Week 42: 1st – 7th July
I’m coming to the end of the first academic year and, even though I’ll be continuing to work through the summer, my thoughts have already turned towards the end of September and the second year of the doctoral programme. The second year (as detailed in week 19) involves the process of developing methodologies with which to create and evaluate new work and knowledge.
Methods and methodologies
Research methods and methodologies in relation to Fine Art practice are still a relatively new field in comparison with scientific working processes, and therefore require further reading in order to understand how artistic research might be presented in an academic context. In ‘Research Procedures / Methodology for Artists & Designers’, Carole Gray and Julian Malins, begin by defining the terms ‘method’ and ‘methodology’:
method:
1. way of proceeding or doing something, esp. a systematic or regular one.
2. orderliness of thought, action, etc.
3. (often pl.) the techniques or arrangement of work for a particular field or subject
methodology:
1. the system of methods and principles used in a particular discipline
2. the branch of philosophy concerned with the science of method.
Their commitment to developing new research terminology for practice-led research results in a ‘bilingual’ paper, which charts existing scientific research terms alongside potential artistic equivalents as follows: ‘If meaningful research is to be carried out in any discipline, a suitable strategy / methodology for acquiring new knowledge must be identified. This procedure should be thorough / rigorous, open / accessible, easy to understand / transparent, and be useful in other contexts / transferable (in concept at least).’ This not only helps to elucidate the differences between the concepts of methods and methodologies, but also highlights the ways that these can intersect with art practice.
Research characteristics
Gray and Malins (1993) continue by detailing the characteristics of existing methodologies in the arts and sciences, by comparing and contrasting these disciplines. Through separating the disciplines into categories, they are able to establish common factors of research, with which to begin devising new working strategies.
Scientific models are separated into Newtonian and Quantum sciences, with the former defined by positivism, empiricism and reductionism, and the latter detailing ‘concepts of subjectivity, observer’s perceptions, simultaneity, relativity, uncertainty, randomness, indeterminacy, subatomic anarchy, chaos’ as a response to previous limitations in scientific methods. In addition to these, the social sciences (in contrast to direct observation) favour interpretive and contextual methods, otherwise referred to as qualitative methodologies, which include the use of phenomenological, hermeneutic, axiological, ethnographic and dialectical strategies.
Existing and new procedures / methodologies in practice-led research
The development of quantum and social science methodologies in response to the limitations of empirical science therefore offers potential strategies which can be adapted for use in artistic research, as well as a development framework in order to create new practice-specific methodologies. Examples of principle research procedures which have been adapted for Art and Design research include processes relating to historical, philosophical, experimental, comparative, descriptive, naturalistic, and practical inquiry.
Artistic research procedures have also been articulated through the work of Cornock (1978, 1983, 1984), who suggests a cyclical structure of practice and reflection as inherent within artistic endeavour, which he separates into 6 stages: generation, selection, synthesis, articulation, presentation, and critical discussion. As these correlate with common factors of research identified in scientific methods (hypothesis, data collection, problem definition, development, critical context), this suggests that practitioners may already follow many of these research procedures, if not explicitly.
How to write an artist statement
An understanding of research methodologies in relation to artistic practice also recontextualises the position statement, a textual exteriorisation of the artwork as written by the artist which may include the following information:
What is the practice? (materials / ideas)
Where the work should be seen (gallery or non-gallery space / museum / online)
How the artist undertakes the work (studio practice / exhibition / documentation)
Who are the audience?
Why the artist is doing this (What outcome they want to achieve)
Such analyses, often mistaken for curatorial interpretation, can now be viewed as a methodological document or manifesto of the practice. This therefore creates an understanding of how the art practice functions as research, as well as greater transparency around how the audience should approach the text.
