International Journal of Creative Media Research
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Can artistic practices inform an unlearning of normative thought structures? Towards an ethico-onto-epistemological co-constitution with other worlds’ knowledges
No full textA positionality within the framework of Western Modernity most poignantly is depicted through agency's interpretation as one-sided. It accounts for a belief in control and mastery over a presumably silent or mute 'othered' side, leading to an exclusionary and singular view of the world. Essential for breaching this prevalent approach are questions like how can other knowledges be approached without being appropriated, how can something unknown be made perceptible when generally approved unable as to provide a valuable contribution?
Practice-based research emphasises the intertwining of practice and theory rather than juxtaposing reason over the sensual, culture to nature. Focusing on results based on intuition and creativity activates a link between science and the arts. Such intertwining involves the participation across sectors and informs a specific sensitivity to differently defined norms. Creative research's prospect of divergent approaches in these transdisciplinary excursions entails an awareness for critical attitudes and differing possibilities. Its potential to address the normative frameworks surrounding the specific fields derives from these experiences. The text argues that these transversal abilities of creative research are essential for interrogating a worldview based on western modernity towards a co-constitutional attitude. A paradigmatic reference is an engagement with sound/noise in performance practice, as equally on a theoretical level. The intertwined approach allowed to unravel potentialities and also problematics surfacing throughout the project. Response-ability to the resonance of a new tone necessitates an openness to encounter 'new' or other knowledges, which incites an inherent co-constitutional ethics following feminist new materialism
'Tentacular thinking' in Creative Practice Research as a Radical Intellectual Gesture: A case study of an experimental hybrid film Wash (2022)
No full textAs a filmmaker and scholar I have been involved in the project of creating knowledge through making films, even before I did a PhD and became an academic. It has always been unclear to me why there is the curious divide between the so called 'academic' and 'creative'. All my documentaries for the broadcasters in some way I would argue were 'practice research' without me being quite aware of it. The paper considers the notion of what 'knowledge' might be for a creative research practitioner and how 'high theory' might be of assistance in inspiring ideas and creative strategies. I will share my most recent experience of working across disciplines with the new experimental film Wash (2022). It is a hybrid documentary with element of animation and drama dealing with serious issues of development in Zimbabwe, a country in which I have done much work over the years. The piece of work has been funded by Strategic England Research 2021 and the University of Edinburgh.
In terms of methodology for any creative practice research work, here I suggest that casting a wide net in the search for theoretical and artistic inspirations, using what Donna Haraway would call 'tentacular thinking' is not only not a hindrance in the creative process but could be positively helpful. In this context I discuss here Surrealism, arguably the most influential artistic and theoretical movement, which itself began with a bold drawing from a different praxis and theory, namely psychoanalysis and the work of Sigmund Freud. Surrealism as a creative tool has of course been re-framed, re-thought and re-positioned by various cultures as demonstrated by Venice Bienale and the recent exhibition at Tate Modern in London.) In some way it has also influenced the hybrid film Wash I am presenting here, even as it deals with important issues of understanding a given community before introducing practices that might even be ‘good for them. In the film I have used a patchwork of knowledge, a patchwork of influences, drawing from Surrealism as well as other influences such as postcolonial theories and intangible local knowledge reservoirs
Practice-based Research and Creative Arts Practice: Intra-action, Self and the Other; Drawing and Installation in the British Peak District
No full textThis research uses a creative arts practice emerging from the processes of drawing and installation to create and explore the relationships between the artist and the outdoor spaces of the British Peak District. A mobile working kit made from paper, fabric and wood is used to make temporary installations outdoors in response to wind, weather and topography. The mobile working kit modules are then returned to the studio and later installed in art exhibition spaces, their display indexing the connection between self, other and the outdoors. The multitude of processes in outdoor environments and their relationships to landscape and its inhabitants’ actions is used as a methodological template to frame change. Based on the dichotomy of mobility and inscription, artmaking actions and the research process are described through the conceptual lenses of ‘gesture’, ‘practice’ and an expanded understanding of drawing. Following this, a taxonomy is suggested that categorises the embodiment of artmaking events from the tensions between their experienced particularities and the artist’s perceived material practice frameworks
Editorial: Black sheep of academia? - Recontextualising Creative Practice-based Research
