Practice-based research

I argue that better arts practice has resulted from the PaR [Practice as Research] initiative, not necessarily directly but in the emergence through innovations arising from a practice-based, but critically reflective, culture sharing insight.

(Nelson 2013b)

At the GeoMedia 2015 conference in Karlstad, Sweden, keynote speaker Mimi Sheller and plenary panel guest Dana Diminescu, both sociologists, described practice as valuable and a better way than sociology to answer certain questions or to respond to certain problems, from political to poetic (Sheller 2015; Diminescu 2015). In this research context practice is performance defined by John Freeman:

[P}erformance can be any situation that involves elements of time and space, intention and action, performer and spectator, without being necessarily reliant on all of these being present or being present at the same time. (Freeman 2010: 136) Using this broad definition, the app can be described as a ‘remote performance’ (Pearson 2011: 282 emphasis in original) in landscape. The ‘performers’ are only present as

disembodied recorded voices and so meet the spectator across time and space. The

‘spectator’ is better described as a participant, as the experience involves embodied body-mind engagement and movement rather than passive observation.

86 According to Freeman (2010: 65), there is tension in putting together practice (creative work witnessed by an audience) and research that increases learning and knowledge. This thesis combines practice and research to push through established or imagined discipline and knowledge boundaries (Kershaw 2013). An artist-researcher or practitioner-researcher takes on multiple roles when combining creative and research work. The balance of those roles, the emphasis of practice within the research or whether it is the research, is indicated through nuances in nomenclature: Practice as Research (PaR), practice-based research (PBR) or practice-led research (PLR). In the SCUDD (Standing Conference of University Drama Departments) JiscMail exchange on Practice as Research (PaR) that coincided with Robin Nelson’s book (2013a) on the subject, Nelson summarises all terms as ‘intelligent-innovative practices counted as research’ (Nelson 2013b).

To focus in on practice-based research, considered the most appropriate for this thesis, the differences between it and other terms need to be identified. Practice-led research,

according to Brad Haseman, is often initiated by ‘an enthusiasm of practice’ and without a sense of ‘a problem’ (2006: 3) or a question. As the name implies, practice takes the lead and the research follows or emerges through the practice. In contrast to that idea, this research commenced with a problem, of whether the distance between human and landscape can be bridged using locative media art. This work uses practice with other methods of research (such as reading and ‘field work’) to respond to the problem through experimentation, which is then reflected on and conclusions shared.

Dissemination of knowledge gained during practice through writing is another way of differentiating between various terms. Haseman advocates a complete re-examination of existing qualitative and quantitative research paradigms to make space for Performative Research that is designed, developed and reported differently (Haseman 2006: 1). With that ideal in mind he discusses ‘the material outcomes’ of practice-led research ‘as all-important representations of research findings in their own right’ (Haseman 2006: 7). In Haseman’s opinion, practice or performance should not need to be translated into different forms

‘numbers (quantitative) and words (qualitative)’ (Haseman 2006: 4) to make them

understandable. Other practitioners also question the effectiveness of writing-up practice and the transformation that occurs in the process of translating practice into words,

‘documentation and analysis’ (Minchinton 2002: 10).

The separation of practice and writing in Practice as Research goes further for some according to Freeman who states that ‘the root and branch of practice as research’ (2010:

179) is that the body is perceived ‘as something that creates its own object of knowledge, as something that unashamedly elevates body-feeling over mind-knowing (Freeman 2010:

179). In an academic context putting body senses above mind-knowledge can still be problematic.

Practice-based research is the term from all three that strikes the balance between learning through the doing of practice – knowledge is gained through practice and that knowledge is then developed and deepened through reflection. What emerges through this ‘iterative, dialogic engagement of doing-thinking’ (Nelson 2013: 19) is then disseminated through writing. Neither practice nor research leads the other in this work – they are entwined.

Writing about process, data, conclusions and developing a reference tool for those wanting to connect participants to landscape using locative media should disseminate this research to a wider audience within and outside the academy interested in site-specific apps, such as in arts, geography, locative and digital media, heritage and tourism. These and other

disciplines have been and will continue to be engaged with through conference papers, two book chapters (forthcoming), presentations, workshops and invitations to test the app throughout the research process.

4.1.2 Methodology

To reproduce the conditions where connection to landscape has been referred to previously, an original piece of stand-alone locative media art was created. Testing

technology was necessary, so a layer of technology-based design was brought into the art-making process. The locative media experience also had to function as a research tool. Data gathering appropriate to the needs of the research, arts and community setting was

planned around the experience. Still more than this was needed from the app; for example Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant aims had to be met. The ‘All Our Stories’ HLF grant was applied for in 2012 in order to publish the app and make it available to the general public at no cost. The methodology needed to be flexible to respond to these various demands of the app.

