Arts-Informed Research_ Cole, Knowles

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BEGINNINGS

Contemporary American artist Martha Rosler (cited in Gever, 1981)states, [If you want to] bring conscious, concrete knowledge to yourwork . . . you had better locate yourself pretty concretely in it (p. 11).We are life history researchers with deep roots in meaning makingsystems that honor the many and diverse ways of knowingpersonal,narrative, embodied, artistic, aestheticthat stand outside sanctionedintellectual frameworks. To begin this chapter we surface these roots.

ARDRA

As the youngest of three children and an only and much-wanteddaughter, I grew up in the coddled environment of adults. Aroundkitchen tables, with my mother and her friends, I learned to makesense of the world. It was there that meaning was given to all that wasgood, bad, and indifferent in my mothers world as she and her friendsphilosophized and analyzed their way through bottomless teacupsand countless packs of Black Cat cigarettes. Together for friendly vis-its, neighborly chats, weekly card games, domestic chores, or plan-ning and preparing for community events, theyd tell stories, share

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opinions and confidences, gossip, give andreceive advice and emotional support. Idlisten and watch as smoke, slowly but con-fidently released through crimson- andcotton candycolored lips, enwreathedtheir spoken words. I took it all in, addingthe knowledge to my accumulating under-standings of my small but growing world. I formed (silent) opinions of my own, feltpleasure and pain, learned compassion,made promises to myself about how I would be in the world and what I woulddo. As a child of the 1950s and 1960s, atthe academy of the kitchen table(Neilsen, 1998) in the company of women,I ground the lenses through which I seeand understand the world.

After my mothers funeral, on the way tothe cemetery, the silence of our inconsolablegrief was finally broken by my niece who,between body-wracking sobs, pleaded withher father to tell some Nanny stories.Telling stories of my mother, at a time whenalmost nothing made sense or seemed fair,was the only thing that did make sense to us.After all, The truth about stories, saysAboriginal scholar Thomas King (2003, p. 2),is thats all we are. They are who we are,who we have been, and who we willbecome.

I grew up in a working-class family,steeped in the Protestant work ethic, whereactions spoke louder than words and bigfeeling people with high falutin ideasdidnt pass muster. What mattered mostwas the reward of a solid days work andmeaty ideas that produced tangible resultsand made a difference in the lives of every-day people. It was no surprise to discoverin graduate school that William Jamessphilosophy of pragmatism made inherentsense to me. Subsequently, the choices Imade throughout my academic life andcareer naturally reflected the values andperspectives I grew up with.

GARY

I lived in the southernmost province ofAotearoa, New Zealand, for the first 22 yearsof my life. As an only child I often came toexpress and require the quietness of solitudein explorations of landscape and commu-nity. This fostered an ability to follow myown intuitions and dreams rather than thoseof siblings or peers. Also, for the first 13years of my life, I grew head and shouldersabove my peers in physical stature and thisplayed out in some unexpected ways. Forinstance, I never experienced degradation atthe hand of bullies and was most often themaster of my own childhood games, fan-tasies, and explorations.

In a windswept, small, rural town Ilearned about the power of place and hadthe freedom to explore and express thelearnings that resulted from being relativelyunfettered in my day-to-day movements.Cycling throughout the community andbeyond, I learned the powers of under-standing that, perhaps, only finely tunedobservations can bring. I learned experien-tially and geographically because I had thefreedom to roam, sometimes by foot but,mostly, by bicycle.

Intergenerationally, strong women ledmy family and, to them, I attribute muchlearning about the order of the worldaround me. Everything that was donewithin the family had practical value borneof working-class roots and a quest for neo-middle-class status. Under these condi-tions and circumstances adults impressedupon me values and stories that afforded aglimpse into who I was and would become and where I came from. The power of per-sonal and family stories was more thanmildly obvious to me then as it is now. Likeme, extended family members had bothindividual and familial scripts to followbut, unlike me, had little opportunity to


Arts-Informed Research57

deviate from them. Family stories, oftenabout the context or experiences of labor,were told and retold in the context of yetmore laboring work. Such was the sourceof my ingrained perspectives on the rela-tionship between the purpose of ones lifework and the public good.

Influenced strongly by a pragmatic, hardworking mother, my emerging values weremetered by an avocational artist father(whose dreams of daily existence seldomexperienced joy in the mundane). Influencedby him, I gravitated toward the visual arts,eventually becoming involved in architec-ture. Not surprisingly, it was the technical,the pragmaticthe vernacularthat guidedthe emerging principles of design and aes-thetics that I came to hold. A job needed tobe accomplished, a building built, and therewas always a bottom-line, functional ele-ment involved. Years later, having honed mydrafting and painterly skills, I regularly exhib-ited work and came to see myself as a visualartist. This coincided somewhat with theprocess of becoming an academic, seeingmyself as a scholar. Given these circum-stances, it was natural that I sought ways tofuse artistry and artmaking with scholarshipthat evidenced a practical bent.

