Group C
Research questions
and answers
EPARM
Stockholm 2014
Moderators: Mirjam Boggasch,
Leonella Grasso Caprioli, Tuire Kuusi
Our theme today: Agenda-setting
Research questions and answers
 what do these mean for artist-researchers in music
 what kinds of questions can be made
 what kinds of answers may be expected
Aim: 6 topics
Artists’ strengths and weaknesses  question that can be answered
Difference between 2nd and 3rd cycle?
What is art? A method? A field?  what is the point of departure of the
questions? Is the art a process starting from questions (or the art as
such)?
What kind of results do we expect? (In science this is relatively easy!)
The result is a more interesting question; the result opens new
questions. it’s difficult to anticipate the result in the beginning
Aim: 6 topics
reflection on the process  describe in a clear way (words?)  shared
questions - shared answers
think themselves; stand on own legs; become “adult musicians”
what is reflecting?
what kind of forms the outcome can have? Can a performance be a
result? “Written reflection is important; it is necessary though it is not
the main outcome”?
two kinds or research: personal, ending in a performance (can the
audience hear the question or the answer?) and “traditional”, formal;;
is there a third one?
Research: not only practising your intuitive ideas;;
Research is done to make better musicians (not to make researchers)
Our theme today: discussions of
the themes; most relevant
aspects
Research questions and answers
 what do these mean for artist-researchers in music
 what kinds of questions can be made
 what kinds of answers may be expected
Discussion in Group 1
1) How to formulate a precise question from an
initial idea - A question that fits for what the
artist is doing?
- How to find (help the student find) the initial idea (not too wide, not too
interdisciplinary!)? The research should be relevant for the artistic practise
(of the student)
- the expert position of the artist (practise of art) should be in the centre!
- what is the focus of the project (art/concerts and written thesis)
- How to help students formulate a research question and find the
necessary perspective?; students cannot do this alone! experts’ help is
needed (has it been done already? is this a relevant and valid question?);;
half year – year for formulating the questions!  (later) independence of
the student
-students need a variety of skills in order to formulate the questions; the
role of the 2nd cycle?
-should we formulate guidelines for what is a good research question; what
a research question should cover ((; Bologna guidelines: 3rd cycle: new
ideas))
-OR should we use the best practices as an inspirational guideline
2) Do we agree to accept a variety of
different forms of answers / outputs?
should the performance alone be an answer that can be criticized
and questioned? performance is part of the answer but not the
whole
the expertise of the artist is vital; artistic research must contain
the artistic element and reflection on the process
research catalogue e.g. in JAR; multiple tools & formats (text,
videos, sound etc.); multimedia; document library for final
documentation
demonstration of artistic part; written thesis (research paper)
artistic process is the main body of the work (can be compared
to the process of scientific research); performance is the answer
(compared to the answer in a scientific research paper); judging
only the performance is not enough, the performance should be
evaluated in relation to the whole process
3) What is the influence of interdisciplinarity
on artistic research and the result of
collaborating with other sciences and
methods?
- interdisciplinarity is beneficial: gaining and sharing knowledge
- the expert position of the artist (practise of art) should be in
the centre!
- space for trial and error; learning something new and different
- collaboration with other experts is important
-large knowledge production going on around; artistic research
must be part of this
-how to help students gain knowledge about other disciplines?
- supervisors / consultants for other disciplines as well
-collaboration of many scholars is possible in post doc –level
4) Do traditional research questions differ
from the questions an artist-researcher would
make? Should they differ?
artist-researchers have their own competence that traditional
researchers might not have
art in the centre
transformation of tacit knowledge to explicit and
communicative knowledge
question; rather “task of enquiry” (so that the result can be the
process); the enquiry and the output are actions
are there demands in artistic research (as there are in
traditional research)?
curiosity-driven research (basic research) is also possible (no
need for applied research)
resesarch should make students aware of their choices
5) Are artistic processes research? If not,
what should be added?
- what is the link between thinking/reflecting and practising; all artists
reflect; they have musical message
- is artistic development / artistic project research?; “project is doing;
research is data collecting in form that is useful for your project” ; is
this a question about output? does the output show the understanding
of methodologies, structuring the ideas etc. is this a question about
the size of the project?
- an artistic project can be research if it involves critical questions and
reflection; it should be a shared process that can be documented
- what are developmental projects in natural sciences and what is
research?
