Robin Nelson

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Lineages and Principles: The What, Where, When and Why of PaR

Practice as Research in the Arts (and Beyond)

Validating Arts Research

This article reflects on the worth of the arts in an academic context partly in the light of the ... more This article reflects on the worth of the arts in an academic context partly in the light of the author's experience of formal UK research audit as a sub-panel member (RAE 2008; REF 2014). First the article outlines the emergence and development of UK audit culture, bringing out its upsides and downsides as perceived from different points of view. It proceeds to consider the formal acceptance of practice-based arts inquiries as knowledge-producing within the academy by relating the protocols of UK research audit for handling Practice as Research. Intelligent, investigative arts and media practice may well constitute research but the articulation, evidencing and dissemination of research inquiries and insights pose several challenges. Thirdly, it briefly explores a case for the value of Practice as Research as knowledge-producing in the broader context of interdisciplinary approaches to research within the Arts & Humanities and beyond. It challenges the historic divide between th...

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Mapping Intermediality in Performance

Contemporary Theatre Review, 2011

thank Jeroen Sondervan, the series editor, for commissioning this volume and Chantal Nicolaes and... more thank Jeroen Sondervan, the series editor, for commissioning this volume and Chantal Nicolaes and the production team at AUP for realising the publication so efficiently. We also thank Emmy Kattenbelt for her work on constructing the index and Miguel Escobar for designing the diagrams of the nodes. Last but not least we thank the contributors for their willingness to engage in many dialogues and to adjust their writings to the purposes of the book in what, for us, has been a gratifying, because genuinely interactive, process.

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PaR PhDs: A Guideline/Clew to a Successful Outcome for All (Candidates, Examiners, Administrators, Regulators)

Practice as Research in the Arts, 2013

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After Brecht: the Impact (Effects, Affects) of Intermedial Theatre

Mettre en scène, 2008

This article addresses claims made about the impact of intermedial theatre with reference to exam... more This article addresses claims made about the impact of intermedial theatre with reference to examples of contemporary practice. In particular it makes references to Brecht in this context and differentiates between Brechtian politics and aesthetics. The professed aim of intermedial practitioners to dislocate the bearings of experiencers of their work and to afford new perceptions by means of a radical play between mediums appears to resonate, at the level of principles of composition, with Brecht’s “radical separation of the elements.” However, at the level of politics, Brecht’s drama sought a broader understanding of isolated individuals by inviting audiences to see their experience in connection with a total historical process. But, regarding the Marxist trajectory in which Brecht’s practice was located, the context changed markedly post-1968, and beyond recognition post-1989. The article thus proposes that a new formulation is required of the impacts of new perceptions elicited b...

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Practice-as-research and the Problem of Knowledge

Performance Research, 2006

... Whilst Descartes' 'cogito' appears to re-affirm the denigration of embodied kn... more ... Whilst Descartes' 'cogito' appears to re-affirm the denigration of embodied knowledge in the western intellectual tradition and thus appears to do a dis-service to 'practice-as-research' from one point of view, from another perspective Descartes' fresh approach opens up ...

Locating Poliakoff: an Auteur in Contemporary TV Drama

Journal of British Cinema and Television, 2006

Stephen Poliakoff has quietly, but consciously, worked his way into a position held by very few t... more Stephen Poliakoff has quietly, but consciously, worked his way into a position held by very few television playwrights in the UK historically, let alone today: that of a distinctive voice in the medium. Though Poliakoff is a very different writer from Dennis Potter, he is emerging as a figure of similar standing. He has recently been acclaimed internationally with an Emmy award (2005) for The Lost Prince and his national standing is evidenced by his invitation to deliver a masterclass to the assembled great and good of the British television industry at the Edinburgh International Television Festival in August, 2005. These are just the latest institutional markers of esteem accorded to him over and above his celebrity status, with a BBC television profile prior to the showing of Perfect Strangers (BBC1 2000) and as guest on Desert Island Discs (BBC Radio 4, 13 March 2005). Poliakoff is critically acclaimed as an author of ‘good’ TV drama but he is valorised from specific, if often unconscious, discursive positions within the industry and the academy. This first part of a triptych case study of ‘Poliakoff and “good” TV drama’ aims to place him in context and to unpack the particular values for which he, and his work as an auteur, stands. In the early years of television, as documented in George Brandt’s British Television Drama (1981), the authorial voice of the playwright was privileged. Brandt’s edited collection includes, amongst others, essays on Trevor Griffiths, David Mercer, Jeremy Sandford and Peter Watkins as well as Potter. TV drama was initially seen as the individual writer’s medium. Subsequently, as soaps and other serial drama forms have become the medium’s standard for small screen fictions, teams of writers have been required for an industrial process delivering, in some instances, several hours of drama week on week. Though it may not be the case, the output of a team of writers in an industrial process reminiscent of a production line has been regarded in Britain to be relatively low in quality. In the USA, in contrast, the teams of writers who

‘Quality Television’: ‘<i>The Sopranos</i> is the best television drama ever … in my humble opinion …’

Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies, 2006

(Chase Films/HBO, 1999– ) is the best television drama ever, my antenna immediately detected a va... more (Chase Films/HBO, 1999– ) is the best television drama ever, my antenna immediately detected a value claim and led me to question the assertion. It is not that I don’t admire The Sopranos: far from it. But that being amongst the few in the past decade to address questions of quality in television – and occasionally being misunderstood in consequence – my reflexes are honed. By what criteria might such a judgement be made? The cinematic production values? Commercial success on a niche, subscription channel? The distinctive use of the medium of television’s narrative modes? The cultural value of the series? Responding to my querying of her judgement – no doubt more sharply uttered than is polite – my colleague qualified her observation to say, ‘well, in my humble opinion it is . . .’ What might helpfully be unpacked from this dialogue? First, statements are made about quality all the time, often with the enthusiasm of conviction: they are deeply woven into the fabric of everyday life. Secondly, that where people on the street may be more confident about their choices, media academics, lacking secure ground on which to stand to justify value assertions, feel uneasy when confronted. This is in part because, both on the streets and in the academy, tastes and values increasingly have personal implications. But, whilst people on the streets have their confidence in their ‘personal choice’ consumer individualism reaffirmed daily, academics sustain a sense that value-judgements require some measure of objectivity, and their awareness that personal feeling and identity are in play is what makes them sometimes feel even more uncomfortable. Television studies academics properly aim to stand at a critical distance and to encourage students to become aware of value-positions. But assuming a critical standpoint can be in tension with their emotional commitment to a text. Thirdly, the dialogue perhaps indicates shifting discursive fashions, evidencing a breaking of the academic evaluative silence. It has recently been asserted with confidence, for example, that ‘American fictional television is now better than the movies!’ I will return, directly or indirectly, to all these points in what follows. ‘Quality Television’: ‘The Sopranos is the best television drama ever ... in my humble opinion ...’

State of Play: Contemporary" High-End" TV Drama

Robin Nelson's State of play updates and develops the arguments of his influential TV drama i... more Robin Nelson's State of play updates and develops the arguments of his influential TV drama in transition (1997). It is equally distinctive in setting analysis of the aesethetics and compositional principles of texts within a broad conceptual framework (technologies, institutions, economics, cultural trends). Tracing 'the great value shift from conduit to content' (Todreas, 1999), Nelson is relatively optimistic about the future quality of TV drama in a global market-place. But, characteristically taking up questions of worth where others have avoided them, Nelson recognises that certain types of 'quality' are privileged for viewers able to pay, possibly at the expense of viewer preference worldwide for 'local' resonances in television. The mix of arts and cultural studies methodologies makes for an unusual and insightful approach.

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