No full textIntroduction, or how to be an academic rebel Practice-based research, under may names and sub-categories, has been present and increasingly vibrant (although mostly limited in its recognition to the UK and Australia) for several decades now. A number of rich, insightful texts have been written about the phenomenon, and some significant work has been done towards academia’s recognition of practice-based research as a legitimate and valuable form of new contribution to knowledge. Not to mention some fantastic and innovative creative practice work that keeps appearing and inspiring myself and others alike
Questioning Creative Practice Human Research Ethics
No full textOne of my first tasks at the creative arts tertiary institution where I work was to examine the existing ethics processes and policy. As a result, I delved into the growing literature on creative practice research ethics to examine the ways in which academic ethics and creative practice research interact. A particular focus of this research became the human research ethics process, with its underlying principle of reduction of harm by the researcher on the individual researched person. This article examines that process and the tensions that arise between the underlying assumptions of university ethics, the realities of creative practice research, and existing industry moral codes. In particular, I explore whether ethics can be discipline specific, the effect of participant anonymity, using a rolling consent process, who the consent is between, and self-care of the researcher. I investigate these topics by reflecting on the experiences of researchers, including my experience. As a result of the discussion, I am led to the point where I challenge existing institutional research practices as pushing researchers into a colonial relationship with the researched
What Does the Student Need to Know in Order to Make a Documentary?
No full textDocumentary pedagogy is troublesome, because documentary is perennially troublesome, in ways it might be argued that fiction is not (doubtless the reverse is also true, but this is about documentary). Nor can the trouble be quelled by theoretical inquiry, which always come after the fact, not before, which means there is always a tension between theory and practice, and the latter proceeds according to its own intuitions about how to picture the phenomenal world the documentarist seeks to represent. Consider, then, the observation once made by the Brazilian film critic José Carlos Avellar that in documentary, reality is the co-author and the camera is also an actor. (Avellar 2009.) Two elements which interact. First, the real, which is unscripted; I use the word ‘real’ here in its general sense, aware that reality isn’t transparent, but complicated, multilayered and in certain ways deceptive. Second, the camera which captures its fleeting appearance. My question is: How can the student be prepared for this encounter? What does the student need to know in order to make a documentary
Listening as Strategy for Research: Extending Sonic Thinking in Documentary
No full textThe emerging academic field of practice-based research, developed from an interrelation between artistic practice and academic research, has many historical precedents. Although many academic communities have welcomed the field in recent years, its effectiveness, especially its research methodologies, are often questioned and require justification (Boehm, 2008). The methods required to engage with the ambiguities of tacit and sensory dimensions of artistic practice are not always measurable or reliable and hence diverge from the rigidity and objectivity of the sciences and social sciences tradition. Thus, the ability to think about the world in other realms beyond the visual-logo-centric conventions of research will often generate conflict for new practitioners in practice-based PhD programmes when encountered with research norms as favoured by traditional quantitative and qualitative systems (Brabazon, Lyndall-Knight, and Hills, 2020). However, the interdisciplinary nature of research and the arts, when combined with the ambiguity of non-semantic expression, offer an opportunity to reframe existing knowledge frameworks within academia. This paper will consider how explorations of the sonic as a methodological tool can provide new forms of knowledge contribution, as sound appeals to the cognitive and the rational, as well as the creative. In this way, it holds space for the possibility of expanded connections, imagination and speculation (Bull and Cobussen, 2020). What kind of knowledge might sound provide to broaden and diversify the visual-logocentric methodologies that currently predominate scholarly inquiries and values? Reflecting on both the possibilities and challenges of using sonic methodologies in my PhD practice-based research, as well as a brief study of the film Zawawa: the sound of sugar cane in the wind, this paper will explore the creative potential of articulating sonic methodologies from the perspective of documentary filmmaking
An Overview of Research-creation in and with Interactive Media
No full textThis essay contributes to and updates scholarship on practice-based research. More concretely, it situates research-creation vis-à-vis practice-based research and discusses the distinction between artistic and mediatic research-creation. The essay insists on affordances of interactive media as they are foundational for drawing accurate research results. The paper contributes to theorizing mediatic research-creation by adding the component of interactivity to it. By introducing interactive documentary (i-doc) as a creative media practice, and by providing a succinct case study of i-doc Field Trip (2019), the text engages with the notion of mediatic research-creation head-on.
