Creative Practice as Research: Discourse on Methodology Main Menu Contents The Practitioner Model of Creative Cognition: A Potential Model for Creative Practice-Based Research Model research methods relevant for creative practice-based research projects Application of the Practitioner Model of Creative Cognition Community Discourse: Your Practice Research Models Resources for Conducting and Teaching Practice-Based Research About the Author The Disrupted Journal of Media Practice

Introduction

7703
In the sciences, observation, experimentation, and exploration allow researchers to discover the new, in order to better understand the existing. For the humanities, experimentation has long been the remit of the creative practitioner, across various forms of media, text, art, and performance. When we as practitioners pursue our art as research, we not only offer insights into art and the practice of art as it occurs, but can throw new and unexpected light onto a range of topics as wide as human experience itself.

Practice-related research, or action research, is a tried and tested methodology in medicine, design, and engineering. While it has always been present to some extent in the arts and humanities, in recent years artistic practice has developed into a major focus of research activity, both as process and product, and several recent texts as well as discourse in various disciplines have made a strong case for its validity as a method of studying art and the practice of art. As creative practice expands as a field of academic research, there is a need to establish an ongoing discourse on and resource for appropriate practice-based methodologies.

Art, literary, music, and film analysts examine, dissect, and even deconstruct the art that we create in order to seek the roots of culture and humanity, pulling the techniques and references and motivations apart to develop knowledge of how works of art relate to the culture and society in which they are produced, as well as to the development of particular art forms over time. Practice-related researchers push this examination into a more direct and intimate sphere, observing and analysing themselves as they engage in the act of creation, rather than relying solely on dissection of the art after the fact. And just as science has exposed and increased our wonder about our world, direct study of the self as an artist at work and the practice of art in cultural and social contexts can bring us closer to our selves and our communities.
 
This project is a living discussion of practice-based methodologies in creative practice research, included as part of the special issue The Disrupted Journal of Media Practice. As such, it includes:
Each section of this project is open to discourse through both the comment features on each page, as well as Hypothes.is. Readers are encouraged to comment upon and discuss each section, to propose alternative and expanded methods, and to link to published research that has explicitly employed creative practice methods.

The purpose of this foundation text and ensuing discourse and annotation is to provide a practical resource for creative practice research methods. Ideally, this resource will be ongoing, open to revision and updates, in order to keep up with this continually evolving field of research.

This page has paths:

  1. Contents Lyle Skains
  2. Home Lyle Skains