Praxis Para-dox by Jacqueline Taylor

Whilst there are growing bodies of research surrounding ‘artistic research’ and ‘researcher development’ discourses, they are acknowledged to be in conflict with one another as well as being significantly under-theorised in relation to pedagogy. ‘Praxis Para-dox’ interrogates the extent to which ‘artistic research’, ‘researcher development’ and ‘doctoral pedagogy’ discourses can be brought together to develop new praxical, conceptual and pedagogical frameworks for doctoral study in the arts. The research encompasses three components that iteratively build upon one another. Understood as a multidimensional topology, ‘Research-Practice-Pedagogy’ firstly offers a new conceptual model whereby artistic practice, research and training are intertwined with pedagogy for the first time. Secondly, ‘Discourses of Dissonance’ builds on this model in relation to Rolfe’s concept of ‘para-dox.’ It demonstrates that artistic research performs a generative ‘para-dox’ whereby associated pedagogies must continually disrupt various doxa to generate epistemic shifts vital to eliciting ‘doctoralness.’ Finally, ‘What the Praxis?’ evidences numerous qualities of ‘artistic research-ness’ necessary to establish ‘para-dox’ and reconceive ‘pedagogy’ as onto-epistemological agential spaces at the nexus of practice and praxis. ‘Praxis Para-dox’ brings together two substantial bodies of research: research on ‘artistic research’ conducted over a ten-year period (including case studies, interviews, research diaries, practice-led research) and pedagogic research undertaken at a UK institution over a five-year period (including interviews, action research, the testing of ideas, focus groups and participatory workshops). The synthesizing of these bodies of research was informed by in-depth literature reviews in multiple fields to contextualise and theorise the work. The research is disseminated in two book chapters (‘Research-Practice-Pedagogy: Establishing new topologies of doctoral research in the arts’ and ‘Discourses of Dissonance: Enabling sites of praxis and practice amongst Arts and Design doctoral study’, both double blind peer reviewed and published alongside key scholars) plus an international keynote performance (‘What the Praxis?’, University of Gloucester).

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Praxis Para-dox is an iterative research project undertaken between 2014-2018, culminating in three key pieces of work that build upon one another: Research-Practice-Pedagogy, Discourses of Dissonance and What the Praxis? The research aimed to examine the extent to which the discourses of artistic research, researcher development and doctoral pedagogy - normally seen as separate and competing arenas - can form a productive and mutual dialogue to enable new praxical, conceptual and pedagogical frameworks for doctoral study in the arts.

Together, this multi-layered research elicits new theoretical, empirical, praxical and performative knowledge(s) that inform and significantly extend the theory and practice of artistic research and doctoral education discourses, and bring them together for the first time. This exposition articulates the research process, conclusions and other key information underpinning the research project, along with links to each of the three pieces of work.

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Process, conclusions and some other stuff in-between

Research-Practice-Pedagogy

Discourses of Dissonance

What the Praxis?

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