Disclaimer: Some passages in this paper are drawn from the author’s doctoral thesis (Dubois, 2021
How to Establish Film Practice Research and Evidence Impact in the Greek Academic Environment?
No full textNowadays, there are two types of scholars teaching film courses at the Greek universities. The first one is the theoreticians with a background in film studies and a PhD in film theory, who approach their teaching methods strictly from a theoretical point of view. The second type of university teachers are practical filmmakers that come directly from the industry, most of them without a PhD or formal research experience. They approach their courses from a practical point of view sharing their experience from the industry.
Greek Universities are exclusively public at the moment and fall under the Ministry of Education. The system is quite bureaucratic and difficult to adapt within and responds slowly, if at all to changes. PhD candidates are dealing almost exclusively with traditional theoretical PhDs. Over the past several years, the first art-based PhDs focusing upon performing arts or visual arts in the Greek academic environment were submitted. However, the field of film practice research is still brand new. At the same time, over the past decade the Ministry of Education established a new unit in Universities that will measure the quality of research and teaching entitled Quality Assurance Unit (MO.DI.P). MO.DI.P is an advisory body for the administration of the University which, through the coordination of procedures for internal and external evaluation of the academic units of the Institution, gathers information regarding the strong and weak points of a University. Within this framework it is really difficult for arts based or film-based research practitioners to prove the impact of their research to MO.DI.P. and to establish film practice research in general within the Greek academic environment.
Since my background is on film practice and my PhD was undertaken in the United Kingdom, I am familiar with the ways that we can measure film practice impact in the academic environment. Establishing this culture in the Greek academic environment is quite difficult but at the same time it forges new paths and exciting opportunities for new art based and film-based research practitioners. This paper will focus on the ways that we can measure impact in film practice research, through examples from my own work. I will argue how I was able to measure the impact of my own films Flickering Souls Set Alight (2019) and A Quest for Eternity (2020) but also how to measure impact in more cross disciplinary research with examples of my participation as researcher in StoryLab (Skills Training for Democratised Film Industries) research lab. Finally, I will focus on the issues and the possibilities of establishing these new opportunities in the Greek academic environment and the solutions that this alternative path will be able to provide, not only to academia in Greece but to contemporary Greek filmmakers, too
Introduction
No full textDespite its insular qualities, nostalgia, in its essence, is an attempt to connect. Firstly, with a time and space, lost or imagined, but also to one another. As Charlotte Wells notes in her own nostalgic, biographically inflected, feature debut, Aftersun (2021), “memory is a slippery thing”, each visit to the event “framed by a new feeling.” Its potential for nostalgic expression, and further creative expansion, is rich through visual technology. This can be encountered in Wells’ “language of cinema”, and of course through the videogames, creative practice, and online visual cultures considered within the articles in this special issue. These participatory screen cultures range from the “low-poly horror” games of the Haunted PS1 community, considered by Patrick Dolan and Dr Andrew Bailey, to the nostalgic aesthetic communities identified in Lara López Millán’s study of Dark Academia on Tumblr. Yet, in each of the wide-ranging incarnations explored in this issue, we find Wells’ reminder that nostalgic technology offers “room for you”, created with the hope to “take it, fill it, in order to feel it.