1.5. Contribution to the field
This research develops a model for (artistic) research and development methods. This research improves the way people work together in interdisciplinary teams, and it provides insights into the working methods to enhance the collaboration among all team members.
This research provides a reference framework, the aRt&D Matrix, where all investigated research and development methods in the electronic arts are listed and described in detail. This aRt&D Matrix serves as a reference framework for multi- and interdisciplinary collaborations and for self-sufficient multitaskers. The core of the aRt&D Matrix represents the three main categories of the most commonly observed methods in collaborative electronic arts.
The problem solving or reductive method relates directly to design, engineering, science practice and industrial R&D.
The self-sufficient or DIY method refers to hacking, cultural activism, the autonomous or engaged artist. Multi-professional artists-scientists-engineers often favour this attitude.
The connecting and re-contextualizing approach or Processpatching method is where different knowledge fields, materials and technologies are patched together, remixed or repurposed. This is the overarching intrinsic artistic method which links to user centred design, participatory design and often uses principles of third spaces and boundary objects to facilitate the conceptual or knowledge space between the disciplines. The other two methods are often integrated into the Processpatching method.
The aRt&D Matrix outlines the artistic aim, or objectives and its correlation with the preferred method. It gives information about the characteristics of all observed methods and their most commonly used team compositions. Each method is supplemented with practical information about the team composition and details about the observed pitfalls and advantages. Each method is complemented with references to related theory and the most frequently observed application domain and/or type of collaboration. For each artistic method, the matching methods from other disciplines are provided. The artistic aim, the artistic methods, the team composition, and the related methods from other disciplines in the art&D Matrix create the basis for multi- and interdisciplinary collaboration models. The aRt&D Matrix is a beneficial reference framework for the acknowledgement of the arts outside the art context, which emphasise the value of the artistic input in the interdisciplinary collaboration. The newly proposed term Processpatching as a placeholder for the artistic method, contributes to the emancipation of artists in interdisciplinary collaborations. It gives the artistic research and development process a name and positions it in a larger research and development context. This research provides an improved vocabulary to describe today’s electronic art research and development practice. It raises the self-esteem for the electronic arts, which operates in a dynamic context outside the arts. It supplies the collaborators with an idiom to explain and discuss the possible work approaches from an art perspective, which contributes to the space and respect for the intrinsic value of art in multi- and interdisciplinary collaboration teams.
This research provides an improved and diagrammatic instrument, the aRt&D Triangle, for analysing the interdisciplinary collaboration process that exclusively reflects the information we need for an overview of the team constellation. The aRt&D Triangle is used to inform collaborators about the backgrounds of others and thus about the expected methods and approaches. It provides a clear map of the knowledge and expertise represented in the team. It also shows overlapping, or bordering backgrounds among team members, as well as the distance between the knowledge domains in the team.
This research contributes to the educational field of knowledge as it provides the basis for a toolkit and handbook for art and technology education. Future studies on this subject, as an extension of this research, should lead to an aRt&D handbook that deals with the uncovered practical details of implementing the processpatching method in practice. This study also provides a basis for further design of quality and evaluation criteria for practice-based master and/or doctoral studies of artists who work in multi or interdisciplinary teams.
