Practice
as Research; Thinking Through Theory
“Practice as
research not only produces knowledge that may be applied in multiple contexts,
but also has the capacity to promote a more profound understanding of how
knowledge is revealed, acquired and expressed.” (Barrett and Bolt, 2007).
Art practice, being a
craftsperson, a chef, a coder, a writer, a landscape gardener or equally a
teacher creates tacit knowledge, as Hyland, (2018) puts it, a thinking hand. Practice led research has the possibility to extend
understanding of the role of experiential, problem-based learning (Barrett and Bolt, 2003) and there is real potential
for situated knowledge and personally motivated understandings that could demonstrate how knowledge is revealed and acquired.
This
practice led research gives the participant when they reflected upon it, a
deeper way of knowing and an illumination of the winding path of understanding
of how it is that they know what they know, Barrett and Bolt (2007) believe it
is muscle memory that imputes a deeper understanding of practice. Further they
believe there is a diologic relationship between the exegesis, research and practice.
Inherent
practical wisdom reveals philosophical contexts for critical thinking about the
theoretical underpinning of art and design as advocated by Broadhead and
Gregson (2018) in their recent publication, Practical Wisdom
and Democratic Education. What is
practice – led and practice - based research in the context of pedagogy and
art-practice? The Australian academic art collective, Creative
Connections (2017) explains the distinction, commenting that, “If a creative
artefact is the basis of the contribution to knowledge, the research
is practice-based. If the
research leads primarily to new understandings about practice, it is
practice-led.” And so the two
terms have an apparent difference and are not so interchangeable.
“…the innovative and critical potential of
practice-based research lies in its capacity to generate personally situated
knowledge” (Barrett and Bolt 2007) personally situated knowledge adds authenticity to research, as Lorraine Leeson (2017) concurs in her book Art: Process: Change, written from a
very practical point of view, critical thinking in her opinion can only happen
in situated practice and practice based research.
In practice led learning students participate in their own education,
collaborate with each other facilitated by the teacher. Developing critical thinking through practice based research with students often
in my experience addresses issues of equality diversity and inclusion, it asks
learners and lecturers to actively engage (as hooks 2007 recommends), in the
class room in order to speak to the questions of race, gender and class through the practice of teaching and the lens of
criticality.
The situated and
personally motivated nature of knowledge acquisition through practice led
approaches presents an alternative to traditional pedagogies that emphasise
more passive modes of learning. Traditionally the teacher stands at the front
and expounds while the students go to sleep. Barrett and Bolt’s, (2007) anxiety over the normalisation of the
passive classroom is echoed by
Ken Brown (1998) who ruminates that all this thinking
about thinking provides an impetus for the introduction of programmatic methods
for remedying passive, rote learning which may well prove self-defeating.
An art education is the anathema of rote
learning, although some rote-ism of course is present, how can students be
original, daring, innovative when they don’t know what the cannon is in terms
of historical art movements and contemporary art practices. Although Marionetti
and his fellow Italian Futurists would disagree, berating history with his Futurist Manifesto of 1909, advocating
the destruction of the past, the burning of all ‘old’ paintings and books in
favour of the ‘Modern’. This to our contemporary ears has more than a touch of
the Zealot and the Radical about it which we cannot condone, but Marionetti’s
fervour is as he sees it a heroic push into the now, not being clouded or
tainted by the past. His art practice was
to live completely in the moment without repetition or emulation.
Brown (1998) believes early years learning should
be all about repetitive memorizing so the students have a foundation from which
to start to think critically and this also could have some truth to it. Art
practice I believe has to start with emulation and repetition. As a designer-crafts woman this is how I began my education at art school, find a designer
you love they told us and make a piece of ceramics using the same techniques, using the
same glazes, using the same structural design. When I found one satisfying element in a piece of pottery, then I was asked to take that aspect and remake
the pot, make it severally and with variations until all the elements of the
pot were balanced, harmonious and pleasing to the eye and the hand.
As Sennett says in his book The Craftsman (2008) the path to mastery has stages, and right at
the beginning is observation, watching, researching, reading, looking, absorbing;
Next have a go, imitate, emulate, seek, mirror, echo; after that is the
practice, repetition, repeat 10000 times to become proficient, rehearse, study,
train; and finally transcendence, become your own person, have your own
thoughts, ideas, designs, to innovate. However none of this can happen without
the beginning part of observation and practice. This idea is upheld by Oakeshotte
(1933) who see that a long period of initiation, gives students the time and
space to learn to speak before they have anything significant to say he calls
this ‘learning without understanding’. To my mind no learning can occur without
some understanding, like a seed in the earth waits through the long winter and
bitter cold spring and all seems hopeless, lost, nothing happening, then one
warm day a shoot appears like a miracle. This is the kind of slow learning and slow crafting Sennett
and Hyland comprehend and perceive as the most fruitful way to becoming a
master of your particular practice. Tacit thinking – thinking with the hands, the thinking hand – thinking
by doing, debating, writing, speaking and listening – getting what is in a student
or a teacher’s head out of the interior castle and into the classroom.
Barrett, E., and Bolt,
B., Eds., (2007) Practice as Research
Approaches to Creative Arts Enquiry, London, I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd.
Broadhead, S., and Gregson, M.,
(2018) Practical Wisdom and Democratic
Education: Phronesis, Art and Non-traditional Students, Cham, Switzerland, Palgrave
Macmillan.
Leeson, L., (2017) Art: Process:
Change. Inside a Socially Situated Practice, Routledge series; Advances in
Art and Visual Studies, New York, Routledge
Brown, K., (1998) Education Culture and Critical Thinking, Aldershot,
Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
hooks, b., (2007) Teaching
Critical Thinking, Practical Wisdom, New York, Routledge.
Hyland, T., (2018) ETF, MPhil residential conference,
Sunderland Univeristy
Oakeshott, M., (1933) Experience and its Modes, London, Cambridge.
Sennett, R. (2008). The Craftsman. London, Penguin
The difference between
practice based and practice led research
<https://www.creativityandcognition.com/research/practice-based-research/differences-between-practice-based-and-practice-led-research/>
accessed 23/09/17.
(2009),
Words in Freedom, Futurism at 100; Museum of Modern Art, New York,
https://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2009/futurism/ accessed 27 February 2018.
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