Approaching knowledge, research, performance and the arts

For the contributors and most readers of this collection, it would seem obvious that art and performance are interdependent with research and practice and that art is significant in the creation, discovery, production, and circulation of knowledge. Yet, historically and in diverse institutions and discourses, this is neither self-evident nor accepted. From the viewpoint of public awareness and for some academics, the arts and performance, particularly as they have evolved over the past century, are considered difficult to demonstrably isolate as objects or entities. Moreover, and regardless of the area of study, the question of what precisely constitutes research and how knowledge is defined, produced, and communicated is problematic. Today, paradigms, methods, systems of verification, and boundaries of knowledge are persistently under examination in every field and discourse, whether in the arts, humanities, sciences, social sciences, or in multiple, developing inter- and cross-disciplinary areas.