Creative Investment: Arts and Humanities Research and the ‘Innovation Economy’
Convener:
Creative Investment: Arts and Humanities Research and the 'Innovation Economy' will explore these issues in order to address the question: how do we evidence and assess innovation? A series of three workshops will bring together participants from the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, along with policy experts and representatives of the creative industries, to investigate the potential contribution of Arts and Humanities research to the ‘innovation economy’. Drawing on case studies from academic and practice-based arts research, each workshop will focus on examples of creative and innovative interactions between and across disciplines. Workshops will focus on the following core issues and questions: (1) the notion of evaluation and risk with respect to innovative processes; (2) the role of collaborative groups in relation to knowledge production, group psychology, and intellectual property; and (3) the relation between interdisciplinarity, innovation and institutional transformation.
The main objectives of the Workshops are:
• To advance knowledge and understanding of creative innovation within the Arts and Humanities domain and define values and risks associated with it;
• To assess the potential value of the Arts and Humanities for the innovation economy;
• To make evident the heterogeneous forms taken by innovation, drawing on case-studies and practice-based Arts and Humanities research;
• To identify innovative modes of knowledge production and suggest institutional strategies to support and advance innovation in the Arts and Humanities domain.
Workshop 1: Innovation and Risk
Competitive pressures generate heterogeneous forms of innovation. Is it possible to evaluate unconventional projects? The term innovation is heavily associated with products and technologies. These may be evaluated in terms of patents and econometrics, but intellectual processes and organisational transformations are more elusive. Successful solutions to problems in the fields of science and technology often come from different disciplines (Lakhani et al, The Value of Openness, 2007), while artistic creativity can stimulate shifts in traditional patterns of analytical thinking. How do we measure these aspects of innovation in the Arts and Humanities?
How can public organisations foster creativity without risking
investment in areas that may not produce immediate outputs? The
open-endedness of creative innovation poses a challenge to traditional
modes of evaluation, since an element of risk is inherent in creative
processes and innovative research. While the risk associated with
open-ended innovation has gained acceptance in the economic world,
there is little tolerance for risk in the Arts and Humanities, where it
is often written out of funding proposals and replaced by specified
goals and cost-effective outputs. A tension exists between public
funding regimes and practices of research that call for ‘open
innovation’ or long-term prospects.
Questions to be posed include:
• Are existing metrics adequate for assessing innovation?
• How can we assess the impact of knowledge transfer processes on the innovation economy?
• How far do instrumental ideas about knowledge apply to humanities research and practice-based innovation?
• Does an emphasis on goals and outputs constrain innovative practice?
• Can innovation in the Arts and Humanities be assessed in terms of economic impact? What are its transferable benefits?
• What is the cultural value and meaning of creative innovation?
Workshop 2: Creativity and Innovation in Groups
8 May 2009
Innovation is increasingly linked to collaborative research despite a traditional emphasis on the solitary researcher or lone creative artist. What are the tensions between innovation and creativity in individual research or creative practice and collaborative work? The second workshop will explore the relation between the production of knowledge and creative innovation in groups, drawing on specific expertise in group psychology and intellectual property alongside case studies of collaborative practice in the Arts and Humanities, making comparisons with science and technology collaborations.
As researchers are required to make their research accessible to disparate communities, broadening dissemination and deepening public engagement, the collaborative group becomes increasingly focal. Often overlooked in the promotion of collaborative and interdisciplinary groups are factors required for groups to work creatively within institutions. Despite the value placed on collaboration by research councils, there is little systematic implementation or understanding of collaborative models. The workshop will explore and identify factors that promote or impede collaborative research by groups in academic institutions and practice-based research.
Questions to be posed include:
• What are the demonstrable benefits of collaboration for creative innovation and how might these be identified?
• What specific problems and/or creative processes are associated with working in groups?
• How do current legislative practices governing accreditation and attribution of ideas (e.g. copyright law) impact on collaborative research and the wider innovative economy?
• How can collaborative work best be fostered in the Arts and Humanities, and what are its benefits for the innovation economy?
Workshop 3: Interdisciplinarity and Innovation
25 June 2009
As institutions come under pressure from new educational and social paradigms, innovation within the educational economy takes the form of disciplinary innovation. What counts as knowledge? For instance, film and IT have transformed both content and forms of educational instruction. Changing practices of knowledge production bring into question disciplinary boundaries and emphasise the subject as well as object of knowledge. The third and final workshop will examine disciplinary change as a driver for innovation and institutional transformation.
Knowledge is produced in a wide range of contexts within and beyond universities, including practice-based research. It often involves organisations or individuals linked by networks rather than institutions (Gibbons et al, The New Production of Knowledge, 1994). Universities of the future will have to create platforms for such networks while staking out new space for themselves in the marketplace of ideas. The interdisciplinary Humanities Centre or programme provides one paradigm for disciplinary innovation. But the transfer of knowledge between disciplines does not necessarily guarantee innovation. What models are needed to facilitate disciplinary innovation and how does disciplinary innovation relate to institutional changes in Arts and Humanities research?
Questions to be posed include:• What forms of innovation and creativity are linked to disciplinary change in the Arts and Humanities?
• What is the impact of innovation and creativity on institutional practices of learning and teaching?
• How are bodies of knowledge and methods of understanding themselves transformed through disciplinary innovation?
• What organisational or institutional models facilitate disciplinary innovation?
• How do we best encourage and support innovation in academic and practice-based research?