Dissatisfaction and Disillusionment

Prior to assuming roles as academics andlearning the language of the academy, wedid not put names on how we (and others)came to know the world. But, as professors,we quickly came to know that our jobswere in large part defined by our abilities toattach words of explanation to phenomena,experiences, processes, contexts, and systems.We soon discovered, however, that the pre-dominant languageor discourseof the

academy did not ring true to us or how weperceived our task.

We quickly became disillusioned by themoat of science and mysticism built to keepresearchers in and communities out of theivory tower. Bolstered and challenged byour personal histories to build a bridgeacross the moat, we began to question thepragmatic value of our conventional-lookingscholarship and imagine new possibilities.The language of the academy and all that itsymbolized fell short in its ability to captureand communicate the complexity of humanexperience in all its diversity. Even challeng-ing conventions of positivism and followingqualitative research methodologies resultedin research representations wrung dry oflifeof emotion, of sensuality, of physical-ity. Individuals and their lives were flattenedinto a form mostly unrecognizable to thosedirectly and indirectly involved or repre-sented. The result, with just the right acade-mic ring, satisfied the academy but, with theextraction of life juices, those words becametoo light to take hold in the lives of thepeople and communities we researched.

We sought what we considered to bemore appropriately inclusive approaches toinquiry processes and representationmethodologies that honored the diverseforms of knowing that were part of everydayexperience and that paid appropriate respectto both research participants and those whoread or might be interested in readingresearch texts. Our goals related to integrity,relevance, accessibility, and engagement. Wewanted research to reach audiences beyondthe academy and to make a difference.

Enter the Arts

Within the broad paradigmatic frameworkcontaining qualitative methodologies, we


58Methodologies

began to experiment with process and form.We started in small ways, beginning, forexample, by writing journal articles in alter-native formats and in a personal narrativestyle with autobiographical elements. Ourchallenges to methodological convention gotbolder as our experimentations with formbrought color, texture, and life into workthat had begun to seem grey, flat, and life-less. These explorations, and the promises andpossibilities they inspired, reawakened in usan excitement for our work. They reconnectedus with our long-held epistemological rootsand brought together elements of our per-sonal and professional lives that had, tothat point, been forced apart by academicorthodoxy. We continued to push bound-aries of what was then possible in inquiryand representation (i.e., marginally accept-able as scholarship), trying to get closer andcloser to human experience and to com-municate it in a way that seemed truer to its original form and to those who may beinvolved.

Drawing on our artistic sensibilities, rela-tionship to the arts, and respect for ways inwhich artists of all genres have, throughouthistory, tackled societys pressing sociopolit-ical concerns and confronted public audi-ences with their messages, we turned ourattention to the relationship between art and research and the possibilities inherentin infusing processes and representationalforms of the arts into social science inquiry.We began by dabbling with two- and three-dimensional art, performance, and fictionmainly for purposes of representation. At thesame time we encouraged graduate studentsto explore media of poetry, literary prose,playwriting, visual arts, dance, and music asalternative approaches to knowledge repre-sentation and advancement.

By the early 1990s, a wave of changebegan to swell particularly in the educa-tional research community where, per-haps because of its broad intellectualheritage or because of its interdisciplinary

nature or its broader commitment topractice and practical application ofresearch, there is a history of method-ological innovation. In 1993, Elliot Eisnergave a distinguished Presidential Addressto the Annual Meeting of the AmericanEducational Research Association (AERA)in which he speculated about the future ofeducational research witnessing anexpanding array of research methods toacknowledge and account for the range offorms and modes of understanding thatcomprise human development. Imagescreated by literature, poetry, the visualarts, dance, and music, he states,

give us insights that inform us in thespecial ways that only artistically ren-dered forms make possible. . . . [Beyondstories and narrative] film, video, the mul-tiple displays made possible through com-puters, and even poetically craftednarrative are waiting in the wings. . . . Wewont have long to wait until they arecalled to center stage. (pp. 7, 8)

Soon after, the Arts-Based EducationalResearch Special Interest Group of AERAwas formed and quickly grew.

