Educating Researchers for the 21st Century 13-15 April 2010 119 The trouble with CARE: Creative A... more Educating Researchers for the 21st Century 13-15 April 2010 119 The trouble with CARE: Creative Arts and Research Ethics Barbara Bolt, and Giselle Kett University of Melbourne Australia Abstract This paper presents findings of a pilot study into Creative Arts and Research Ethics. From ...
Although there is an evolving interest in environmentalism and all matters 'green', and t... more Although there is an evolving interest in environmentalism and all matters 'green', and this is reflected in the world of design, our relationship to nature is constantly reconstructed as a romanticised ideal by the worlds of media and advertising. Several theorists argue that nature can only be understood as a cultural artefact, and propose that it is available to us through limited and mediated 'cultural' experiences. These include such familiar devices as wilderness adventure tours, nature documentaries, activist organisations, and advertising that uses natural imagery. For example, the latter employs images derived from the natural world as a mechanism for the 'authentication' of products. This paper is a critical visual analysis of a range of advertisements for the lowly but omnipresent household 'whitegood' appliance. In particular, it examines appliances that go through a process of re-design in order to be made more 'green'. The paper investigates how images of nature are constructed through ideals such as 'endangerment', 'power' or 'the other', in order to promote and sell appliances. Through this investigation, the real difficulty of 'being green' is revealed, and the ability of ecodesign to address issues of changing the rules of consumption are questioned.
The National Innovation and Science Agenda, launched in December 2015, has significant consequenc... more The National Innovation and Science Agenda, launched in December 2015, has significant consequences for tertiary institutions, and in particular, for the art and design disciplines, as well as the broader arts, humanities and social science (HASS) fields. The Agenda’s embrace of innovation rests on four key pillars: one that addresses tax breaks for business; another that supports students to adopt digital strategies (primarily in science and maths); another to amend the visa system to attract international talent, and depict the government as a facilitator of digital know how. The fourth pillar, collaboration – specifically collaboration with industry – will directly affect university art and design schools, programs and divisions. Following this came the Watt Report, outlining changes in the methods of how research funding will be distributed to universities. The terms ‘impact’ and ‘engagement’ are reiterated throughout both the government Agenda and the Watt Report. This report, ...
As a ‘new’ research discipline, the creative arts challenges ethics understandings with emergent ... more As a ‘new’ research discipline, the creative arts challenges ethics understandings with emergent research practices. In this paper we focus on a current learning and teaching project that attends to ethical know-how in creative practice research in order to address the gaps between institutional research know-how and the practices of creative practitioners in the world. Graduate creative practice researchers working in the university are required to observe the University’s Code of Conduct for Research and adhere to the guidelines provided by the National Statement, however practicing artists working in the community are not similarly constrained. Once creative practice PhD graduates leave the university, they are no longer required to gain ethics clearance for their work but use their own developed sense of ethics to make “judgment calls.” Ethical know-how is situated, contextual, and a mainstay of all professional practices in action. The aim of this paper is to examine the notion...
Rivers are often contested zones. They are used to demarcate territory, separating states and cou... more Rivers are often contested zones. They are used to demarcate territory, separating states and countries; they offer precious resources in the form of fresh water and transport; and they bring the aquatic and the terrestrial into close proximity, connecting inland areas to the sea. Through two works of my own and those of several others, this paper examines works of art that address the roles a river is perceived to perform for a city. In particular, my work examines the context of a river in flood, and when flooding causes the "use value" of a river as a waste-disposal mechanism to be reversed. Underscoring this is the role of risk, and how risk underpins the perception of a river as a contested place. To understand the riparian - the river’s edge - as an area where the social construction of nature can be summarily challenged, one only has to read Val Plumwood’s account of her close encounter with a crocodile, "Being Prey" (Plumwood 1996). As an artist living an...
The chapters in this book have examined transformative pedagogies in art and designtertiary educa... more The chapters in this book have examined transformative pedagogies in art and designtertiary education that address issues of the environment, and how these can be drivenby the capacities and forms of creative agency inherent to art and design disciplines.Acknowledging the inherent interdisciplinary pedagogical scope of social changeagendas, which are able to generate novel, relevant, and timely engagement withglobal issues, the authors offer studio practice and field-based case studies embracingecological and broader environmental imperatives, and the dimensions of socialresponsibility and engagement these imperatives impart. These range from personalresponse to activism, to exercising the public platform of exhibition in preparation forprofessional immersion, to engagement with the local as an instance of the global, andthe urban as an instance of the wild. As Noel Castree and Bruce Braun note, afundamental question to be asked is “who constructs what kinds of nature(s) to whatends...
