Art based Research Notes - Shaun McNiff

ART BASED RESEARCH – Shaun McNiff

Researching human experience through the arts, using art as s primary mode of inquiry.

Mcniff using the creation of work as the basis to his enquiry.

Using imagery dialogue, his work centres on the direct examination of the artistic process, he studies his work with objectivity. So the examination becomes heuristic and empirical.

Heuristic means an aid to learning to stimulate interest as an means of further investigation.

Empirical means information gained by means of observation or experiments.

A variety of media used to respond to his work through movement, vocal improvisation, performance, poetry and ritual.

He is attempting to interpret art in imaginative and accurate ways he has a systematic process of describing and reflecting.

He is interested in how different sensory expressions to expand the relationship with own art.

Specific amount of time is given to movement responses, recording dialogue.

He believes that sensory artistic expression explored in alternative ways can be applied to the interaction of others, learning how to be less negative and reduces the excessive needs for control. Gaining new and original ways of perceiving situations and problems, gaining sensitivities towards another.

McNiff goes on to discuss expression using drums, a shift in methodology creating a sense of insight and release.

Definitive quality of an art-based researcher is their willingness to start work with a question.

McNiff looks at the METHODS used by Freud rather than looking at his theories, so McNiff  believes in a simple and consistent methodology for artistic inquiry.

Suggestion made of how science attempts to place controls on variables, so artistic expression is introspective and deeply personal there needs to be a focus on research and its connection to the discipline, in using this standard as with the sciences, protection against self-indulgence.

Science and art deal with the physical manipulation of material substances.

We have habitual ways of seeing the world, which influences our dealings with others. Change and insight in our personal realm a key source of corresponding social change. How we treat our art based research may have an impact on how we engage and interact with the world.

Fictional explorations where we can identify with characters and situations bring influenced by the writer, this gives us a different perspective.

The work and tragic life of Charlotte Salomon – Charlotte: life or Theater?

She transformed her life into a play with a series of 769 pieces.

McNiff asks of his students ‘What particular projects or series of work can you undertake to further your understanding of the issue?

‘What can you do that is uniquely yours and that grows from the authority  of your experience?

‘What feels most natural?’

‘Where does your authentic expertise lie?

‘What is it that you have done that others have not experienced with the same range and intensity?

Th Reflective Practioner

THE REFLECTIVE PRACTIONER – Video Notes

Sullivan – Art practises as research.

Contemporary Artists reflecting on their work, strategies for developing a reflective practice.

Reflexivity – Reviewing how you think, impact of your reflection, sense of turning back on yourself.

Donald Schon - Reflective Practioner – Learning at work/ Thinking at Action.

Michael Arrow – Professional Reflexive.

Reflexive – Thinking about your thinking, a learning Practioner.

Look at your work and the influences and where your work stands with other artists.

“Reflective practice is a kind of research activity that uses different methods to work against existing theories and practices and offers the possibilities of seeing things from new perspectives.” Sullivan (2010).

ARTISTS

James Aldridge – Personal experience of drawing birds as a child, this personal experience has been reintroduced into his work as an adult. Other areas of interest can be brought into your art work.

TRACEY EMIN

Emin uses her own experiences her world into the Art, for example ripped up 1995.Her work is confessional art, her own history.

Most artists need to distance themselves from personal experience to balance the tension, the work can be personal, but the process needs to be of importance – the artwork is separate. In doing this creating this critical distance – Objectivity.

THE FASTER WE MOVE THE LESS WE SEE.

CHRISTIANE BAUMGARTNER
Aeroplane piece –Name? This piece was copied transcribed and took 10 months to create, old fashioned way of creating, close up the viewer could see the grain but not the image, once the viewer took a step back the image could be viewed as a whole.

ROSE WYLIE – Belgium Painting: Cloven Shoes – She paints very large images this piece had a profound effect on Emily Bowle – once she removed her attractive strokes what would be left?

So how do we prevent ourselves from become slick? How do we prevent ourselves from recycling our visual language or styles because it becomes second nature.