In 1997, Stefinee Pinnegar organized a groundbreaking session at the AERAAnnual Meeting in which she invited sev-eral researchers to represent a set of con-ventionally gathered data each using adifferent art form such as painting, dance,creative nonfiction, readers theatre, andpoetry. At about this time a small butgrowing number of scholarly outlets (bookand journal publications and professionaland academic conferences) started to sup-port alternative qualitative research. In1998, at the Ontario Institute for Studies inEducation of the University of Toronto, westarted an informal working group of fac-ulty and graduate students with a sharedcommitment to exploring, articulating, andsupporting each other in bringing together



art and social science research. As word gotout and interest grew, the working groupbecame formalized.

The Centre for Arts-Informed Researchwas established in 2000. It provides a con-text for promoting innovative research thatinfuses processes and forms of the arts intoscholarly work for purposes of advancingknowledge and bridging the connectionbetween academy and community. Thoseassociated with the Centre continue toexplore, encourage, and foster arts-informedresearch in a variety of ways through semi-nars, workshops, and works-in-progress series;exhibits, performances, and conference pre-sentations; an active research and publishingprogram; and ongoing supervision and sup-port of graduate students engaged in arts-informed research.

The time was right to forge ahead withformalizing and articulating the theoreticalunderpinnings, practices, and issues associ-ated with the methodology that was emerg-ing from our research and that of graduatestudents with whom we worked. It was also important to distinguish it from othercompanion methodologies established andevolving at the same time, such as arts-based research, art-based inquiry, image-based research, and visual sociology. Thiswas important so as to, in Eisners (1993)words, achieve complementarity rather thanmethodological hegemony (p. 9).

Arts-Informed Research

Arts-informed research is a mode and form ofqualitative research in the social sciences thatis influenced by, but not based in, the artsbroadly conceived. The central purposes ofarts-informed research are to enhance under-standing of the human condition throughalternative (to conventional) processes andrepresentational forms of inquiry, and to reachmultiple audiences by making scholarship

more accessible. The methodology infuses thelanguages, processes, and forms of literary,visual, and performing arts with the expan-sive possibilities of scholarly inquiry for purposes of advancing knowledge (Cole,2001, 2004; Cole & Knowles, 2001;Knowles & Cole, 2002). Researchers work-ing in this way might explicitly ground theprocesses and representational forms in oneor several of the arts (see, e.g., Cole, Neilsen,Knowles, & Luciani, 2004; Knowles, Luciani,Cole, & Neilsen, 2007; Neilsen, Cole, &Knowles, 2001).

Arts-informed research is a way ofredefining research form and representationand creating new understandings of process,spirit, purpose, subjectivities, emotion,responsiveness, and the ethical dimensions ofinquiry. This redefinition reflects an explicitchallenge to logical positivism and technicalrationality as the only acceptable guides toexplaining human behavior and understand-ing. Bringing together the systematic andrigorous qualities of conventional qualita-tive methodologies with the artistic, disci-plined, and imaginative qualities of the artsacknowledges the power of art forms toreach diverse audiences and the importanceof diverse languages for gaining insights intothe complexities of the human condition.

The dominant paradigm of positivismhistorically has governed the way researchis defined, conducted, and communicatedand consciously and unconsciously definedwhat society accepts as Knowledge; how-ever, it is not a paradigm that reflects howindividuals in society actually experienceand process the world. Life is lived andknowledge made through kitchen tableconversations and yarnin at the wharf ortransit station or coffee shop or tavern, inthe imaginative spaces created between thelines of a good book or an encounter withan evocative photograph, in an embodiedresponse to a musical composition or inter-pretive dance. These moments of meaningmaking, however, are not typically thought


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of as Knowledge. Knowledge, as societyhas learned to define it, dwells beyond therealm of the everyday. It is discovered byintellectualsresearchers and theoristsand held by them until its implications aredetermined and passed on for consumption.Knowledge is propositional and generaliz-able and Research is the process by which itis generated.

According to this paradigmatic view,Knowledge remains the purview of the acad-emy where it can be carefully defined andcontrolled. But, as Eisner (1993, p. 6) states:

Humans are sentient creatures who livein a qualitative world. The sensorysystem that humans possess provides themeans through which the qualities ofthe world are experienced . . . [and] outof experience, concepts are formed. . . .Our conceptual life, shaped by imagina-tion and the qualities of the world expe-rienced, gives rise to the intentions thatdirect our activities.

Arts-informed research, with one of itsmain goals of accessibility (and breadth ofaudience), is an attempt to acknowledgeindividuals in societies as knowledgemakers engaged in the act of knowledgeadvancement. Tied to moral purpose, it isalso an explicit attempt to make a differ-ence through research, not only in the livesof ordinary citizens but also in the thinkingand decisions of policymakers, politicians,legislators, and other key decision makers.

