Abstract written by Dr Robin Burgess, Glasgow School of Art on the application of Emergy accountancy to arts related data

1. The application of Emergy accountancy to arts related data to help
determine the impact of this data on society.
Dr Robin Burgess
The Glasgow School of Art, 167 Renfrew Street, Glasgow, G3 6RQ, United
Kingdom. R.burgess@gsa.ac.uk
Abstract
The use of emergy accounting within the context of arts related research is
relatively new. Therefore the purpose of this research is to investigate the
methods by which emergy accountancy can be applied to data collected by The
Glasgow School of Art (GSA), to assess the impact of this research data on
society. The research will be split into three components. The first component
will investigate how the method of emergy accountancy can be applied to arts
related data (e.g. design, fine art, architecture), from the development of indices
and the calculation of transformities that capture the emergy delivered by the
object, design or space. Secondly, the research will look at the effects that arts
related data has on our society and the social system through the application of
emergy analysis and social sciences attributes to assess the emergy received or
absorbed by the viewer or user. Finally and the conclusion of the research will be
to look at how art based databases and information systems can help us to better
understand the role of art in societies. By applying emergy accountancy methods
to the data collected by GSA, we will be able to add an extra dimension to our
analysis quantifying the feedback from research projects – with particular focus
on the impact to society, which is a fundamental aspect assessed during the
Research Excellence Framework (REF) Assessment performed on all higher
education institutes in the UK.