Practice as Research: Approaches to Creative Arts Enquiry

by Barbara Bolt (Editor), Estelle Barrett

Practice-led research is a burgeoning area across the creative arts, with studio-based doctorates frequently favored over traditional research. Yet until now there has been little published guidance for students embarking on such research. This is the first book designed specifically as a pedagogical tool and is structured on the model used by most research programs. A comprehensive introduction lays out the book’s framework and individual chapters provide concrete examples of studio-based research in art, film and video, creative writing and dance, each conceptualized by a theoretical essay and complete with references. More than a handbook, the volume draws on thinkers including Deleuze, Bourdieu and Heidegger in its examination of the relationship between practice and theory, demonstrating how practice can operate as a valid alternative mode of enquiry to traditional scholarly research. Taking pains to elaborate methodologies, contexts and outcomes, and reemphasizing the process of enquiry and its relationship to the research write-up or exegesis, this is an indispensable tool for educators and students.

Genres: Research

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2010

Reviews

[Liam Guilar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting as an example of what happens when an activity, in this case "creative Arts", encounters the institutional necessity of fitting itself into the requirements of an existing model which might not be appropriate in the first place.

[Ann Single · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this to prepare for my Masters of Writing research. The possibilities of practice-led research really excite me, especially for researching complex systems. While traditional research approaches (qual and quan) see our subjectivity as something that obscurs the focus of our study, practice-led research embraces the inevitability of our subjectivity and views it as an essential and valuable part of knowledge creation.

There are better essays about than those in this book (I like the work of Carol Gray and Julian Malins, Robyn Stewart, Josie Arnold and Ross Gibson in particularl), but this collection provides a useful overview about a range of work and thinking in the field. The essays by Carter, Bolt, Perry and Haseman stood out for me, but Stewart's work on neonarratives might appeal to qualitative researchers who work with study people's narratives.