Arts-informed research is part of abroader commitment to shift the dominantparadigmatic view that keeps the academyand community separated: to acknowledgethe multiple dimensions that constitute andform the human conditionphysical, emo-tional, spiritual, social, culturaland themyriad ways of engaging in the worldoral,literal, visual, embodied. That is, to connectthe work of the academy with the life andlives of communities through research that is

accessible, evocative, embodied, empathic, andprovocative.

Following Suzi Gablik (1991), arts-informed research is part of a larger agendato reenchant research. According to Gablik,reenchantment

means stepping beyond the modern traditions of mechanism, positivism,empiricism, rationalism, materialism,secularism and scientismthe wholeobjectifying consciousness of theEnlightenmentin a way that allows fora return of soul. . . . It also refers to thatchange in the general social moodtoward a new paradigmatic idealism anda more integrated value system that bringshead and heart together. (p. 11)

Defining Elements and Form

How can the arts (broadly conceived)inform the research process?

How can the arts inform the represen-tational form of research?

As a framework for inquiry, arts-informedresearch is sufficiently fluid and flexible toserve either as a methodological enhance-ment to other research approaches or as astand-alone qualitative methodology. Forexample, as a methodological enhancement,one might conduct an arts-informed life his-tory study (see, e.g., McIntyre, 2000; Miller,2001; Promislow, 2005), an arts-informedphenomenological inquiry (see, e.g., Halifax,2002; Rykov, 2006; Thomas, 2004), an arts-informed narrative inquiry (see, e.g., Kunkel,2000), or an arts-informed ethnography (see,e.g., McIntyre, 2005). As a stand-alonemethodology, situated within a qualitativeframework, arts-informed research perspec-tives enhance the possibilities of information



gathering and representation (see, e.g.,brown, 2000; Cole & McIntyre, 2001, 2004,2006; de Freitas, 2003; Gosse, 2005; Grant,2003; Knowles & Thomas, 2002; Luciani,2006; Mantas, 2004; Sbrocchi, 2005).

DEFINING ELEMENTS

Broadly grounded in assumptions thatdefine a qualitative paradigm, arts-informedresearch has several defining elements:

First and foremost, arts-informedresearch involves a commitment to a partic-ular art form (or forms in the case of mixedor multimedia) that is reflected in elementsof the creative research process and in therepresentation of the research text. Theselected art form or forms serve to frameand define the inquiry process and text.

The methodological integrity of theresearch, a second defining element, is deter-mined in large part by the relationship betweenthe form and substance of the research textand the inquiry process reflected in the text.In other words, the rationale for the use ofphotography, for example, as the defining artform guiding the inquiry or representationmust be readily apparent by how and howwell it works to illuminate and achieve theresearch purposes.

Following the emergent nature ofqualitative research in general, the creativeinquiry process of arts-informed research isdefined by an openness to the expansivepossibilities of the human imagination. Ratherthan adhering to a set of rigid guidelines forgathering and working with research mate-rial, a researcher using arts-informedmethodology follows a more natural processof engagement relying on commonsensedecision making, intuition, and a generalresponsiveness to the natural flow of eventsand experiences. Serendipity plays a keyrole in the inquiry process much as it does

in life. Moreover, we infer that researcherscan learn from artists about matters ofprocess. That is, the processes of art makinginform the inquiry in ways congruent withthe artistic sensitivities and technical (artistic)strengths of the researcher in concert with theoverall spirit and purpose of the inquiry.

Also, as in most qualitative research,the subjective and reflexive presence of theresearcher is evident in the research text invarying ways depending on the focus andpurpose of the inquiry. In arts-informedresearch, however, the researchers artistryis also predominant. By artistry, we includeconceptual artistry and creative and aes-thetic sensibilities, not only technical skillsor an externally sanctioned title of artist.Extending the idea from qualitative inquiryof researcher as instrument, in arts-informedresearch the instrument of research is alsothe researcher-as-artist.

Although we operate on the assumptionthat all research is inherently autobio-graphicala reflection of who we arearts-informed research is not exclusively aboutthe researcher. In other words, although thefocus of an arts-informed inquiry may be theresearcher herself or himself, it is not neces-sarily so. Arts-informed research differs, forexample, from autoethnography (see Scott-Hoy & Ellis, this volume) or autobiography,both of which focus on the researcher as thesubject of inquiry. Arts-informed researchhas strong reflexive elements that evidencethe presence and signature of the researcher,but the researcher is not necessarily the focusor subject of study.

