Product Code Database
Henk Borgdorff (1954) is an Amsterdam-based academic, specialised in music theory and artistic research. He is emeritus professor for research in the arts at Leiden University and at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, University of the Arts The Hague (Netherlands).
/ref> and acted as chair of the editorial board until 2008.
In 2002 Borgdorff was appointed professor ('lector') in Art Theory & Research at the Amsterdam University of the Arts (until 2010) where he led an interdisciplinary research group, ARTI (Art Research, Theory, and Interpretation). His own research started form there on to focus on the theoretical and political rationale of research in the arts (artistic research; more on this below.) Together with Jeroen Boomgaard (Rietveld Academy) he founded the Artistic Research master programme at the University of Amsterdam, and together with Peter Dejans (Orpheus Institute, Ghent) and Frans de Ruiter (Royal Conservatory of The Hague) he established the doctoral programme in music, docARTES.docARTES: http://www.docartes.be/en.
In 2010 Borgdorff took a position as professor ('lector'
/ref> Leiden University, and acted as academic director of ACPA until his retirement in December 2020.
/ref> and the associated Society for Artistic Research (SAR). He served as editor of JAR from 2010 to 2015, co-founded the Research Catalogue Research Catalogue in 2011, acted as president of SAR from 2015 to 2019.
/ref>
In his 2005 The Debate on Research in the Arts(Sensuous Knowledge 02), Bergen, Bergen National Academy of the Arts (2006) Borgdorff introduces four perspectives on the relationship between theory and practice in the arts: the interpretative, instrumental, performative and immanent perspective.Cf. Neil, K. (2017) 'Artistic Intensity: Redescribing Redundant Dualism'. Theory Art Practices. ArtEZ Academia, 14 (NUR651). ArtEZ Press, Amsterdam, pp. 102-123. These perspectives form the basis for a distinction between three forms of art research: research on the arts, research for the arts, and research in and through the arts (the latter synonymously with artistic research), thereby deviating from an earlier distinction made by Christopher Frayling.Frayling, Chr. (1993). Research in Art and Design, Royal College of Art Research Papers series, 1.1 (London: Royal College of Art).Mustaqim, K., R. Adiwijaya and F. Indrajaya. (2014) Research on the Study of Art and Design: A Study on the Paradigmatic Philosophical Framework towards the Field of Visual Arts and Design Research. Conference Proceeding: 1st International Conference on Creative Media, Design & Technology. REKA 2014
In ‘The Production of Knowledge in Artistic Research’ (2011)Borgdorff, H. (2011). The Production of Knowledge in Artistic Research. Biggs M. and H. Karlsson. Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts. London/New York: Routledge, pp. 44-63. Borgdorff has worked out more in detail the specific epistemological and methodological features of artistic research, drawing on research on tacit knowledge and embodied knowledge.Polanyi, M. (1958). Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy London: Routledge and Kegan PaulKiverstein, J. and A. Clark. (2009). ‘Introduction: Mind Embodied, Embedded, Enacted: One Church or Many?’, Topoi, 28: 1-7.Johnson, M. (2011) 'Embodied Knowing through Art'. Biggs M. and H. Karlsson. Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts. London/New York: Routledge. By comparing artistic research with research in the humanities, the social and natural sciences Borgdorff subsequently develops an understanding of artistic research as an advanced form of academic research in its own right, marked by non-conceptual forms of knowing and understanding,Gunther, Y.H. (2003). Essays on Nonconceptual Content. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press unconventional research methods and outcomes,The Australian Council of Deans and Directors of Creative Arts. (n.d.) 'Non-Traditional Research Outcomes'
The contribution of Borgdorff’s work to science policiesCf. Kälvemark, T. (2011). 'University Politics and Practice-based Research'. Biggs M. and H. Karlsson. Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts. London/New York: Routledge. is most manifest in his Artistic Research within the Fields of Science (2009). Interpreting Gibbons’ Mode-2 knowledge production Gibbons, M., C. Limoges, S. Schwartzman, H. Nowotny, M. Trow and P. Scott. (1994). The New Production of Knowledge: the dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies, London: Sage Publications. and Stokes’ Quadrant model of scientific research,Stokes, D.E. (1997). Pasteur’s Quadrant – Basic Science and Technological Innovation, Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press. he makes a case for including artistic research in the Frascati Manual's OECD. (2015) The Measurement of Scientific, Technological and Innovation Activities
In his later work Borgdorff has focused on the criteria for assessment of artistic research,Borgdorff H. and J. Haarberg (2013). 'Research Assessment and Qualification Frameworks'. SHARE Handbook for Artistic Research Education, edited by Wilson. M. and S. van Ruiten, ELIA, 230-38. Cf. Chapter 10 and 11 in Borgdorff 2012. and on the relationship between artistic research and science and technology studies (STS).Borgdorff, H., P. Peters and T. Pinch. (2020). Dialogues between Artistic Research and Science and Technology Studies. London/New York: Routledge. Cf. Nowotny, H. (2011) 'Foreword'. Biggs M. and H. Karlsson, Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts. London/New York: Routledge. pp. xviii-xxvi
/ref> and enhanced forms of documentation and publication.Schwab, M. and H. Borgdorff. (2014) The Exposition of Artistic Research. Publishing Art in academia. Leiden: Leiden University Press
/ref>
Criticism
Borgdorff’s work has been criticized by some as inimical to art practice and to facilitate an objectionable form of academization of art.Pültau, D. (2012) 'Alle macht aan de universiteiten. Over The Conflict of Faculties. Perspectives on Artistic Research and Academia van Henk Borgdorff'. Witte Raaf. Editie 159 September-oktober 2012.
Books authored or edited
External links
|
|
