The Meaningful Exposition

Summary

Our aim in this chapter is to discuss the potential of different types of exposition of artistic research. In order to do this we will first challenge the myth that there are subject-specific output formats, or in other words, the idea that exhibitions are particularly suited for the exposition of artistic research or that journal articles are particularly suited for the exposition of traditional research. Having argued that the format of exposition is not subject-specific, we reveal that the meaningful exposition is the one that communicates the content that is significant to a community. Within this framework we will reconsider the potential of the different exposition formats for the communication of significant artistic-research content.

Mythologies

Prior to discussing the exposition of artistic research and publishing art in academia, we will consider what defines an exposition of any kind of research and what it is to publish anything in academia. In this first discussion, we want to address a preconception that is widely held: that publishing in academia consists in the production and dissemination of books and journal articles. Although this is indeed the most common format of academic output, we want to challenge the idea that it is synonymous with publishing in academia. If one looks at contemporary academia one will find a much wider range of output formats than just these text-based ones; for example, academics produce patents, objects and artworks as well as papers, chapters and reports. From our previous experience in a range of different academic cultures we have come to understand that publishing, as an act of dissemination, can occur in a number of formats and communicate various content (Biggs & Buchler 2011b). We have identified environments in which there is a top-down definition of what constitutes academic publishing based on a conventionalisation of format, of which Brazilian academia is an example. We have also identified more responsive environments, such as UK academia, in which the definition of what constitutes publishing is constructed from the bottom up, as a function of the content that needs to be communicated.

The definition of publishing in academia that is adopted by the Brazilian academic community can be inferred from what is known as the ‘Lattes platform’ (CNPq 1999). This is a national database – named after the Brazilian scientist Cesar Lattes – added to by each researcher with all sorts of professional and academic activity.