A sixth defining element of arts-informed research relates to audience. Consis-tent with one of the overarching purposes of arts-informed research, there must be anexplicit intention for the research to reachcommunities and audiences including butbeyond the academy. The choice and articu-lation of form will reflect this intention.


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Related to research relevance andaccessibility to audience is the centrality ofaudience engagement. The use of the arts inresearch is not for arts sake. It is explicitlytied to moral purposes of social responsibil-ity and epistemological equity. Thus, theresearch text is intended to involve thereader/audience in an active process ofmeaning making that is likely to have trans-formative potential. Relying on the powerof art to both inform and engage, theresearch text is explicitly intended to evokeand provoke emotion, thought, and action.

FORM

To embrace the potential of the arts toinform scholarship is to be open to theways in which the literary, visual, or per-forming artsand the inherent methodsand processes of those various art formscan inform processes and representationsof scholarly inquiry. The relationshipbetween and among research purposesrelated to knowledge advancement andresearch communication, art form, and theartist-researchers grounding in and devel-oping expertise/competence with the cho-sen art form is key. Indeed, form is themain defining element of arts-informedresearch. Choice of art form that will guideinquiry processes and/or representationinvolves a consideration of form in itsmany manifestations.

Form as genre and/or medium meansthe way or mode of presenting the text orconcepts including text-based means such asfiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry; performative and time-sensitive approachessuch as dance, performance, theatre, andmusic; and image-based approaches includ-ing painting, photography, collage, multi-media, sculpture, film/video, folk arts, andinstallation art. Important in decisions about

form as genre are prior experiences andfamiliarity with the particular genre ormedium and how the use of that mediumwill contribute to knowledge productioninother words, how representation and inquiryprocess are unified.

Form as method speaks to the rela-tionship between the art form and the cre-ative inquiry processes. Carl Leggo (2004)describes himself as living in the world as apoet, eager to rethink poetry into humanlife by engaging in a poetics of research. Hedescribes poetry as a way of making theworld in words . . . a site for dwelling, forholding up, for stopping (Leggo, 1998,p. 182). Carls poetic research texts and thecreative process they represent echo hisway of being in the world as a poet. Hiswork is a vivid example of how form andmethod can dwell in communion.

Form as structural element refers tothe literal or metaphorical arrangements oftheoretical constructs, narratives, experi-ences, and their various representations, sothat there is a coherent articulation of a par-ticular perspective that illustrates knowledgeproduction and purposeful communication.For example, Lois Kunkels (2000) researchabout children of missionaries from theirnow adult perspectives is set in West Africa,where the author herself grew up as a childof missionary parents. West Africa is also the home of the mythological character,Anansi the Spider. Because, coincidentally,an epiphanal event in Loiss early life alsoinvolved a spider, she chose to work with aspider metaphor to define the structure ofher research text. The result is an evocativeand compelling arts-informed narrative,Spiders Spin Silk, with the Anansi storiesproviding the metaphorical structure for theresearch text.

Form as technical element refers tothe place of templates for designing the



physical appearance of the documenthow the text and media are presented onthe page. In her book Of Earth and Fleshand Bones and Breath: Landscapes ofEmbodiment and Moments of Re-enactment,Suzanne Thomas (2004) uses languagesof poetry and photography to create anintertextual space for phenomenologicalengagement with the natural world. Herintent is for the reader to dwell in the inti-macy of knowledge and experience aes-thetic representations as a continuousunfolding of meanings (p. 12). To createthis kind of engagement, Suzanne devel-oped a template for the aesthetic arrange-ment of visual and textual fragmentsaskeletal frame to hold image and text inrhythmic patterns. The beauty, sensuality,and overall power of this work are in largepart due to the authors attention to com-positional arrangement and her use of anorganizational template to develop a sym-biotic synergy between the elements ofimages/space/words (p. 7).

Form as communication elementinvolves a consideration of both audienceand research purpose to determine whetherthe form is optimal for full and rich commu-nication of ideas and constructs. In otherwords, to paraphrase Elliot Eisner (1993),decisions about form as communicationinvolve consideration of the question, Howand whom will the form inform?

Form as aesthetic element relates tohow the work should look based on theaesthetic principles and conventions of thegenre. By aesthetic we mean considerationof the enduring principles of form and com-position, of weight and light, of color andline, of texture and tone, as when workingin the painterly arts, for example. The aesthetic element reflects how central prin-ciples upheld in a variety of art formsinternal consistency and coherence, clarityand quality, authenticity and sincerity,

evocation and resonancecombine to con-tribute to the beauty of the work. Attendingto aesthetics of form does not necessarilymean that researchers identify themselvesas artists or have extensive background orexperience in arts production. It does mean,though, that the researcher-as-artist mustmake a commitment to learning how theaesthetic elements of an art form caninform a research project.

