Rescen, the Centre for Research into Creation in the Performing Arts was established at Middlesex University in 1999. The driving impetus behind the centre was the urge to understand better the creative processes which form and inform the work of artists in the performing arts today.

Here also was an opportunity to build on the growing synergy between the university sector and the world of the professional performing arts by recognising and affirming the knowledge base and skills that are present in each sector and by initiating a new interface between them.

Six practising artists were appointed as Research Associates and a seventh as Senior Researcher, supported by a Research Assistant who also had experience of arts practice. The Researchers carry on their professional careers while participating in the development of the work of the centre. The dialogue which began involved acknowledging the culture and language of artists and of academia –– equal weight was given to the voice of the artist, and at times that voice was even privileged.

This may seem to present a challenge to traditional views of the academic enterprise and questions arise concerning the nature of knowledge and the ways in which it can be communicated. The tension inherent in such a challenge is heightened by the centre’s focus on furthering understanding of the practice of creation and the methodologies which are deployed in this practice. While analyses of artistic artefacts have provided insights in the past, our central concern is the artistic process, involving the engagement of both conscious crafting and intuitive decision-making in an array of complex and subtle interactions. We believe that this is an arena in which expertise and knowledge are demonstrated and which merits specific attention.

We recognise that creation in the performing arts can be seen to be mediated by social and artistic conventions and constructions, but these factors also interact with, and are mediated in turn by, the artist’s individual inspiration, and the perhaps idiosyncratic way in which they manipulate the materials of their medium.

It is possible that the elusive nature of the act of creation which lies at the heart of the performing arts will defy attempts to examine or illuminate it and so this undertaking is undoubtedly ambitious. Nonetheless, the contributions in The Rescen Papers demonstrate that there are artists who are willing to work towards expressing, in words and other media, both the concerns of their work, and the ways in which these concerns are made manifest.

The Rescen Papers have a particular role to play as they are designed to communicate initial thoughts, perhaps not always wholly formulated, so that colleagues can respond and contribute to the development and the articulation of the debate/knowledge base. My thanks to all those whose efforts have made this online publication possible and we look forward to the debates which will flow from it.