Co-creating bodily, interactive, and reflexive knowledge through art-based research

ABSTRACT

In the past few decades, there has been a growing amount of interest toward alternative research methods within consumer culture research. The goal of such approaches is to engage understanding in a more multisensory, bodily, and experiential manner. While aiming to transgress traditions of research, alternative approaches often end up inadvertently repeating existing structures of knowledge. To provide a perspective on how alternative methods could utilise the full power of the tools they propose to use in research, this paper introduces art-based research (ABR), a process-oriented methodology that involves taking on artistic practice as part of research. ABR is bodily, interactive, and contextualised, employing a different approach to what knowledge is, how and when knowledge is created, and who is a part of knowledge-creation. The paper suggests that ABR can become an important political tool for critiquing traditions of and discussing power structures within academia.

KEYWORDS:

• Alternative research method
• art-based research
• artistic research
• co-created knowledge
• art

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Usva Anastasia Seregina

Usva Anastasia Seregina is a consumer culture researcher. Her work is interdisciplinary and encompasses such fields, as sociology, anthropology, performance studies, and art education. Usva is also a practicing visual artist, with the focus of her art-making often overlapping with her academic endeavours. In both her artistic and academic work, she explores the role and meaning of consumption in contemporary culture, specifically focusing on topics of fantasy, imagination, and aesthetics. As part of her practice, Usva is developing various performance-based and art-based research methodologies.