Experiments in Art Research: How Do We Live Questions Through Art?

Experiments in Art Research: How Do We Live Questions Through Art? is not a conventional research methods guide; it's an encounter for asking questions through art. Originating from the work of a community of tightly connected scholars, artists, and teachers, the book unfolds through a tapestry of moments, practices, and people, embracing the celebration of works in progress and in community. Rooted in the practice of permission-giving, the narrative intertwines personal stories—laying bare the transformative power of unconventional teaching methods, risky endeavors, and the breaking of scholarly norms—and begins by understanding that “art” and “research” are not separate. After that, there are endless directions to take up. Instead of a handbook offering rules or best practices, this text offers an inspiring collection of joy, longing, and determination. This is fascinating reading for arts-based researchers, artists, educators in the arts, education scholars, research-creators, performance theorists, art history scholars, art education scholars, inter- and anti-disciplinary scholars, qualitative and post-qualitative researchers, decolonization scholars, public humanities scholars, and writing pedagogy scholars.

Table of Contents:
Preface Prefacing an Invitation; Inviting a Preface Questions Through Art, Together: An Introduction; Part 1: Un/Disciplined: Experiments in Disciplinarity 1. An Invitation to Compost: Writing Forms for What I Can’t Write 2. Witnessing Through Our Voices 3. Exploring a Pedagogy of Longing 4. How is Learning a Collage, or Why am I Searching for a More Specific Way of Talking about Collaboration? 5. Syllabus Reading List as Artistic Material 6. What Happens when you are No Longer the Teacher? 7. A Call for Social Engagement: The Arts Proposal as Creative Research 8. Reflecting Community through Collaborative Public Art Projects Part 2: I/Us: Experiments In (Shared) Identities 9. Dialogic Historying through Research-Creation 10. Resisting Research 11. Visual Journaling as a Field Guide for Thinking Through Making 12. In the Space Between the Lines 13. Parallax of Grief and Restoration 14. The Veiled Camel Camel’s Secrets 15. Experiment with Art Research: Becoming the “oddist” 16. After Campeche: An Arts-Based Research Approach to Exploring Masculinity 17. El Callejón del Hospital 18. Our Chapter, Your Chapter Part 3: Translations/Relations: Experiments in Writing To Each Other 19. Lineage of Affection: A Letter 20. A Single Connection: Urbana-Bogotá 21. To Meet in Gesture: A Place, a Dance, a Drawing, a Study 22. Bitácora de un Viaje 23. Our Monsters, Our Breath 24. Translating Tea: Interpreting Relationality of Tea Ceremony in Collaborative Gatherings 25. Land-Art Relationships in Chanoyu Practice: Repair with Foraged Materials 26. Letter to the Queen of Art Education 27. Letter to Paulina as a Letter to You 28. Companion, Peace 29. A Promise to Return: Sustained Correspondence as an Act of Love and Relational Study 30. Learning to Love: A Letter of Becoming via Citational Politics 31. Friendship as Scholarship: A Path for Living Inquiry Together 32. Traces of Friendship as Inquiry; Epilogue: An Aggregate of Bursting Suns

About the Author :
Sarah Travis is Assistant Professor of Art Education in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA. Azlan Guttenberg Smith is a PhD student in writing studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA. Catalina Hernández-Cabal is Instructor of women's and gender studies in the Academy for Transdisciplinary Studies at Virginia Tech University, USA. Jorge Lucero is Full Professor of Art Education in the School of Art and Design and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA.

Review :
“Instead of acceding to the dominant definition of experiment as empirical proof or evidentiary test found in the sciences, Experiments in Art Research returns us to another, largely forgotten (or repressed) definition of experiment as a feat of magic or sorcery. Each chapter in this delightfully subversive collection of essays, letters, anarchives, vignettes, compositings, visual journals, and critical commentaries casts a spell that reanimates the trifecta “art,” “research,” and “education” with mystery and joy. If the editors ground the collection in the concept of permissions—as the imaginary space to test limits of reality and, in turn, experiment with what lies at the very edge of the knowable and perceivable about ourselves, our communities, and the cosmos writ large—then I can eagerly reply: ‘Yes, you have my full permission!’” -- Tyson E. Lewis, Professor, University of North Texas (USA), and co-author with Peter Hyland Studious Drift: Movements and Protocols for a Postdigital Education “Experiments in Art Research is a delicate and daring invitation, re-kindling liveliness in research. Embracing new forms through luminous experiment, I encountered audacious and delightful discourse that respects the mystery of art research as relational event. The book – an artwork! - radiating the ethos of care by captivating detours, unlocking doors of discipline, connecting through collages, drawings, gestures, and becomings. Nearing poetry, it is perpetually in flux, breathing new life into the very heart of art research.” -- Merel Visse, Associate Professor, Drew University (USA) and University of Humanistic Studies, Netherlands “This book felt like stepping into an underground party where I got immersed in an extraordinary circle of writers, thinkers, teachers, artists and activists. Experiments in Art Research is a vibrant amalgamation of contemplations and reflections, bound by two steadfast threads: every contributor is a "person who thinks-with-art," and they share intimate connections through personal affiliations, narratives, and bonds of friendship. Grab a snack and a beverage and join a conversation that transcends boundaries between art, education and research. Embark on a journey that takes you from academic to intuitive writing, from syllabi to lived curricula, from nature-bathing to open coding, from screendance to handwritten correspondence, from femicide, homophobia and neo-colonialism to restorative behaviors and Japanese tea gatherings, from imposter syndromes to ancestral knowledge, and from a veiled camel's secret to learning to become an ‘oddist.’” -- Emiel Heijnen, Professor, Amsterdam University of the Arts, Netherlands “Innovative and playful, Experiments in Art Research: How Do We Live Questions Through Art? gathers both new and leading voices in Arts-Based Research, representing diverse artistic media, cultures, and disciplines, from anthropology and creative writing to rhetoric and art education. This volume presents scholarship that connects the personal and the professional in meaningful and creative ways, grappling aesthetically with real life issues.” -- Liora Bresler, PhD, Professor Emerita, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA “The authors in Experiments in Art Research: How Do We Live Questions Through Art? transgress the boundaries of taken-for-granted best practices in academia by creating permissions—while extending a welcoming invitation to you, the reader—to join them in testing the pliability of research as material.” -- Daniel T. Barney, Associate Professor, George Mason University, USA “At their worst, universities are individualistic, hyper-competitive places where learning—amongst undergraduates, postgraduates, and faculty—is constructed as a private investment in each person’s preset future. At their best, universities are collaborative, mutually-inspired places where learning arises in and through people offering permission to each other to engage with the potentiality of the unknown. At the intersection of the arts and education, this edited collection provides one account after another of the university at its best.” -- Tyler Denmead, University Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, UK