Disclosing and Evaluating Artistic Research

Abstract

Abstract Purpose This study expands on the results of a stakeholder-driven research project on quality indicators and output assessment of art and design research in Flanders—the Northern, Dutch-speaking region of Belgium. Herein, it emphasizes the value of arts & design output registration as a modality to articulate the disciplinary demarcations of art and design research. Design/methodology/approach The particularity of art and design research in Flanders is first analyzed and compared to international examples. Hereafter, the results of the stakeholder-driven project on the creation of indicators for arts & design research output assessment are discussed. Findings The findings accentuate the importance of allowing an assessment culture to emerge from practitioners themselves, instead of imposing ill-suited methods borrowed from established scientific evaluation models (Biggs & Karlsson, 2011)—notwithstanding the practical difficulties it generates. They point to the potential of stakeholder-driven approaches for artistic research, which benefits from constructing a shared metadiscourse among its practitioners regarding the continuities and discontinuities between “artistic” and “traditional” research, and the communal goals and values that guide its knowledge production (Biggs & Karlsson, 2011; Hellström, 2010; Ysebaert & Martens, 2018). Research limitation The central limitation of the study is that it focuses exclusively on the “Architecture & Design” panel of the project, and does not account for intra-disciplinary complexities in output assessment. Practical implications The goal of the research project is to create a robust assessment system for arts & design research in Flanders, which may later guide similar international projects. Originality/value This study is currently the only one to consider the productive potential of (collaborative) PRFSs for artistic research.