EXHIBITION – WHAT WITH WHAT – THOMAS ERBEN GALLERY NEW WORK 2010

Exposure missing in the work, feelings of frustration a motivating force, so letting go, fresh connections creating a new response – unconstructive habits.

Looking at the work of different artists

PAULO VERONESE – SCORN

JOHN SKINNER – SCORN

He created transcripts , and studied the pieces in depth – he attempted a large painting that was a complete disaster, so he concentrated on the two females their heads.

The large canvas he paid homage to Helen Chadwick, because he respected her and was envious of her work -  not a good reaction to the piece

Look at Vanitas II – 1986 by Helen Chadwick.

STUDIO

What is your studio for?

My studio is my bedroom which should be a place of rest instead it has become a place that is subdivided into compartments, one area is for painting, another area is for the hours spent on the computer, the bed is to read late into the night attempting to through all the MA stuff. It’s a horribly trying place, however the window to the outside world connects my work, and society happening is recorded and used.      

Rachel Whiteread  – thinking place.

Studio Place – Give an identity, is it social? Contact with other artists.

The studio place has no time to be social it is given over to the next task, the only contact I have with other artists is through the internet.

Place that creates a story. – The window has opened a place to the outside where there is an on-going story that relays a snap shot of people lives as they pass my house.  

Audit – What do I do in my Studio Space?

Paint, Draw, Read, Sleep, Drink, Look out at the window, Get dressed, Undressed, Computer for work/MA and for pleasure and many everyday things through the internet.

Actually once I looked at what I actually do in this space, I have found comfort, and it is a useful place and actually what I need to do is to reorganise and create more of a study area. The lighting is good and it is a place that is homely and safe, furthermore it is an area that connects my art and to my home life in regards to my daughter.

Surveying Cycle

                                                  Experience

                    Process                                              Observation

          Plans/processes                                         

                                                                      Reflection

                              Rethink                Evaluate

Reflecting on your own work – Observe and Reflect

Contemplate from different perspectives

Paying it close attention

Use of different materials

Write about the essentials – descriptive writing or oral

Ask questions

Different environment – Place the work next to other pieces

Create an imagine dialogue with the work

Evaluate

How do you know when it is finished?

How do you know if it works?

Is it intuitive? – Sense of righteousness? Is it intentially executed

Outside the Studio

Reflective

Understand the field – Fine Art , Western Creation?

Artists reveal, evoke, cultural, philosophical, definition, destination.

Who does Fine Art?

Artists, Assistants, Experts, Participants

Products of Fine Art.

Galleries, public places, public spaces, clothing, postcards,

Evaluated – Art world, commentary, magazines, gallery sales, education, community.

The difference between Art and Crafts

Craft techniques

Markets/ Different Audiences

Fine Art History and Theory

Art does not solve social issues however highlights issues

Art and medicine – concerns with healing, wellbeing intention to do good.  Artistry of Science

Anthropology

Cultural meaning in society

You need to be open to multiple interpretations of artworks

Debate and discuss processes and the meanings that come out of them, Consider a group or online opportunities.

Question the contexts in which art is made – the impact

Beware of artistic, social, political, educational and cultural aspect.

Recognise and acknowledge whose work you are building on.

Be transparent in your methods and open about your methodology.

Be rigorous in your recording

Be prepared to justify your methods

Don’t confuse effort and quantity with quality

Be careful of using theory to justify art work

Be modest in your claims

Most importantly don’t lose your curiosity or your courage.

VE Studio Task 1

VE Studio Task 1: Take 2 Influences

          The two influences that I have chosen is firstly the Artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954). I have used the idea of creating a book because I have been influenced directly by the publication of her diary.

Kahlo, F. and Lowe, S. (2005) The Diary of Frida Kahlo, an Intimate Self-portrait, New York:Abrams

          My second direct influence has been my job, working for the NHS, as a Medical Laboratory Assistant within the blood bank Department. My specific role is dealing with Ante-Natal samples that test for antibodies and antigens that could be potentially harmful to the unborn foetus. This short description gives an overview of why there is testing on pregnant women to reduce cases of ‘Hemolytic Disease of the Unborn Foetus.’    

