University of Hertfordshire

This chapter considers the possibility of an “institutional theory of artistic research”. It proposes four distinct quadrants in which one might look for evidence for such a theory, which needs to have the capacity to accommodate the diverse positions on artistic research in the literature. The quadrants ("explicit", "implicit", "generic", and "specific") form a Boolean square with which one may also consider the contested term “doctorateness” in any field. The chapter concludes in due course, artistic research will gain a voice that causes researchers to re-describe activity in other disciplines owing to the way in which artistic research will be described.