Unbearable fiction

Graham Crowley's letter touches briefly but provocatively on 'research'. He points out that RAE 'ties up scarce resources, and can result in an unbearable kind of fiction'. We all understand about scarce resources, but what about this 'unbearable fiction'?

Art teachers, already under pressure, are being asked to perform 'research' according to an alien template imported from other disciplines. Many feel demoralised and bewildered at having to bend and damage their own practice to meet this demand. It now appears that complex, rich and sophisticated art forms - such as painting, sculpture or filmmaking - are insufficient in themselves; they remain incomplete unless legitimised through some spurious research process. Increasingly, there is a sense that publications - the measureable 'outputs' of such research - are more valued than the objects themselves. What is unbearable about this is that, before long, an art school will be measured by the valuable fiction of its publications rather than artists working in the studio. There is a robust and independent tradition of art teachers making their own work. Some of course will continue in this vein. Others, who feel under pressure to perform, may find themselves increasingly complicit in our new tick-box culture.

Michael Crowther from the letters page, Art Monthly, May 2008.

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