          “Hemolytic disease of the newborn, also known as Hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn, HDN, HDFN, or Erythroblastosis fetalis,[1] is an alloimmune condition that develops in a fetus, when the IgG molecules (one of the five main types of antibodies) produced by the mother pass through the placenta. Among these antibodies are some which attack the red blood cells in the fetal circulation; the red cells are broken down and the fetus can develop reticulocytosis and anaemia. This fetal disease ranges from mild to very severe, and fetal death from heart failure (hydrops fetalis) can occur.” (Accessed 29/2/2011)

          At this moment I am trained to be able to set up the analyser and to deal with the samples as expected within my job role, however I am lacking in the background knowledge therefore I do find looking at cells and how the analysers recognise cells, and the biological aspect interesting.    

          I created collages using pieces of paper, which I added cut out coloured card, glass paint, coloured pens, glass pens and text. With these pieces I then torn and added them to more paper using parcel tape. In doing this I created fractured images that were then incorporated into a book.

          The images that really influenced me from Frida Kahlo’s diary was a drawing that she doodled of a frightening type of creature that she named ‘Eyesaurus’ continuing from this on the following page she writes.

          “Astonished she remained seeing the sun-stars and the live-dead world being in the shade.” (Translated 2005 pg 237)

         

The page in which she wrote this sentence has circles or rings drawn over and over again, creating for me the symmetry of red blood cells, combined with the text was an influencing factor when I was creating the pages for the book.

The result is a rough scrap book, because of the torn pieces. Furthermore it feels glutinous as you pull the pages apart. I contacted Pam Fleming regarding this project; Pam was interested with vibrant colours and the thickness of the glass paints. The glass paint does glisten there is a sense of viscosity because of the drips and dribbles of glass paint. There is text covering the pages either by using a gold pen or glass pens of gold, silver and black. The text related to words used within the laboratory vocabulary and at times still feel foreign to me, and I feel uncomfortable using this language at times.

          What I discovered as I created this piece is that my process was based on creation, destruction and then recreating. A piece that reflected a cycle of work on a physical level clearly shows those elements of destruction, repair and then layering.

          After speaking to Jonathan Holden today there was a discussion to whether or not the pieces I had made were too literal, and that the book read of anger or frustration as well. This could have been influenced by the issues I have had with the technological aspect of the MA and with certain personal issues, so once again the aspect of being torn maybe very literal within the piece but it obviously plays a very important part.

          If this project was to be continued I would make more pages and then cut areas out and allowing the next page to join the first page so it would be a continuous piece. I would bind the book properly possible make the covers using a form of vinyl. Furthermore I would use acetate as extra layering with a translucent aspect, and add more text and images that relates to my job.

          The result of this project is a rough scrap book, which feels very unfinished, one comment from Jonathan about one of the first pages was that it reminded him of someone attempting to use cake decorating for the first time, and he is right at the start I was very tentative however as the pages developed the levels of layers extended themdelves, and this is something that due to the time limitation I could not extend.

          Jonathan Holden’s work was based on one of his pieces; it was of a man’s head with an arm across that cut through the imagery. He extended the abstracted viewpoint by using a cardboard box and recreated this image by using stripes of coloured plastic and attached them at angles within the box, and as a starting point did work very well.

          Jonathan then broadened this idea literally out of the box onto a corner of the wall in his studio, again using stripes of plastic. The shadows created and the imagery from the photographs completely removed the original portrait and turned this into something different, furthermore white stripes were then added to certain areas, which stretched and extended the coloured stripes adding more of a linear line.

However he then added a black square around this creation. I felt that Jonathan had almost stepped back into the very formal structure of the square, which he does use consistently within his work. He was able to then extend his idea even further by envisioning extending this space to huge proportions and has created a model of what he would do. 

I have to admit that I feel that my piece was very scrappy and not well thought out considering the range and depth that Jonathan has given to this project. I believe that at the time of making this piece I was ill prepared and I did not take the time to rationalise how I wanted to make the imagery, or considered the materials used and what the final piece would look like in its entirety. Furthermore I believe that in doing this studio task has given me the opportunity to revise how I approach tasks set throughout this course.