Form as procedural element andemergent phenomenon means that elementsof form may change over time as theinquiry matures or develops and as ideasevolve. Inspiration for form may come atthe outset and drive an inquiry. Inspirationmay also present itself in various ways atany point in the research process; often it isbecause of implicit or metaphorical connec-tions that become evident while immersedin the inquiry process. Inspiration may haverational, reasoned sources or it may be hap-penstance, serendipitous. It is at these timesthat the researchers full depth of profes-sional experience and perspective come intoplay. The researcher is, after all, the instru-ment of form.

Form as reflection of the qualities ofgoodness of inquiry requires that, while the research must exhibit qualities of soundscholarship (focus, intensity, authority, rel-evance, substance, and so on), it must do so in a way that is congruent with the artform used. This speaks to the form beingintegral to research purposes and proce-dural approaches in conjunction with thepotential of the work to influence the pub-lic good. The qualities of goodness (elabo-rated later in the chapter) are a set of broadprinciples that guide and define the quali-ties of arts-informed research. Underscrutiny it ought to be evident that the pur-poses, processes, orientations, literatures,and outcomes of the study work together inharmony.


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Ways and Means of Finding Form

FINDING FORM THROUGH DATA

During research conversations with pro-fessors of teacher education in a life historystudy, Ardra became vividly aware that someof the experiences being recounted were soimbued with emotion and such poignantillustrations of the often dysfunctional rela-tionship between academic institutions andindividual faculty members goals and valuesthat conventional forms of representingthese experiences seemed inadequate.Frequently, the participants used graphic lan-guage to create images or metaphors todescribe elements of their experience. Theyoften struggled to find words to adequatelyconvey the passion and emotion felt aboutcertain issues and experiences. In an attemptto find a representational form that wouldmore closely render the aesthetic of livedexperience, however partial, and afford read-ers better opportunities for their own reso-nant interpretations, Ardra turned to thetableau art form, inspired by American con-temporary artists Edward Kienholz andNancy Reddin Kienholz.

The experiences recounted by the teachereducators, and the themes and issues embed-ded in those experiences and in the telling ofthem, inspired the conceptualization andcreation of a series of three-dimensional rep-resentations entitled Living in Paradox(Cole, Knowles, brown, & Buttignol, 1999).In Academic Altarcations a conveyor beltcarries symbols of personal sacrifice to thealtar of the academy. A Perfect Imbalance isan unevenly weighted balance scale thatdepicts the dual mandate of teacher educa-tors work and the associated elusive pur-suit of a balanced life. In WrestlingDifferences, action figures set up in a toywrestling ring depict the gender inequitiesthat continue to define much of academic

life for women. Together, the images rely onshock value and exaggeration to draw view-ers in to connect with the truths expressed,the ultimate goal being to precipitate thecreation of a more humane and generousreality for teacher educators in the academy.

FINDING FORM BASED ONRESEARCHERS ARTISTIC IDENTITY

During a visit to an art gallery, Garycame across the photographic and instal-lation work of Canadian artist MarleneCreates. He was both intrigued and moti-vated by the resonance he felt with her art.The exhibit was a one-person, multi-instal-lation, retrospective work entitled MarleneCreates: Land Works 19791991 (Creates,1992). The work portrays notions of spaceand place and humans impressions andresponses.

Two installations within the largerexhibit clearly expressed Createss methodof artistic inquiry. The Distance BetweenTwo Points Is Measured in Memories(Creates, 1990) explored the relationshipbetween human experience and the land-scape and, in particular, the ways in whichlandscape is richly and profoundly differen-tiated into places (Creates, quoted inGarvey, 1993, p. 20). The artist was pri-marily interested in how people rememberplace, and she used black and white pho-tography, personal narratives, and graphitemap drawings on paper with artifacts/found objects to articulate her artistic find-ings about individuals memories of thelandscape. Places of Presence: NewfoundlandKin and Ancestral Land, Newfoundland,19891991 (Creates, 1991) consisted ofphotographs, handwritten narratives, andhand-drawn memory maps, along withfound objects as artifacts.

The complexities, yet also the simplicities,of Createss life history-based, visual stories



were obvious. She showed the personalstrengths and attachments of her relatives to place and community and her ownresponses to them and their contexts. Herwork reinforced Garys intuitive feelingsabout the limitations of conventional, oral,and text-based life history work. Createsswork also offered insights into the creativeart-making inquiry process. This happen-stance encounter by one artist with the workof another gave rise to a program of researchon sense of place that evolved over severalyears (see, e.g., Knowles & Thomas, 2000,2002; Thomas & Knowles, 2002).

