The 'poietic' turn: creative arts research in the academy

This article is concerned with creative arts practices as forms of knowing, and as forms capable of expressing this knowing. Our aim here is to make sense of the factors that have driven creative artists into the university over the last three decades, and to articulate how creative practices function in the present ‘research’ context. We argue that, after three decades of creative arts practice aligning to university notions of ‘research’, something important is happening to both. We think a ‘poietic turn’ is underway within university research that may have profound implications for scholarship and for the sector more broadly. In making this case we consider what, historically, creative arts have brought to the university and why, and we reflect on this thing called ‘research’ and where it is heading. Finally, we suggest that creative arts methods and practices (that constitute this ‘poietic turn’) may offer important tools through which scholars can understand and respond to the forms of personal, communal, and global stewardship required for our contemporary times.