Ethics of Artistic Research and Artistic Engagement – Ties Van De Werff

Ethics is an understudied domain within artistic research. Established disciplines (such as the sciences, or specific art fields) often have a shared tradition of exemplary practices (both good and bad), methodological rules and mores, and a code of conduct that together constitute what counts as a proper and desirable research practice. As artistic research is a young and emerging field, artistic researchers cannot fall back on such shared norms, conventions and traditions. That is partly due to the specific character of artistic research: an artistic research project ideally comes with its own context and criteria by which it can be evaluated. Yet, when embedded in (high arts education) institutions or positioning themselves in societal debates, artistic researchers have to engage with issues such as quality, relevance, and integrity. In this on-going research, I explore the ethical space of artistic research. I do this by studying how ethical standards from other knowledge domains (i.e. the integrity code) can be translated towards practices of artistic research. What does integrity mean in the practice of artistic research? How to cultivate and organize an artistic research culture? I also explore the specifics of an ethics of artistic research, by explicating valuations of good art in practices and debates around artistic engagement. How can we understand what (engaged) artists do? How do they make their art valuable? And what gets counted as good engaged art, and by whom?