FINDING FORM BASED ON INTENDED AUDIENCE

In a research project on caregiving andAlzheimers disease (Cole & McIntyre,2004, 2006; McIntyre & Cole, 2006), theresearchers identified public education andcaregiver support as two of their goals.They created a seven-piece, two- and three-dimensional mixed media installationabout caregiving and Alzheimers diseasethat paid tribute to those with the illnessand those in caregiving roles. One purposeof the exhibit was to make Alzheimersdisease more familiar to a wide public audi-ence. Another aim was to provide opportu-nities for those directly affected by theillness to feel affirmed and supported. TheAlzheimers Project was displayed for sev-eral days in prominent public venues acrossCanada, and family caregivers were invitedto view the work and share their experi-ences of Alzheimers disease and caregivingthrough group and individual conversa-tions and by contributing written responsesand artifacts related to their experiences.Members of the general public respondedthrough written comments and audiotape-recorded stories. Visitors to the exhibitwere invited to participate in differentways. They could view the work; sit with

others and enjoy conversation over a puzzleor game; share a thought, impression, or story by writing in a journal or speak-ing into a tape recorder; leave a memory (a poem, photograph, or memento) and bepart of a collective remembering of care;and/or participate in a group conversationabout issues of caregiving. Creating spacesfor people to feel comfortable with thework was one of the central principles guid-ing the researchers attention to form.

Regardless of how or when an art formis selected as a key methodological compo-nent, important in arts-informed research isthe researchers commitment to it in all ofits manifestations.

Qualities of Goodness inArts-Informed Research

Arts-informed research, in process and rep-resentational form, is neither prescriptivenor codified. It is the creative meshing ofscholarly and artistic endeavors. Nevertheless,like all research, studies following arts-informed research methodology must besubjected to scrutiny to assess, and perhapshelp to explain, their worth or value asresearch. A broad assessment is guided bythe two general questions: How do the artsinform the research process, and how dothe arts inform the research representa-tion? More specifically, a study imbuedwith the following qualities is one that islikely to both exemplify and contribute tothe broad agenda of arts-informed research,that of enhancing understanding of thehuman condition through alternative (toconventional) processes and representa-tional forms of inquiry, and reaching multi-ple audiences by making scholarship moreaccessible.

Intentionality. All research has oneor more purposes but not all research is


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driven by a moral commitment. Consistentwith the broad agenda of social scienceresearch to improve the human condition,arts-informed research has both a clearintellectual purpose and moral purpose.Ultimately, the research must stand forsomething. Arts-informed research repre-sentations, then, are not intended as titilla-tions but as opportunities for transformation,revelation, or some other intellectual andmoral shift. They must be more than goodstories, images, or performances. For examplebrenda browns (2000) Lost Bodies andWild Imaginations is a provocative tale abouttelling and what its like to tell aboutchildhood sexual abuse through artisticenterprise. brown describes the intentionof her work as a testimony to lives lostand lives reclaimed, to the power of theimagination to . . . return these histories totheir rightful place in the world (p. ii).(www.sagepub.com/knowlessupplement)

Researcher Presence. A researcherspresence is evident in a number of waysthroughout an arts-informed researchtext (in whatever form it is presentedand, by implication, throughout the entireresearching process). The researcher is pre-sent through an explicit reflexive self-accounting; her presence is also impliedand felt, and the research text (the repre-sentational form) clearly bears the signa-ture or fingerprint of researcher-as-artist.Nancy Davis Halifax is a visual artist, poet,prose writer, and researcher in areas ofhealth, disability, and homelessness. Herwork (e.g., Halifax, 2002, 2007) is a vividexample of artist-researcher confluence.(www.sagepub.com/knowlessupplement)

Aesthetic Quality. The central pur-pose of arts-informed research is knowl-edge advancement through research, notthe production of fine art works. Art is amedium through which research purposesare achieved. The quality of the artistic

elements of an arts-informed research proj-ect is defined by how well the artisticprocess and form serve research goals.Attention to the aesthetics of a particulargenre are, therefore, important; aestheticsof form are integrally tied to communica-tion. In On Womens Domestic Knowledgeand Work: Growing Up in an ItalianKitchen (2006), Teresa Luciani combinesfiction, autobiography, and photographyin an exploration that celebrates the depthand complexity of domestic knowledgeand makes visible womens domestic labor.The power and beauty of her work reflectsrigorous attention to the aesthetic qualitiesof each art form and, in turn, how the art forms combine in an aesthetic whole.(www.sagepub.com/knowlessupplement)

