ADSA Performance as Research Guidelines

Summary: The aim of these guidelines is to assist academics, early career researchers and postgraduate students in formulating and assessing Performance as Research projects. The aim of these guidelines is not to prescribe rigid criteria that inhibit creative approaches to research. Rather, these guidelines are offered as a benchmark for the minimum standards of excellence that should be expected of performance projects conducted as research in academia. The various ADSA discussion papers and initiatives in the area of Performance as Research form the basic framework through which the following guidelines have been formulated and consolidated (See Richards 1995). A driving force behind these early initiatives was the imperative by ADSA to legitimise Performance as Research as a valid and valuable mode of academic inquiry. While Performance as Research is now an accepted and established mode of inquiry in academia, and is joined by other Practice as Research courses offered by Arts and Humanities faculties, the guidelines offered below respond to the need to remain vigilant and critical of creative research practices to ensure that such practices remain beyond reproach and fulfil the requirements of rigorous academic scholarship. While Performance as Research responds to multiple epistemologies and modes of understanding, it should not be considered a form of subjective inquiry devoid of critical or objective reflection.

A successful Performance as Research Project will:

• Offer an original contribution to knowledge.
• Articulate and engage a clear and relevant research question or hypothesis.
• Demonstrate a clear and thoughtful methodology.
• Demonstrate a clear and thoughtful project design.
• Demonstrate critical reflection through the various stages of the research project. Performance as Research is not a way to re-affirm prescribed convictions of the researcher, but rather a method through which those convictions can be re-examined and critically assessed.
• Attempt to balance research and performance, with neither afforded more significance over the other. Research aims, methodology, and project design are balanced with the practical demands of theatre practice, rehearsal, and final presentation of the performance event.
• Demonstrate an effort to document the research and creative processes.

References

Richards, Allison. ‘Performance as Research’ (Discussion Paper). Australasian Drama Studies Association Annual Conference. Armidale, NSW: University of New England, July, 1995. Accessible online at http://www.adsa.edu.au/research/performance-as-research.