This is the first video cast about
creative research methods. | I wrote a
book on this which was published in 2015.
It's a fast-moving field and quite a
lots happened since then but
nevertheless I think what I wrote is
still quite relevant.  So when I was
writing the book I really looked for
examples of creative methods and I read
about 800 research reports I think about
500 made them into the book and about
100 era used as detailed boxed examples.
So quite a big body of knowledge to draw
on and as I was doing that work that
reading I became aware that the research
that I was reading really fell into four
broad categories they're not mutually
exclusive of course and some research
falls into more than one or falls into
three or in a few cases even all four.
But essentially these categories are as
you can see arts-based research some
people think that is creative research
methods but actually it's just a subset
although an important subset.  There's
also some very creative work being done
using technology in research.  Mixed
methods research is perhaps one of the
most mature examples and then there are
transformative research frameworks such
as feminist research,  participatory
research,  activist research and so on.
I've also become aware since the book
was written that indigenous
methodologies are a pillar of their own
so I'll bring those into this
presentation as such. | We will be looking now
at arts based research then in the next
video cast I'll be looking at research
using technology and mixed methods
research and then in the last video cast
I'll be covering transformative research
frameworks and indigenous methodologies. |
So people often think that arts based
research equals the visual arts but
again that's not the whole story. off
course the visual arts are included but
so are the performative arts such
as the arts of theatre and dance and
song comedy even and the written arts so
fiction,  poetry,  playwriting,  screenwriting
and music is included I've already
mentioned song but there are other forms
of including music as a facet of
research.  Also the technological arts and
this is of course whether there is crossover
with research using technology so video
and film can be included in arts based
research and storytelling in a sense all
research is made up of stories.  Stories
are how we learn as human beings we
learn from stories that we hear from
other people and we tell stories to
explain things to people with talking to.
And every research project is a story is
made up of many stories whether its
quantitative qualitative or mixed
methods numbers tell stories just as
much as words do and researchers need to
write stories around the numbers the
words the images that they collect and
interpret. There's a key debate within
the euro Western paradigm around arts
based research about how skilled you
need to be in the arts techniques you
want to use and this is a kind of
spectrum of debate really. And at one end
there is a researcher such as Professor Jame
Piirto in the United States who will not
supervise doctoral students doing arts
based research unless they have been
peer-reviewed to a similar level with
the arts that they want to work with as
with the research that they want to work
with. So peer review in the arts works
differently from how it works in
research it's not just about writing and
publishing in journals it's about
perhaps if you're fine artists being
exhibited in public having an exhibition
that people will attend or maybe even
pay to attend if you're a musician it's
about playing in a group playing for
other people getting bookings maybe
breezing CDs that people will pay money
for and so on so these forms of peer
review within the arts are about other
artists recognizing you as an artist of
worth. And for Jame Piirto  that's hugely
important and I think that is a
defensible position and an
understandable position but it's
certainly not the only position. At the
other end of the spectrum we have
Katrina Douglas in the UK and her view
is that the arts are egalitarian should
be accessible by everyone and you can
have a go that you don't need to have
ever written a song before but you might
decide you
want to write a song about some data
that you're analyzing and that by doing
that you will learn something so it
won't be wasted.  If you've never written
a song before you're highly unlikely to
write a very good song but it will still
be a song it might not be a song you
ever want to share with anyone but you
will learn something from the process
you will see your data differently and
it's absolutely fine Katrina Douglas would
argue for you to do that if you choose.
My own position is around the middle of
this debate so for me it depends on the
context.  If I'm using the door and right
technique with year one school pupils I
don't feel I need a massive level of
artistic skill to administer that
technique to have children draw me a
picture in response to a prompt and add
a few words which they may write
themselves if they're able or ask an
adult to write for them if they're not
yet ready to do that themselves.  And I
don't think I need a massive level of
skill to interpret those drawings
because I can use a form of content
analysis. They're not going to be
particularly sophisticated images
although I do recognize that if I had
input from a fine artist they might well
see things differently from the way I
would see them.  Alternatively if I was
perhaps as I have been in the past
working with young people who want to
present finding  using drama I
have minimal drama skills I could do it
but I probably couldn't do it very well.