This paper reports on the experiences of creative practice graduate researchers and academic staf... more This paper reports on the experiences of creative practice graduate researchers and academic staff as they seek to comply with the requirements of the Australian National Statement on the Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Humans. The research was conducted over a two-year period (2015 to 2017) as part of a wider project ‘iDARE – Developing New Approaches to Ethics and Research Integrity Training through Challenges Presented by Creative Practice Research’. The research identified the appreciation of ethics that the participants acquired through their experience of institutional research ethics procedures at their university. It also revealed a disjunction between the concepts of ethics acquired through meeting institutional research ethics requirements, the notion of ethics that many researchers adopt in their own professional creative practice and the contents of professional codes of conduct. A key finding of the research was that to prepare creative practice graduates for ethi...
Ingeniously, this book combines new pedagogies with new syllabus: it connects the contemporary em... more Ingeniously, this book combines new pedagogies with new syllabus: it connects the contemporary emphasis on active learning and the pressing challenge of environmental discourse. To a backdrop of many centuries of studio education—always organic, intuitive and critical—art and design furnish a necessary educational paradigm for how we grapple with teaching the unknown. As the editors Marie Sierra and Kit Wise say, “the very practice of art and design, by virtue of its ability . . . to hold opposing views in tension, provides a platform to engage with environmental issues”. Their intelligent and reflective book Transformative Pedagogies and the Environment: Creative Agency through Contemporary Art demonstrates the important research activity occurring in studio teaching in Australia, the U.K., and New Zealand, showing how critically engaged and thoughtful pedagogical practice involves students in the key issues of environment. It reveals how inspired studio teaching can engage students with broader issues of community, politics, and empowerment, so they enter their professions with real experience of the agency and catalytic potential of art and design. Associate Professor Robert Nelson Associate Director Student Learning Experience Monash University, Office of Learning and Teaching
... The most recent exchange project in the tram series was organised by Douglas and Durriya Kazi... more ... The most recent exchange project in the tram series was organised by Douglas and Durriya Kazi, and occurred in Melbourne in March during that postcolonial extravaganza, the Commonwealth Games. The project took the ...
Educating Researchers for the 21st Century 13-15 April 2010 119 The trouble with CARE: Creative A... more Educating Researchers for the 21st Century 13-15 April 2010 119 The trouble with CARE: Creative Arts and Research Ethics Barbara Bolt, and Giselle Kett University of Melbourne Australia Abstract This paper presents findings of a pilot study into Creative Arts and Research Ethics. From ...
Although there is an evolving interest in environmentalism and all matters 'green', and t... more Although there is an evolving interest in environmentalism and all matters 'green', and this is reflected in the world of design, our relationship to nature is constantly reconstructed as a romanticised ideal by the worlds of media and advertising. Several theorists argue that nature can only be understood as a cultural artefact, and propose that it is available to us through limited and mediated 'cultural' experiences. These include such familiar devices as wilderness adventure tours, nature documentaries, activist organisations, and advertising that uses natural imagery. For example, the latter employs images derived from the natural world as a mechanism for the 'authentication' of products. This paper is a critical visual analysis of a range of advertisements for the lowly but omnipresent household 'whitegood' appliance. In particular, it examines appliances that go through a process of re-design in order to be made more 'green'. The paper investigates how images of nature are constructed through ideals such as 'endangerment', 'power' or 'the other', in order to promote and sell appliances. Through this investigation, the real difficulty of 'being green' is revealed, and the ability of ecodesign to address issues of changing the rules of consumption are questioned.
The National Innovation and Science Agenda, launched in December 2015, has significant consequenc... more The National Innovation and Science Agenda, launched in December 2015, has significant consequences for tertiary institutions, and in particular, for the art and design disciplines, as well as the broader arts, humanities and social science (HASS) fields. The Agenda’s embrace of innovation rests on four key pillars: one that addresses tax breaks for business; another that supports students to adopt digital strategies (primarily in science and maths); another to amend the visa system to attract international talent, and depict the government as a facilitator of digital know how. The fourth pillar, collaboration – specifically collaboration with industry – will directly affect university art and design schools, programs and divisions. Following this came the Watt Report, outlining changes in the methods of how research funding will be distributed to universities. The terms ‘impact’ and ‘engagement’ are reiterated throughout both the government Agenda and the Watt Report. This report, ...
