Associations is a collection of essays on creative practice-as-research that have emerged from a series of partnerships and graduate forums at the VCA— through the editor’s research and research training work —particularly in the context of expanded disciplinary practices. There is is an important spectrum of creative practice and knowledge production where institutional and epistemological grounds ever shift. Therefore, the emphasis of the collection is distinctly interdisciplinary and methodological, with the essays developing discussion on how theory and practice connect to activate research. The book integrates discussion on creative practice-as-research as a nexus of histories of research traditions across artistic research, artsbased research, qualitative social science and creative humanities.

The book is split into distinct sections: the first section comprises an introduction and the title essay; next is a section with a series of research manifestos, and then third section comprising a range of shorter essays articulating research practices.