Arts-based research

Draft

Introduction

Arts-based research integrates artistic activities within a research process. For some authors it means that the researcher uses his own artistic expression as means of enquiry, i.e. close to the sense of "artistic knowing". For others it also includes the use of art in action-oriented research, i.e. in a more "change through art" perspective.

Arts-based research is different from arts-based enquiry, i.e. the study of the art produced by subjects, and 'arts-based science communication, i.e. the use of arts to communicate scientific findings .

Definitions

Art-based research can be defined as the systematic use of the artistic process, the actual making of artistic expressions in all of the different forms of the arts, as a primary way of understanding and examining experience by both researchers and the people that they involve in their studies. These inquiries are distinguished from research activities where the arts may play a significant role but are essentially used as data for investigations that take place within academic disciplines that utilize more traditional scientific, verbal, and mathematic descriptions and analyses of phenomena.

-- Shaun McNiff, 2008

The last decades have witnessed a renewed interest in the role of arts in science and the growing hybridization between the two. An illustration of this is the emergence of arts-based research practices. As Chilton (2013) remarks, there is a whole plethora of terms that refer to approaches that embrace the arts in social research. These approaches can be seen as a research continuum: from Eisner’s arts-based educational research (ABER) in the 1970s to arts-based research (ABR) adopted in the 1990s (Barone and Eisner 2012; McNiff 2008), which also represents an umbrella for other approaches like arts-informed research (Knowles and Cole 2008; CAIR 2000) and A/r/tography (Springgay et al. 2008).

-- Heras & Tàbara, 2014

Art-based research is defined as the use of personal expression in various art forms as a primary mode of enquiry. These studies may accompany or include the artistic expressions of others but their unique feature is the making of art by the researcher.

-- McNiff, S., 2013

Arts-based research is an approach to research that we define as a method designed to enlarge human understanding... the aim is to create an expressive form that will enable an individual to secure an empathetic participation in the lives of others and in the situations studied.

-- Barone and Eisner, 2012, 8-9

References and bibliography

Bibliography

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Barone, T. (2008). How arts-based research can change minds. In Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor & Richard Siegesmund (eds.), Arts-Based Research in Education: Foundations for Practice. Routledge (2008)

Barone, T., & Eisner, E. (1997). Arts-based educational research. Complementary methods for research in education, 2, 75-116.

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