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?