An agenda for creative practice in the new mobilities paradigm

Abstract

Creative practices have made a standing contribution to mobilities research. We write this article as a collective of 25 scholars and practitioners to make a provocation: to further position creative mobilities research as a fundamental contribution and component in this field. The article explores how creative forms of research—whether in the form of artworks, exhibitions, performances, collaborations, and more—has been a foundational part of shaping the new mobilities paradigm, and continues to influence its methodological, epistemological, and ontological concerns. We tour through the interwoven history of art and mobilities research, outlining five central contributions that creativity brings. Through short vignettes of each author’s creative practice, we discuss how creativity has been key to the evolution and emergence of how mobilities research has expanded to global audiences of scholars, practitioners, and communities. The article concludes by highlighting the potency of the arts for lively and transdisciplinary pathways for future mobilities research in the uncertainties that lay ahead.

Keywords:

• Creativity
• art
• methodology
• practice-led research
• immobility

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The virtual exhibition is available here: http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/art-mobilities/ It was a peer-reviewed selection of recent artworks produced by the authors of this article, curated by lead authors Kaya Barry and Jen Southern. It was launched at the 2021 virtual conference hosted by Northumbria University.

2 Available at: https://www.womensjourneyscapes.net/ Funded by the British Academy. Image copyright © Janet Bowstead/Amy/Cordelia/Daisy/Marilyn/Solace Women’s Aid.

3 The work was done within the project “Public transport as public space in European cities: Narrating, experiencing, contesting (PUTSPACE)”.

4 Technical Mapping by Douglas Andrew Wilson.

Additional information

Funding

Kaya Barry receives funding from an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award [project number: DE220100394] funded by the Australian Government. Aleksandra Ianchenko’s work was done within the project “Public transport as public space in European cities: Narrating, experiencing, contesting (PUTSPACE)” is financially supported by the HERA Joint Research Programme (www.heranet.info) which is co-funded by AKA, BMBF via DLRPT, ETAg, and the European Commission through Horizon 2020.