT2 (UC system) and other related projects · Hexagram · Brazilian Art and Technology group—University of Brazilia · SAT · NTT and ATR in Japan · MIT Media Lab and counter parts in Ireland and Asia · Mobile Platform (Finland) with UK, other EU countries and TBC--Framework · Wearables initiative—Belgium, etc. with TBC, Framework · Heritage Research networks (includes CNICE etc.) · Initiative to start and new media research centre in the USA · BBC Creative Innovation · Intel Fellows · CAIIA Star · SmartLab Centre

How can we imagine international collaborations?

· Through accessing national programs, but planning where there are bridges · Through accessing international programs · Through accessing foundation funds · Through accessing and strengthening broadband (research network) initiatives · Through accessing key international corporations, such as Philips, Sun, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft · MODELS of FUNDING PROGRAMS: NESTA; Canada Council/NSERC; SSHRC in Canada; Culture 2000