Social Dynamics of Knowledge Communication within Higher Education: the Case of an Art-science Collaboration

1 Michael Biggs, Professor of Aesthetics, University of Hertfordshire, England, [email protected] 2 Daniela Büchler, Senior Research Fellow, School of Creative Arts, University of Hertfordshire, England, [email protected] 3 Simeon Nelson, Professor of Sculpture, University of Hertfordshire, England, [email protected] Abstract ⎯ At the University of Hertfordshire [UH] in UK we have hosted a series of research projects into the changing nature of the arts as it has been progressively academicized and incorporated into the university community. We have observed that the dominant knowledge model of the academic community is the scientific one, valorising text-based reasoning, empirical research and determinacy. We have observed professional arts, on the other hand, valorising nontextual communication, conceptual research and indeterminacy. This struggle for legitimacy can be described in terms of vocational versus academic values, and the different capital and habitus of the actors. In our paper we describe the social space of the contemporary arts in the university. We take as a case study a recent report by an arts professor at UH on an arts-science collaboration which shows how this struggle was played out, and the values and capital mobilized by the various actors.