As a ‘new’ research discipline, the creative arts challenges ethics understandings with emergent ... more As a ‘new’ research discipline, the creative arts challenges ethics understandings with emergent research practices. In this paper we focus on a current learning and teaching project that attends to ethical know-how in creative practice research in order to address the gaps between institutional research know-how and the practices of creative practitioners in the world. Graduate creative practice researchers working in the university are required to observe the University’s Code of Conduct for Research and adhere to the guidelines provided by the National Statement, however practicing artists working in the community are not similarly constrained. Once creative practice PhD graduates leave the university, they are no longer required to gain ethics clearance for their work but use their own developed sense of ethics to make “judgment calls.” Ethical know-how is situated, contextual, and a mainstay of all professional practices in action. The aim of this paper is to examine the notion...
Rivers are often contested zones. They are used to demarcate territory, separating states and cou... more Rivers are often contested zones. They are used to demarcate territory, separating states and countries; they offer precious resources in the form of fresh water and transport; and they bring the aquatic and the terrestrial into close proximity, connecting inland areas to the sea. Through two works of my own and those of several others, this paper examines works of art that address the roles a river is perceived to perform for a city. In particular, my work examines the context of a river in flood, and when flooding causes the "use value" of a river as a waste-disposal mechanism to be reversed. Underscoring this is the role of risk, and how risk underpins the perception of a river as a contested place. To understand the riparian - the river’s edge - as an area where the social construction of nature can be summarily challenged, one only has to read Val Plumwood’s account of her close encounter with a crocodile, "Being Prey" (Plumwood 1996). As an artist living an...
The chapters in this book have examined transformative pedagogies in art and designtertiary educa... more The chapters in this book have examined transformative pedagogies in art and designtertiary education that address issues of the environment, and how these can be drivenby the capacities and forms of creative agency inherent to art and design disciplines.Acknowledging the inherent interdisciplinary pedagogical scope of social changeagendas, which are able to generate novel, relevant, and timely engagement withglobal issues, the authors offer studio practice and field-based case studies embracingecological and broader environmental imperatives, and the dimensions of socialresponsibility and engagement these imperatives impart. These range from personalresponse to activism, to exercising the public platform of exhibition in preparation forprofessional immersion, to engagement with the local as an instance of the global, andthe urban as an instance of the wild. As Noel Castree and Bruce Braun note, afundamental question to be asked is “who constructs what kinds of nature(s) to whatends...
This paper reports on the experiences of creative practice graduate researchers and academic staf... more This paper reports on the experiences of creative practice graduate researchers and academic staff as they seek to comply with the requirements of the Australian National Statement on the Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Humans. The research was conducted over a two-year period (2015 to 2017) as part of a wider project ‘iDARE – Developing New Approaches to Ethics and Research Integrity Training through Challenges Presented by Creative Practice Research’. The research identified the appreciation of ethics that the participants acquired through their experience of institutional research ethics procedures at their university. It also revealed a disjunction between the concepts of ethics acquired through meeting institutional research ethics requirements, the notion of ethics that many researchers adopt in their own professional creative practice and the contents of professional codes of conduct. A key finding of the research was that to prepare creative practice graduates for ethi...
Ingeniously, this book combines new pedagogies with new syllabus: it connects the contemporary em... more Ingeniously, this book combines new pedagogies with new syllabus: it connects the contemporary emphasis on active learning and the pressing challenge of environmental discourse. To a backdrop of many centuries of studio education—always organic, intuitive and critical—art and design furnish a necessary educational paradigm for how we grapple with teaching the unknown. As the editors Marie Sierra and Kit Wise say, “the very practice of art and design, by virtue of its ability . . . to hold opposing views in tension, provides a platform to engage with environmental issues”. Their intelligent and reflective book Transformative Pedagogies and the Environment: Creative Agency through Contemporary Art demonstrates the important research activity occurring in studio teaching in Australia, the U.K., and New Zealand, showing how critically engaged and thoughtful pedagogical practice involves students in the key issues of environment. It reveals how inspired studio teaching can engage students with broader issues of community, politics, and empowerment, so they enter their professions with real experience of the agency and catalytic potential of art and design. Associate Professor Robert Nelson Associate Director Student Learning Experience Monash University, Office of Learning and Teaching
... The most recent exchange project in the tram series was organised by Douglas and Durriya Kazi... more ... The most recent exchange project in the tram series was organised by Douglas and Durriya Kazi, and occurred in Melbourne in March during that postcolonial extravaganza, the Commonwealth Games. The project took the ...
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