Finding the Research Question in Speculative Creative Practice

In this episode of Creative Practice Research Insights, Roy Hanney speaks with Michael Schwab, artist, artistic researcher and founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal for Artistic Research. The conversation explores one of the central challenges in artistic and creative practice research: how practice becomes research in forms that can be shared, encountered, reviewed and published. Rather than treating exposition as a simple act of explanation or documentation, Michael discusses how practice can be configured so that its research contribution becomes visible, legible and experienceable. The episode considers the relationship between articulation and exposition, the role of the Journal for Artistic Research and the Research Catalogue in shaping the field, and what it means to expose, stage or present practice as research. Roy and Michael also discuss how artistic research may involve restaging, rearranging, remediating or rearticulating practice, while staying close to the processes of making through which knowledge emerges. For listeners who want to understand the difference between articulation, research into articulation and research exposition more fully, we recommend following this episode by exploring the Journal for Artistic Research and the Research Catalogue. Read some of the JAR editorial material, look closely at the published expositions, and then explore these Research Catalogue examples, which help make clear how artistic research can be configured, staged and encountered in practice.  This conversation will be especially useful for doctoral researchers, supervisors, artists, designers, performers and creative practitioners working with practice-led, practice-based, artistic or creative practice research. It offers practical and conceptual guidance on how to move beyond simply describing a creative work, towards developing an exposition in which writing, images, sound, video, process, reflection and critical framing work together.

In this episode of Creative Practice Research Insights, Roy Hanney speaks with Dr Scott McLaughlin, Associate Professor in Composition and Music Technology at the University of Leeds. Scott is a composer and practice researcher whose work explores materiality, agency, indeterminacy and emergent musical structures. He is also closely involved in the development of practice research infrastructure through SPARKLE and the AHRC-funded ENACT Practice Research Data Service. The conversation focuses on a central challenge for creative practice researchers: how research generated through practice can be communicated without reducing or flattening the practice itself. Roy and Scott explore the distinction between research articulation and research exposition, methods for doing research and methods for sharing it, and the role of structured reflection in making creative research legible and reviewable. They also consider whether articulation might function as an intermediate stage between practice and exposition, helping researchers clarify their insights before returning them to more material, experiential or practice-specific forms. At the centre of the discussion is a deceptively simple question: should practice research primarily make its knowledge explicit, or should it create the conditions through which that knowledge can be encountered?

In this episode of the Creative Practice Research Insights Podcast, Roy Hanney speaks with Professor Craig Batty about how universities can develop a sustainable culture of creative practice research. Moving beyond individual projects, the conversation explores the institutional conditions needed to support creative practice research at scale. Topics include leadership, infrastructure, shared language, doctoral supervision, peer review, and the challenges universities face when recognising creative work as research. Craig reflects on the evolution of creative practice research over the past two decades and argues that creative practitioner-researchers play a crucial role within contemporary universities—bringing new methodologies, ways of thinking, and opportunities for collaboration across disciplines. Prof. Bio: Professor Craig Batty is Pro Vice-Chancellor for the College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities at Adelaide University. His research focuses on creative practice research, screenwriting, creative writing, and doctoral education in the creative arts. Over the past fifteen years he has contributed significantly to the development of creative practice research as a recognised field within universities, publishing widely on creative research methodologies, creative PhDs, and supervision in the creative arts. His recent work examines the broader infrastructure, policy, and institutional systems that support creative research cultures. Craig has supervised and examined numerous creative practice doctorates and has been closely involved in international conversations about how universities can better support practice-based research and creative scholarship.

Creative Media Practice Research Insights – Podcast Episode 8 What really happens to creative ideas once they leave the spark stage? How do they change, strengthen, stall, or — occasionally — make it onto a screen? In this episode, we enter the development room with two guests whose careers span the full lifecycle of ideas in the screen industries: Emma Millions is a development producer, screenwriter and tutor whose portfolio career includes shaping hundreds of pitch decks and developing projects across scripted and unscripted television. She has worked with a wide range of formats, coached emerging writers, and specialises in identifying potential in early-stage ideas. Paul Jackson is one of the UK’s most influential television producers and executives. His career includes major BBC and ITV leadership roles, producing iconic comedy and entertainment series such as The Young Ones, Red Dwarf, The Two Ronnies, and later commissioning large-scale entertainment formats including Britain’s Got Talent. His experience spans the UK, USA and Australia, giving him a unique global view of how ideas survive industry systems. Together, Emma and Paul offer a rare, candid conversation about how ideas actually move through development: how practitioners pitch and refine them, how producers assess their potential, and why decision-making processes so often feel opaque. We explore “development hell,” creative resilience, collaboration, and the structural conditions that influence whether an idea thrives. For researchers, practitioners and anyone interested in the hidden labour of idea development, this episode sheds light on a crucial but often under-discussed dimension of creative media practice. If you’re exploring creativity, pitching, production development, or the dynamics of the screen industries, this conversation will be especially valuable.

Creative Media Practice Research Insights — Episode 7 Where do creative ideas actually come from? How do practitioners notice them, feed them, and decide which ones are worth pursuing? In this episode, I’m joined by writer, producer and storyworld designer Alison Norrington, founder of StoryCentral. Rather than talking about platforms or production pipelines, we explore the earliest and often least visible stage of creative practice: the spark. Alison reflects on how ideas first make themselves known, the habits and environments that keep her creativity alive, and the ways she recognises when an idea has real potential. We also talk about intuition, curiosity, creative drift, what blocks the spark, and the small rituals that help ideas grow. This conversation opens up the generative side of creative media practice research, offering an intimate look at how creativity begins and how practitioners can sustain a life that welcomes ideas in. If you’re a creative practitioner, researcher, or anyone who’s ever wondered how to feed your imagination, this episode is for you.

This webinar with Dr Matthew Hawkins (Southbank University), one of the Screenworks editorial team, explores how their peer-review model for screen-based creative research could be adapted to non-textual practices. We’ll consider alternative ways to evaluate and validate creative practice research, offering insights for researchers, artists, and academics pursuing practice-based approaches.

In this seminar, Annette Arlander explores the speculative nature of creative practice research. Unlike traditional methods, practice often unfolds in pursuit of a question through intuition and experimentation. Arlander discusses how embracing uncertainty and speculative methods can generate research questions, foster interdisciplinary intersections, and open new insights.

Join filmmaker and academic Nick Cope as he discusses the challenges of completing a PhD by prior publication through practice. Reflecting on his own PhD, Northern Industrial Scratch, he explores documenting and theorising creative work retrospectively, and shares insights on archival research, autoethnography, and the British Scratch video art movement of the 1980s.

In this session, Dr Lyle Skains introduces the Theory of Change model for creative practice research. Using case studies, participants will learn to build pathways to impact in project planning, better articulate societal and cultural effects, and apply these strategies to achieve more focused, impactful outcomes.

This podcast helps creative practice researchers write compelling 300-word contextual statements using a proven structure from REF 2021. Through practical exercises, participants will learn to articulate their research's significance and impact, addressing key challenges faced by creative practitioners.