Practice and Research: A Report from the Academy

Summarizing a round-table discussion by faculty members at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts, this report presents the arguments and assumptions surrounding Practice as Research within the university. The artists present, drawing from their own experiences in a range of disciplines, debate the terminologies of research, institutional conceptions of methodologies, the function of documentation, their relationship with artists outside of the university system, and the place of teaching within the (potentially false) binary of practice and research. While no ultimate conclusions are made, the report serves as a condensed survey of the significant methodological, if not cultural, divides within contemporary art as it exists within the university institution.