Cultural hybrids, post-disciplinary digital practices and new research frameworks: Testing the limits

Abstract

Discipline boundaries are currently undergoing considerable redefinition, and the process of forging new frontiers results in both theoretical and practical challenges that require exploration. New and hybrid forms of interdisciplinary research not only test existing disciplinary limits, they also produce new objects for study which, in turn, require new methodologies. This paper explores the impact on current research cultures of the blurring of discipline boundaries and the emergence of cultural hybrids. One of the key arguments in the paper is that the capacity to move reflexively between cultural practices and across discipline boundaries is central to the development of a more expansive research culture. As boundaries continue to erode, the post disciplinary practices that are tentatively emerging are porous, fuzzy-edged and indeterminate. Post disciplinary practices are cultural hybrids, and as such they are well placed to refuse to accept hierarchies of knowledge that are offered as repositories of universal values. As cultural hybrids, post disciplinary practices retain knowledge of the specificities of disciplines and of their histories, but they are also inherently transgressive and capable of operating outside the limitations imposed by those disciplines. Feminist theory has already pointed out that, if the disciplinary space is defined as autonomous and ahistorical, then the social relations of power and dominance that are inherent in that space remain unacknowledged. The paper argues that post disciplinarity is emerging in the context of an evolving cultural narrative in which the notion of situated knowledge is emphasised. Digital technologies make a particular contribution to the erosion of discipline boundaries, and practitioners in new media are often ahead of the thinking in the disciplines themselves. While this can produce a fluid and intellectually exciting environment for research, it doesnt necessarily generate a shared and commonly accepted critical language. This is a situation that can create real difficulties for academics and students alike as far as recognition of, and funding for, research is concerned. Since an increasing amount of research is also collaborative, there are also unresolved issues to do with authorship and ownership. The gap between accepted and familiar boundaries of research territories and new and emergent conceptual boundaries and territories clearly affects the development of future research agendas. This paper will discuss some of the implications of an evolving post disciplinary and digitised environment for research practices in art and design, in the context of the on-going tension between the objectification of knowledge on the one hand, and innovation and creativity on the other. Summary Redefined discipline boundaries produce new and hybrid forms of interdisciplinary research that test existing disciplinary limits, and produce new objects for study. Digital technologies have a particular contribution to make to the evolving cultural narrative in which post disciplinarity and the significance of situated knowledge are increasingly recognised