Screen media practice research

Screen media practice research is an emerging research area situated primarily within Media Studies, Communications, Cultural Studies, Art and Design, Performing Arts departments in universities in the UK and around the world. It is difficult to define screen media practice research. At the most basic level it is academic research that is conducted in or through the practical production of film, video, internet, visual arts and other screen based media. It is a subsection of a wider body of practice research within the arts and humanities.

In the UK the definition of practice research in the arts and humanities is still emerging. Two slightly differing institutional models exist as propounded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

The UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) offers some definitions of practice research in their application guidelines for Small Grants and Fellowships in the [http://www.ahrb.ac.uk/cpa/ Creative and Performing Arts] which they define as "those falling under the remits of Visual Arts and Media: practice, history and theory, Music and Performing Arts, and practice-led creative writing. This list is not exhaustive but could include applicants who are visual artists; architects; those working in the applied arts; fashion; curatorial practice or film, video and/or other multi-media. Performers; musicians; choreographers; scenographers; theatre or film directors; designers and creative writers and poets."

The AHRC states that "projects that can be defined as practice-led or applied" are those "where creative practice is integral to the project or it is undertaken with the specific goal of producing a defined research output – for example, new or improved systems, designs, artefacts, exhibitions, performances, events, products, processes, materials, devices, services, films, compositions, broadcasts, policy guidance – that will be utilised beyond the research base." [http://www.ahrb.ac.uk/cpa/ongoing_funding_opportunities_for_post-doctoral_researchers.asp#sg]

Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)

In the UK the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) also offers a definition what it terms "practice-as-research" in the humanities in [http://www.rae.ac.uk/pubs/2006/01/byuoa.asp?u=o Panel O] . Screen media practice research generally falls under the remit of Sub-panel (Unit of Assessment) UOA 66: Communication, Cultural and Media Studies, with some cross over with UOA 63: Art and Design and UOA 65: Drama, Dance and Performing Arts. However, each of the sub-panels has their individual definitions of practice research. The UOA 66 definition of "practice-as-research": "recognises that outputs reflecting practice-as-research may be an element of some submissions. It also acknowledges that a number of competing terms (including practicebased, practice-led and practice-as-research) have general currency for defining this area of research, and the sub-panel intends no judgement between them".

Practice As Research in Performance (PARIP)

In the UK, in Drama, Dance and the Performing Arts these issues have been the subject of an Arts and Humanities Research Board (now Council) funded project at Bristol University entitled Practice As Research in Performance (PARIP). According to [http://www.bristol.ac.uk/parip PARIP] , "practice as research (PAR) and practice-based research (PBR) — and 'research through practice', 'research by practice', 'performance as research' — are contested terms that resist close definition. Practice as research and practice-based research are frequently used interchangeably to suggest a relationship of research between theory and practice." [http://www.bris.ac.uk/parip/faq.htm#4]

Peer Review and Dissemination

Screen media practice research is disseminated in a variety of ways: at academic conference (e.g. the Joint Annual Conference of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Association ( [http://www.meccsa.org.uk/ MeCCSA] ), now incorporating the Association of Media Practice Educators ( [http://www.ampe.co.uk/ AMPE] )); through academic publication; through relationships with cultural and creative industries (e.g. film festivals, broadcast, online communities, creative partnerships).

In the UK there is ongoing debate about how screen media practice itself can be peer reviewed by the academic community in the same way that academic articles are submitted to a peer selection process before being published in scholarly journals. The issue of peer review relates to how screen media pracice can be assessed in terms of the criteria of Significance, Rigour and Originality set forth by the RAE.

Articulating Screen Media Practice as Research

There is also a debate around whether submissions of practice research to the RAE or for peer review need to be supported by a written statement evidencing the research, or whether the artefact can stand alone as research. According to the [http://www.ahrb.ac.uk/about/policy/response/the_rae_research_in_the_creative_performing_arts.asp AHRC Review of Research Assessment] (September 2003), there was need for a clearer articulation of the research process - including research methods, context and significance - in practice-led research that was submitted to the RAE 2003. The AHRC suggest that ‘practice-led research’ should incorporate a scholarly apparatus that enables other researchers to assess the value and significance of the results of the research, and that completed work should have a record or ‘route map’ of the research process. Similarly the Communication, Cultural and Media Studies Panel [http://www.hero.ac.uk/rae/overview Report] on the RAE 2003 exercise valued practice that could give ‘a reflexive account of itself as research’, but found that many practitioners did not explain ways in which the work constituted an original investigation in a research context.

International Screen Media Practice Research

How are these debates being articulated within the international academic community?e.g. MIT Media Lab

External links

* [http://www.ahrb.ac.uk Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)]
* [http://www.rae.ac.uk Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)]
* [http://www.ampe.co.uk/ Association of Media Practice Educators (AMPE)]
* [http://www.meccsa.org.uk/ Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA)]
* [http://www.rae.ac.uk Practice as Research in Performance (PARIP)]
* [http://www.bris.ac.uk/parip/wkgrp1.htm PARIP Symposium workshop]