Looking back to the Arts and Humanities Research Board’s (AHRB) September 2003 Response to Consultation entitled 'The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and Research in the Creative and Performing Arts' and looking forward to the 2008 RAE audit itself, this essay is concerned with some aspects of the contentious discourse which surrounds research by creative artwork, specifically, in the following sections: i) the fundaments of the antagonism between those who believe fine art practice to be research in itself and those audit managers who do not; ii) the potentially perilous status for fine art research within the institution as a result of that antagonism; and iii) the objectifying pressure of imputed institutional need prescribed by audit managers which sustains the antagonism.