Editorial: Black sheep of academia? - Recontextualising Creative Practice-based Research

Practice-based research, under many names and sub-categories, has been present and increasingly vibrant (although mostly limited in its recognition to the UK and Australia) for several decades now. A number of rich, insightful texts have been written about the phenomenon, and some significant work has been done towards academia's recognition of practice-based research as a legitimate and valuable form of new contribution to knowledge. Not to mention some fantastic and innovative creative practice work that keeps appearing and inspiring myself and others alike. For someone who has struggled with her professional identity for a very long time (keeping my creative and intellectual hungers separate, not knowing how to reconcile both in one coherent action-after all, who would be the target audience for that!?), the realisation that there IS a legitimate space on the crossroads between creative world and academia was a very joyful one. It would be too optimistic, however, to claim that there are no struggles for those engaged in creative practice research. There are still numerous challenges with the identity of many such works, difficulties to manage disciplinary rules, which, in turn, lead to often confused expectations of supervisors, examiners, funding bodies, publishers, and HE institutions, let alone the audiences. With great examples of practice-based work comes a question: not only what this kind of research means, but how do we go about it, nurture it, train and support new creative practitioners, and, why do we do it in the first place. This Special Issue and all the widespread work surrounding it comes from a genuine passion. What keeps me happy and motivated every day are the vast possibilities of practice based research, the joy of creativity is promises, it's rebellious potential (who doesn't appreciate that!), but also the amazing opportunities it brings. I truly believe that creative An interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed and open access academic journal devoted to pushing forward the approaches to and possibilities for publishing creative media-based research.