Interacting: Art, Research and the Creative Practitioner (Art Design Management Policy a) [Paperback]

While other books have presented interactive works and interrogated engagement in interactive art, what sets apart this book is its unique contribution to the integration of research or knowledge-development and creative practice, and to understanding art and creative practitioners in a broader scholarly context through the development of new methods of conducting this research. This theme is critical to raising awareness in higher education intuitions and amongst academia, for governments whose metrics ultimate control arts and educational funding, and whose quality evaluation frameworks currently hang on metrics heavily skewed towards empirical sciences, for audiences engaging new forms of creative practice enabled by technologies, and for accomplished artistic practitioners to see the potential and usefulness of cultivating their research capacity. This book is especially pertinent for the artist looking to understand exactly what it means to engage in practice-led research and provides a foothold of clarity in the fog of institutional ambiguity. Despite being unashamedly archival, auto-poetic and analytically reflective (appropriately, in my opinion), the authors also confront head-on the issue of reconciling, evaluating (quality) and valuing (ascribing worth) to creativity research and creative modes of research that have challenged us for several decades but which are here met with balanced, methodical and evidence-based insight. In this, the book makes an important contribution, not only for its impact on UTS and of collegial interest, but also in Australia, and for research students and arts researchers globally investigating the ways in which creative people work, conceptualise, embrace new technologies, transform creative practice, in illuminating methods for creative productivity, and methodologies for researching creative practice, and using it as a vehicle for exploration of the public and audience, engagement, and curatorial practice. Scarce literature exists on this subject.

It is no coincidence that editor, Ernest Edmonds, is also an editor for the `Transactions' segment of Leonardo, the premier journal straddling this interdisciplinary outlook, and the founder of UTS Creativity and Cognition Studios. It encapsulates the (sometimes rocky) fascinating ground at the intersection of art, science and technology, creativity, cognition (and sometimes computation) - shaping a new generation of researchers who, together with passionate individuals such as Matthew Connell from Sydney Powerhouse Museum and the BetaSpace collaboration, are valiantly helping creative works and experimental research impact upon real audiences in the public arena.

Linda Candy's chapter, `Research and Creative Practice' sets the scene and frames the major themes for lively discourse centred on the role of the creative practitioner (e.g. artists, musicians, designers, curators, teachers and software designers), both as the subject of research, as the researcher, and as the developer of artefacts and processes on which research is focused. It examines important concepts like novelty, processes and techniques, and conception, drawing a range of disciplinary influences. To understand creativity research seriously alongside older research disciplines, we need to be aware of the frame of reference, the history of its research and creative art practice, as well as to exercise respectable, credible methodologies for practitioner research that acknowledge the value of both reflective and evidence-based approaches. Candy examines these aspects, the adaptation of methodologies in the still young and evolving area, the correlation of theory and practice, and the emergence of a bespoke `language' of knowledge that allows its contribution to be understood in the context of more universal academia.

INTERACT is organised in terms of the dialogue between/across art and research, curatorial and reflective practice, collaboration and communication (art and technology systems), creative engagement (understanding audience and participation), and art practice (case studies, reflective essays and position pieces). Featured artists/researchers hailing from (or graduated from) the Creativity and Cognition Studios include Ernest Edmonds, Linda Candy, Deborah Turnbull, Lizzie Muller, Dave Burraston, Yun Zhang, Julien Phalip, Damian Hills, Zafer Bilder, Brigid Costello, Andrew Johnston, Jen Seevinck, Ian Gwilt, Chris Bowman, and Mike Leggett. But the book is by no means parochial, including contributions from the seminal writer on the Practice Based Research (PBR) movement in the U.K., Stephen Scrivener, and examination of works by notable external and international artists, such as Sarah Last, Sidney Fels, George Khut, Chris Nelson, Andy Polaine, indeed numerous other collaborators, may be found in the curatorial and analytical commentary.