Research as creative practice

Framing creative practice as research has helped to develop the presence and role of art, media, and design in universities, forwarding diverse knowledges that institutions previously did not respect. Not all creative practice is research and vice versa but there is a rich overlap between them, many and varied possibilities for research to drive creative practice, and likewise for creativity as part of research methodology. Influential methodological theories for staging this - such as practice-based and practice-led research, research-led practice, and research-creation - all frame particular practice grounded knowledge claims. Further, they point to something broader - all research is practice based. Distinctions between ’traditional’ and ’non-traditional’ research center on modes of publication not on research methodologies and methods. Many so called ’traditional’ research practices involve creativity too, such as in the critical thought and invention required to inspire the hypothesis and research design of a particular experiment. The experimental testing required in the sciences is also frequently present in arts practices, in the form of iterative practices. The knowledge claims, their locus, and claims to universality are the key differences.