CCI reports urges Australia to lead in funding arts R&D

The Australian arts should be funded to carry out research and to innovate in exactly the same ways as the technological sciences.

This will enable them to deliver even greater value to the public, innovate more, collaborate more widely and engage more deeply with business, a new investigation released by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) finds.

One of the authors of “Not Rocket Science: A Roadmap for Arts and Cultural R&D” is Hasan Bakhshi, a research fellow at the CCI and also Director, Creative Industries in the Policy & Research Unit at Britain’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA).

“Arts and cultural innovation will yield altogether new ways in which arts and culture are embedded in the knowledge society and economy,” Mr Bakhshi says.

“So, for example, experimental development will trial new ways of engaging audiences, or explore new forms of collaboration between producers, and between them and consumers, through digital technologies. It will investigate how arts and cultural organisations can re-imagine their relationship with private sector businesses, social enterprise and public service delivery.

“In short, arts and cultural R&D will expand the sources of cultural, commercial and public value,” Bakhshi says.

The report states that two entrenched prejudices prevent arts and cultural research from being funded in the same ways as science and technology.

First, they are excluded from the actual definition of research, by virtue of its scientific origins – even though they often involve research and development.

Second the arts and cultural sector relies on a conception of creativity that mystifies too much of its work, which prevents it from accessing public resources.

“The most basic definitions of research state that it is to acquire knowledge, create knowledge with practical aims and generate new products, processes and systems.

“There is nothing in any of these definitions which exclude the arts and culture. Yet existing R&D criteria, used by governments the world over, wrongly rule the arts and culture out,” Hasan Bakhshi says.

He adds that Australia has the opportunity to become a world leader in being the first to change this outmoded paradigm that treats the arts and the sciences as if they were different processes – when in reality both express the creativity and ingenuity of the human mind.

For this to happen there must be two changes, the study says. First, arts and culture need to expand their concept of R&D to cover the full range – basic research, applied research and experimental development.

Secondly, they need to shelve the notion that culture and creativity are necessarily mysterious. To justify research funding, arts research must be rigorous, and its results have to be explicit and easily communicated so others can use them.
“R&D and its outcomes - whether scientific or artistic - cannot be mysterious. They must be explicable, communicable and applicable, not just by their producers but also by others,” says Bakhshi.

Funding the arts to research and innovate in this way holds large potential benefits for the public, and will bring the arts, the sciences and business closer together, leading to more fruitful and innovative outcomes, the report concludes.

CCI director Professor Stuart Cunningham says the report “Not Rocket Science: A Roadmap for Arts and Cultural R&D” is a fresh milestone on the long journey towards properly supporting artistic and cultural innovation in Australia.

“It offers us a clear opportunity to leapfrog other countries by bringing our arts and sciences closer together and capitalising on the creative minds of Australians from all walks,” he says.

The full report, authored by Hasan Bakhshi, Radhika Desai and Alan Freeman, can be found at:
http://cci.edu.au/sites/default/files/ccook/Not-Rocket-Science-Hasan-Bak...

The ARC Centre for Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) is helping to build a creative Australia through cutting edge research spanning the creative industries, media and communications, arts, cultural studies, law, information technology, education and business.

More information:
Hasan Bakhshi, NESTA and CCI, +44 7876 743142 (NB: Pls call in UK daytime)
Professor Stuart Cunningham, Director CCI and QUT, ph 0407 195 304, s.cunningham@qut.edu.au
Rebekah Denning, Manager CCI, ph +61 7 3138 3889
Julian Cribb, CCI media, 0418 639 245