Reading Diary: Documentation-Forms of reflection. Rostad

Reading Diary:  Documentation-Forms of reflection. Rostad

I decided to pursue a PhD a month ago (June 2016). The idea had been inside my head for sometime but it became real very fast. And as I read these texts (in my way to Berlin), that address how artists should research, think, write and create works when aiming for a PhD –which is the exact thing I plan to achieve– many questions come to mind:

What is the goal of a PhD art research? Is it to develop new knowledge? or to produce stronger and relevant artworks? or both? do I have to present new ideas that work within the academic context? Is my research needed? Is Art ever needed as knowledge does?

There seems to be a lot of debate on how to approach artistic research and how to resolve the apparent (or real) tension between practice and research. It seems that it our role to help define it. But from what I understood from the readings, they all suggest strategies on how to involve art practice into the research. The practice becomes part of a dynamic development that comprises reading, producing artworks, researching, asking questions, and writing. All of this coordinated by a methodology supported on several methods and documented extensively.

For now, here are some and ideas and excerpts from the books that I found interesting and that triggered some new thoughts and insights. List of book at the end of the post.

- A coordination between the art practice and the language of the writing (the use of words) is desirable and leads to a strong research.

- Imagination is a key element for research.

- There is no imagination without a sense of context.

- Gather as much context as possible. A rich context provides gives the chance of building a more integral and holistic research.

- Narrative is a strategy that interests me, especially as a tool for writing.

- I need to present a project that gives me enough freedom to move easily between practice and research.

- I have to build a contextual review, statements, arguments and keywords

- Documentation is vital: informal writing, audios, photos, sketches, videos and artworks.

- It is interesting how artworks done by the artist-researcher, can become documents that feed the research itself. 

- It seems like artists doing PhD’s need to develop the capacity of switching from researcher to artist and vice-versa. This happens by being –at moments– close and involved into the research’s situation/site/acts, and at times by taking distance to look things from a distance/outside. As an artist does when painting a large canvas: paints small areas but takes distance to see the overall result.

I hope my intuition, that helped me to write an initial proposal for the research, materializes into a well structured project. I aim to find a strategy to tighten the relation between research, writing and making artworks. Or maybe the goal is to erase the line that apparently keeps them separated. 

Texts

The Role of Documentation in Practice-Led Research by Nithikul Nimkulrat, Journal of Research Practice Volume 3, Issue 1, Article M6, 2007

Visualizing research: a guide to the research process in art and design by Carole Gray and Julian Malins., Ashgate Publishing, 2004

Artistic research methodology : narrative, power and the public by Mika Hannula, Juha Suoranta, Tere Vadén, New York : Peter Lang, 2014