Methodological Commitment. Arts-informed research evidences attention tothe defining elements and form of arts-informed research. As such the workreflects a methodological commitmentthrough evidence of a principled process,procedural harmony, and attention to aes-thetic quality. Love Stories About Caregivingand Alzheimers Disease (McIntyre &Cole, 2006) is a 45-minute spoken wordperformance created from data gathered ina study of caregivers experiences of caringfor a loved one with Alzheimers disease.Working with the data to identify substan-tive themes related to the research pur-pose, it became clear that, to preserve theintegrity of and honor the caregivers expe-riences, the form of representation neededto remain true to the narrative and emotivequality of what people contributed. (www.sagepub.com/knowlessupplement)

Holistic Quality. From purpose tomethod to interpretation and representa-tion, arts-informed research is a holisticprocess and rendering that runs counter tomore conventional research endeavorsthat tend to be more linear, sequential,



compartmentalized, and distanced fromresearcher and participants. A rigorousarts-informed text is imbued with aninternal consistency and coherence thatrepresents a strong and seamless relation-ship between purpose and method (processand form). The research text also evidencesa high level of authenticity that speaks tothe truthfulness and sincerity of theresearch relationship, process of inquiry,interpretation, and representational form.Gary Knowless and Suzanne Thomassresearch with high school students explor-ing sense of place in schools (Knowles &Thomas, 2000, 2002; Thomas & Knowles,2002) is an example of holistic quality inresearch. The student-researchers in theproject were at once information gatherers,portraiture artists, and interpreters ofexperience. The students creations, madeup of personal narratives, photographs,memory maps, and found objects, becameat once data and representations indica-tive of the inquiry focus. (www.sagepub.com/knowlessupplement)

Communicability. Foremost in arts-informed work are issues related to audi-ence and the transformative potential ofthe work. Research that maximizes itscommunicative potential addresses concernsabout the accessibility of the researchaccount usually through the form and lan-guage in which it is written, performed, orotherwise presented. Accessibility is relatedto the potential for audience engagementand response. Such representations ofresearch have the express purpose of con-necting, in a holistic way, with the hearts,souls, and minds of the audience. They areintended to have an evocative quality anda high level of resonance for diverse audi-ences. In the Alzheimers Project, describedearlier, children, rural women, and menover 80people who do not usually attendresearch presentationscame to see the

work and spend time at the various spacesin the exhibit created for social interaction,information exchange, or silent repose.(www.sagepub.com/knowlessupplement)

Knowledge Advancement. Researchis about advancing knowledge howeverknowledge is defined. The knowledgeadvanced in arts-informed research isgenerative rather than propositional andbased on assumptions that reflect themultidimensional, complex, dynamic,intersubjective, and contextual nature ofhuman experience. In so doing, knowledgeclaims must be made with sufficient ambi-guity and humility to allow for multipleinterpretations and reader response. KathrynChurchs research-based installation, Fabri-cations: Stitching Ourselves Together, isconstructed around 22 wedding dressesthat her mother sewed over 50 years. From1997 to 2001, she exhibited the work inpublic venues to audiences who could imme-diately connect with the familiarity of thedisplay and be challenged, perhaps forthe first time, to think about some of thesociocultural complexities depicted. (www.sagepub.com/knowlessupplement)

Contributions. Tied to the intellec-tual and moral purposes of arts-informedresearch are its theoretical and practicalcontributions. Sound and rigorous arts-informed work has both theoretical poten-tial and transformative potential. The formeracknowledges the centrality of the So What?question and the power of the inquirywork to provide insights into the humancondition, while the latter urges researchersto imagine new possibilities for those whomthe work is about and for. Researchers arenot passive agents of the state, university,or any other agency of society. Researchersresponsibilities are toward fellow humans,neighbors, and community members. RossGray and Chris Sinding poignantly


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confront this issue in their research-baseddramas on/with people living with cancer(see, e.g., Gray & Sinding, 2002). (www.sagepub.com/knowlessupplement)

The transformative potential of arts-informed research speaks to the need forresearchers to develop representations thataddress audiences in ways that do notpacify or indulge the senses but arouse themand the intellect to new heights of responseand action. In essence, and ideally, theeducative possibilities of arts-informedwork are foremost in the heart, soul, andmind of the researcher from the onset of aninquiry. The possibilities of such educativeendeavors, broadly defined, are near limit-less; their power to inform and provokeaction are only constrained by the humanspirit and its energies.

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immigrants and refugees who maintain theirmother tongue. Unpublished doctoral thesis,University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario,Canada.

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Documents

Arts-Informed Research_ Cole, Knowles