Taming your inner artist – creative practice research as a form of conceptual art (of jazz players of academia)

Creative practice research has been a prolific and promising marriage of arts and academia, and it has produced a great number of quality work from across disciplines. Still, seen as a bit of an eccentric entity by more traditional research communities, which often leads to a slight confusion or misunderstanding of what it stands for and how it’s to be managed. Questions that keep coming back are: what exactly is creative practice research, where does the new contribution to knowledge happen, what is the relation between theory and practice, what if there is no tangible output to speak of at all, and how to demonstrate academic rigour are just some of many questions that keep coming back This provocation proposes to consider creative practice research as a form of conceptual art. As such, it responds to the clear necessity to use creative practice (in any shape or form) as a response to the pursuit of knowledge and clearly defined ideas. This paper will explore the implications of this proposal and how it might lead to a slightly alternative consideration for creative practice research and its value in academia.