Research for People Who Think They Would Rather Create

  • “a simple guide to help you develop your own artistic research document” ⤴️
  • “highest form of intellectual practice and seen visual representations as second-rate illustrations of ideas”, wrote Nicholas Mirzoef” ⤴️
  • “Which forms and which directions are currently available or suitable to art and design research within the boundaries of our institutions, our educational system, even our society?” ⤴️
  • “The development of an art or design research document requires inventions on many levels: methodology, structure, form, and content. The main goal of this manual is to help establish a common and fertile ground” ⤴️
  • “Perhaps you think a research document is merely a formal obligation, some kind of report? You would not be completely wrong in thinking that, but not entirely right either. ¶” ⤴️
  • “Research in the academic world is described as “the range of activities that support original and innovative work in the whole range of academic, professional and technological fields, including the humanities, and traditional, performing, and other creative arts. It is not used in any limited or restricted sense, or relating solely to a traditional ‘scientific method’.” [11] I take this to mean that we can consider research, in the context of art, as embracing a broad range of methodologies and combining different forms of knowing.” ⤴️
  • “there are visual forms of knowledge production, of which the outcomes and conclusions can be communicated visually as well.” ⤴️
  • “The goal of a research document is to share knowledge that has been developed through research. By sharing knowledge, you participate in and help build a community. This community is continuously in the making.” ⤴️
  • ”. Student artistic researchers will have become better readers of texts and images, better judges of the concepts and ideas presented by others, better communicators of their own findings.” ⤴️
  • “this guide is the result of collecting and ordering these remarks (for more on authorship within the context of artistic research, see: Authorship, Referencing, Copyright, p. 62).” ⤴️
  • “This set of examples necessarily also captures the moment of its compilation, and can only provide a starting point in opening up towards other perspectives, while attempting to remain connected – in a critical way – to those perspectives that have formed us. ¶” ⤴️
  • “developing your research document is not merely some formal obligation you must fulfil (though it often is that too), but that it is also, in the end, something quite rare: a period of time and focused attention in which you can follow your own interests seriously and rigorously, under the guidance of a professional advisor and embedded within a larger research community.” ⤴️
  • “In general, the value of the knowledge you will generate through your research lies in how it will help you improve your practice. It also contributes to the knowledge of your peers.” ⤴️
  • “In many cases, the research document will result in a publication for a wider audience. There are many ways in which research documents can be shared nowadays. One beautiful example is the PhD thesis and rap album” ⤴️
  • “two main approaches towards an art or design research process: practice-based and theory-based. In reality, the two are almost always combined. The approach you choose will have major consequences for your research trajectory, methods, bibliography, form, style, etc. This approach will in turn be largely defined by how your research process is related to your artistic project. [√] Theory-based research can be further subdivided into historical and theoretical research. Theoretical research focuses on abstract problems and is rarely conducted by artists. Historical research deals with a specific problem limited to a certain subject, period and/or location.” ⤴️
  • “A practice-based approach can help make a topic, ∂ See: Experimenting, p. 70 µ See: Academia, p. 76 which would otherwise be too generic or theoretical, more focused through the perspective of a specific practice. When conducting research that is mostly practice-based, it is still necessary to inform yourself of current and historical thinking behind similar experiments, allowing you to better contextualise and position your research. [∂] Conversely, while conducting mostly theory-based research, you must still do so from your own practice-based artistic/design perspective, in order to relate your research to your project. [µ]” ⤴️
  • “RESEARCH = CONVINCING” ⤴️
  • “A line of reasoning, an argument, a formulation of ideas, a presentation of research findings, or clear communication of the steps of a research process – all of these can also be arrived at visually.” ⤴️