So in that context I would ask a drama
worker a young people's drama worker to
join the research team and to put in
their expertise around producing drama.  I
would bring my expertise as a researcher,
the young people would bring all their
young people expertise and together we
could produce a good result. |  Arts based
research isn't just about data gathering
as I've hinted it can be used at all
stages of the research process.  So when
you're designing research some people
think visually some people prefer to
think visually find it very useful to
use visual methods such as spider
grammas where you write a problem or a
word in the center a big piece of paper
and then spin off with other thoughts in
all directions and mindmaps which is
similar with perhaps a little bit more
flow to them or timelines where you
might draw a long time line on a big
piece of paper and plot different points
at which you want different things to
happen to figure out whether your timing
is realistic,
whether it's manageable in the context
of perhaps other commitments that you
may have.  Then when you're reviewing
literate so you can take a broader view
of literature if you include arts based
research some people like to look at
novels if they're studying sociology or
if they're studying history of a certain
period to look at the creative
literature from that period. Personal
documents such as Diaries if you can get
access to them can be very revealing and
self published literature is gaining
prominence. There is literature  such as
genes which are being collected by some
universities now such as Mount Royal in
Canada or the University of Iowa both
have collections of genes which I think
you can view online.  Graphic novels all
sorts of things that you can bring into
literature review that are arts-based
types of literature.  | Then of course when
you're gathering data you can enhance
interviews by using photography so photo
interviewing,  photo elicitation,  photo
voice there are a number of names for it
but this is perhaps one of the more
common ways of doing arts based data
gathering.  Poetic inquiry is also
gathering momentum people are asking
research participants to write poems for
them, keep journals do maps draw pictures
and so on and so forth. Then when you're
doing analysis you can use arts based
techniques for this as well. So again
poetic inquiry you might write a poem
about your data , you might create a poem
from your data you might create an
iPoem this is something that was
devised by Susie Weller and Rosalind
Edwards from the University of
Southampton where you take every
statement from an interview transcript
that begins with I or have I prominently
within it put them each on a line of
their own and they form a kind of poem
that may tell you something really
useful about that person's identity or
how that person sees the subject under
investigation.  | Analyzing metaphors can be
very interesting.  If you're looking at
how people see the world and how they
represent the world for themselves and
to other people and writing screenplays
with snippets of dialogue from
participants all the kinds of dialogue
participants might be using and then you
can check that back with participants to
see if they fairly represented them
authentically.  Off course when you're
writing, writing is a form of the Arts
even nonfiction writing is creative I
would argue you're creating writing that
wasn't there before you're making a new
argument you're putting together words
to make new sentences and sentences to
make new paragraph that is a creative
act. But you can also bring in techniques
from so-called creative writing so
techniques from fiction,  techniques from
poetry, techniques description,  techniques
of storytelling and of course you can
add in snippets of video if you're
working with multimedia or if you're going
to be publishing online.  Examples of arts
based data you may have collected and
photographs of some which  which will bring
what you're saying perhaps more to life. |
Then when you're presenting research
there's loads of scope for using arts
based techniques for using illustrations
on your PowerPoint slides using diagrams
graphs and infographics and so on for
using short videos for people to watch
and if you're feeling brave or you have
the skills for using some drama or some
saw more interpretive dance if you
haven't come across this you might like
to look up dance your PhD on YouTube
where natural and social scientists do
present their PhDs in dances.  It's really
quite entertaining and quite instructive.
And then again when you're disseminating
findings of course creative writing but
also exhibitions or installations
multimedia and so on.  |There are various
circumstances in which arts-based research
is particularly helpful. I've never yet
met a child who didn't respond
positively to the question would you
like to draw me a picture and being
presented with a some paper and some
pretty colored crayons.  It's also useful where there is
verbal language barriers so if
you're working with people who don't
speak or don't fluently speak a language
in common or people who have difficulty
communicating there's been some great
work done using arts best a based
techniques with people who have dementia
or people who have brain injuries or
post-stroke survivors so on and so
forth . Also useful with mixed ability
groups where some may take more easily
to the verbal or the textual than others
and it's also useful when you're working
with particularly sensitive topics or
emotive topics that might be hard to
talk about but much easier to draw
a picture about or model about in clay
or create a song about or whatever it
may be.  | However not everyone is
comfortable with the arts. Some people
are quite resistant some people feel
they're not good at it some people feel it's
well outside their comfort zones and they feel
very challenged by the idea. Some people
will love the idea of doing arts based
work but others will be reticent perhaps
really uncomfortable and it's
not okay to make research participants
feel uncomfortable. So it's really worth
having a second option in case you do
come up against someone who's very
reluctant clearly feeling uncomfortable,
have another option for those people in
case of need. | So that's a quick
introduction to arts based research and
next I'll be looking at research using
technology and mixed methods research.
