Special Section Introduction: Artists in Industry and the Academy: Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations

This special series of articles came together at the College Art Association (CAA) anual conference, held in Seattle in February 2004. I convened a panel of the same title to discuss the varieties and qualities of contributions that artists can make in industrial and academic research and to identify the processes and contexts that help or hinder such collaborations. The goal was twofold: (1) to motivate further scholarship about the subject; and (2) to provide insight into artistic collaborations that would make a strong case for industry and the academy to expand their support. It is hoped that the lively discussion begun at CAA and presented here will motivate further discourse among Leonardo's international readership.

My introductory remarks in Seattle noted that the involvement of artists in research appears to be shifting in the U.S.A. from corporations to universities, while at the same time several organizations to study and support artistic collaborations have emerged. Despite gaining substantial critical attention, high-profile artist-in-residence programs at Xerox PARC and at Interval Research Corporation have closed since 2000. By contrast, new graduate programs at the intersections of art, science and engineering are emerging internationally. While staff artists and designers routinely collaborate with scientists and engineers in industry, the applicability of corporate methods and practices to university research contexts is unknown.

Alongside these developments, many nonprofit and governmental organizations and institutions have played an important role in promoting discourse on this topic. Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI) supports communication and exchange through talks, exhibitions and conferences. The BRIDGES Consortium organized symposia in 2001 and 2002 on interdisciplinary collaboration in the arts, sciences and engineering, resulting in substantial reports. In November 2001, the Arts Council of England sponsored the symposium "Ways of Working: Placing Artists in Business Contexts," with proceedings subsequently published on CD-ROM. In 2003, the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Zürich spearheaded the Artists in Labs program, creating residencies for artists to collaborate with scientific research laboratories in Switzerland.

Despite a fascinating history and the vibrancy of current practices internationally, there is a paucity of scholarly literature on interdisciplinary collaboration involving artists. That is beginning to change. Since 1999 the Rockefeller Foundation has sponsored important reports on innovation and culture, new media funding, and museums and new media. In May 2003, the Arts Lab project published a feasibility study for a hybrid art center and research lab. Also in 2003, the National Academies Press published the report Beyond Productivity[1]. Psychologist Brigitte Steinheider and artist George Legrady have presented their research in this field at ISEA2002 and in Leonardo[2]. A preliminary bibliography on the subject is available on-line at <http://artexetra.com>, including references for many of the projects and publications discussed here.

Given the increasing dedication of cultural resources to engaging artists and designers in science and technology research, there is great need for scholarship that analyzes case studies, identifies best practices and working methods, and proposes methods for evaluating both the hybrid products of these endeavors and the contributions of the individuals engaged in them. This scholarship may itself demand interdisciplinary teams that can study the psychological, ethnographic and anthropological aspects of the collaborative process, as well as the aesthetic, technical and scientific dimensions of its outcomes.