©2006 P.Stewart, for Speculation and Innovation: applying practice led research in the Creative Industries

This paper contends that the arts and design are improved by critical exercise as mindful practice. The creative practitioner, as methodological inventor, spawns new forms and patterns of research and practice. Their research mixes artistic, cultural, scholarly and industrial concerns in the experimental arena of the studio. These practices can become the established excellences of tomorrow as research comes alive. In this paper I am contending that the arts and design are improved by critical exercise as mindful practice. Mindful practice positions the creative artist or designer as an aware and reflective practitioner within a paradigm of methodological inventiveness where new forms and patterns of research and practice are spawned. I see practice-led research as a mix of artistic, cultural, scholarly and industrial concerns, where the studio becomes an experimental arena for creative interactions and a space for critical analysis and renewal that enables a deeper understanding of artists ’ work processes. I will argue that these practices can become the established excellences of tomorrow as research comes alive. In briefly exploring the possibilities of research for the studio-based art and design practitioner I recognise that the nature of art and design practice, as well as the influences that may shape any activity, are disparate and wide ranging. This poses a need to focus research on the experience and concomitant knowledge of the practitioner as a significant source of information. By focusing on the experiential knowledge of the practitioner the complexity of pertinent issues that may make up practice-led research in any situation are included as integral and essential aspects of the argument. Notions of research in the arts and design are not new. However, until recently methods were situated mainly within the fields of arts or design history, and used historical o