- skills (1st-2nd cycle): finding sources, incorporating sources, reflecting
your practice; process diary (especially in the 1st cycle); focus on the
process and reflective thinking (not the output)
6) How should the sharing of research
questions and answers be enhanced?
it is important to get out of the solipsism of the
individual researcher
encourage the reading; encourage to come and listen to
performances
research catalogues
students should be encouraged to come together and
present & discuss their projects & process (colloquiums,
seminars etc.)
it is important to share the result in order to evaluate it
and make it a starting point for other research
Discussion in Group 2
1) How to formulate a precise question from an
initial idea - A question that fits for what the
artist is doing?
-
how to help students find their initial idea? courses for that also: one step beyond the practical
level;; subconscious to conscious; the process (of finding the question and result) might be
more important than the result; how to make students understand that questioning and
exploring can be very beneficial?
-
when to formulate a question? formulating the question is a part of the process; finding the
limits of the question
-
must there be an absolute connection between practice and research?
-
is formulating a question the goal? the question may come at the end of the process
-
what are the questions 3rd cycle students have? best practices of these  guidelines for others
-
whose perspective am I interested to research?
-
the context of the research should provide questions
-
perspective of the artist-researcher  how to formulate the perspective into a question; the
perspective can be distant to practice  unique angle / contribution
-
the artist’s perspective; artist needs to be clear about which perspective is the most important
 methods, questions, goals
-
the question should not point / predict the result
-
is this important for all cycles? or for the 3rd cycle only? 3rd cycle is the first step where the
student conducts the whole process, basic tools should be learned during the 1st and 2nd cycle
2) Do we agree to accept a variety of
different forms of answers / outputs?
- written part (traditional thesis) is normally easy to evaluate (?)
- how to evaluate the artistic presentation? how to show the learning
outcomes in a concert?
- is an artistic presentation a pedagogical result or a research result; does
the evaluation differ for these two?
- what is evaluated in the artistic presentation? the output or the process
or the methodology? the process can be the output / product
- the individual is important for the result (and the process)
- Outputs: a DVD including all kind of information (process and outcome;
reflection and experiments) or web-based material of interrelated
materials related to the project (combination of presentations and
written part)
- the performance alone cannot be the answer (or reveal the question)
- the performance is always evaluated in a context; the context can make
the performance a research;
3) What is the influence of interdisciplinarity on
artistic research and the result of collaborating with
other sciences and methods?
- artist can benefit from sciences and research
methods; artistic research can benefit from
musicology
- there is a connection between humanities (not
science) and artistic research
4) Do traditional research questions differ
from the questions an artist-researcher would
make? Should they differ?
- what makes the individual artistic (research) project unique
(why cannot somebody else do the same project)
- same question to an artist and to a musicologist; how would the
result differ?
- is subjectivity present only in artistic research?
- “science tries to be objective; artistic research tires to be
subjective” (?)
- artistic research asks “how” (not “why”)
- questions should be accurate but the answers can be subjective;
the answers should be relevant to the questions and context
- “the questions are always related to the structure of the piece
of music” (?) – but do not every performer make these questions?
What makes it research?
- there are questions on different levels; some are inherent in the
practise
5) Are artistic processes research? If not,
what should be added?
- what artistic processes constitute a research? this can be argued; a definition is
needed (what is research and why)
- Should we ask: can performance be research? If yes, how?
- in order to be research an artistic process needs a proper context; the artistresearcher has to situate him/herself (who am I? why am I doing this? what I
aim at? style, history)
- experiments can be part of research; research has to communicate
- “checklist for research”: assumptions, the ways to investigate it, evaluation of
what you got, publication BUT do all research need assumptions?
- can theory produce practise or practise produce theory? bottom-up?
- transfer the individual activity into public activity
- possibility to create areas for discussions; enhance discussion; communicate
the process and the results in new medias
- what is the connection between research, artistic development, and artistic
work?
6) How should the sharing of research
questions and answers be enhanced?
it is important to share the result in order to evaluate it and make it a starting point
for further research; what is the role of knowledge? What kind of knowledge we can
find in artistic work?
the output tells others what the process was; the output can disseminate the
knowledge
research has to communicate; bring the process and the results in new medias;
research transfers the individual activity into public activity;
results can be validated by performance or thesis or both
evaluation can be made by several stakeholders (not only academic)
goals of (artistic) research: gain / produce knowledge (and gain degrees)
development of a musician is an important part of artistic research but not all;
artistic research should also create a debate, develop the field, enhance ethical
discussion, raise new questions, open new windows
make what we are doing important to others; bring the result into common
knowledge