88 Performative deep mapping (Pearson and Shanks 1997: 41; 2001: 162), introduced in the contextual review (as part of the conceptual framework p. 75), involves the gathering of fragments and creation of an assemblage of material from multiple sources, in different medias and formats, including artist perceptions and imaginaries of place. Imbricated through the practice and thesis, deep mapping has been an inspiration for the overarching methodology – a gathering and layering of methods drawn from different disciplines.

Collaging and the mixing of materials has also naturally evolved in my own practice, developed through interviewing, radio programme making and creating and collaborating on mixed media experiences using text, sound and sometimes image and performance.

When making an audio piece in traditional audio editing software, the meaning or story emerges through the montage or mix of material horizontally across the screen. Sounds and words are tested in different places as ‘I play off material against material’ (Schwitters 1920 cited in Motherwell [1951] 1967: 59). Constant shifting, layering and alternatives are tried before the final mix. This process now extends into making locative media and research.

Collage as a methodology has been used and described in different ways.³² I shall summarise some descriptions and attributes here before suggesting a new sub-category within collage methodologies.

Bricolage methodology suits a mixed method way of working. By using fragments of existing materials or methodologies, the researcher or practitioner adopts, adapts, adds to and amalgamates elements to construct something new. Taken from French, bricolage implies a do-it-yourself approach to creation and mending. The bricoleur is spontaneous, ingenious and ‘more skilled than merely a handyman’ (Lincoln [2001] cited in Galloway, 2008: 25).

Bricolage methodology is particularly suited to artistic practice and the rapidly changing field of technology, especially locative media with its emphasis on hands-on

experimentation with emerging technologies and the bricoleur’s talent in picking up what’s around to make something new. In bricolage there is an essence of building-up and

construction. The collocation of components into careful new arrangements, the

juxtaposition and overlap of elements during experimentation, sometimes deconstruction

32 ‘Collage can encompass anything where something is attached to something else. It is a very broad definition that includes work in both two and three dimensions’ (Ades et al, 2000: 11).

of and reflection on them needed for this research, doesn’t, in my opinion, quite fit the bricolage description. More appropriate to this practice and thesis is the trial placement, reflection and rearrangement of elements, seen clearly in a short film of the elderly Matisse working on his papier découpé collages.³³

German philosopher and writer Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) used textual collage in Passagenwerk (The Arcades Project). Unfinished but written between 1927 and 1940 (and published posthumously), the book is an assemblage of remnants from varied sources on the covered arcades of Paris and the life that moved through them. Mike Crang and Ian Cook suggest that Benjamin’s style of collage is used to ‘perform the fragmented and disjunctured nature of life as he saw it’ (Crang and Cook 2007: 184 emphasis in original).

Just as a collage picture (or collage text in Benjamin’s case) is created by assembling, layering and placing items, ideas ‘emerge from among and through the materials’ (Crang and Cook 2007: 184). A more recent example of this poetic assemblage style, especially relevant to this research as it ‘stories’ landscape, is found in the writing by geographer Caitlin DeSilvey (2007a; 2007b; 2010; 2012). Locative media practice, data gathering and writing the thesis involve assemblage to see what emerges through juxtaposition. In the locative piece traces of stories and voices suggest the fragmentation of life as well as the evocation of thoughts of those who remain unheard.

Gathering and selecting diverse materials, then layering, overlapping, adapting and folding, are all methods commonly used in collage and montage. A couple of additional elements are found within a Merz collage that resonate deeply with this research, thus it is proposed as a name for a mixed-methods or collage methodology sub-category. Merz was a term used by artist and Dadaist Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948), who worked across diverse art forms: sound, poetry, graphic design, painting and sculpture.³⁴ He used Merz to describe his

33 A film shown during the Tate Modern Matisse Cut-Outs exhibition (Cullinan 2014) depicted an aged Henri Matisse at work. Matisse, using his papier découpé technique, cut shapes out of paper with elegance and speed using large tailor’s scissors. The process most useful to this research was the repeated trying out of the placement of objects by moving and pinning the shapes (leaving small multiple holes in many shapes within the final ensemble). Great deliberation and experimentation was clearly involved with each arrangement.

Which element should lie next to what else?

34 ‘The term ‘Merz’ is derived from a fragment of the word “Kommerz-und Privatbank” (meaning Commerce Bank) included on a scrap of paper in one of his assemblage paintings, the Merzbild 1, 1919 (now lost).’

(Dietrich 2005: 159 the emphasis is mine.)

90 collages, some of which were sculptural objects – the work I refer to in this context. His Merz collages mixed materials, a block of wood, paper, found objects, ‘essentially the combination of all conceivable materials’ (Schwitters 1919 cited in Dietrich 2005: 161). In doing so, this form of collage moved from textured two-dimensional work into three-dimensional sculpture. This is similar to locative media, as it is a three-three-dimensional way of experiencing media and place – even more so when using binaural sound. Locative media also uses mixed elements and media. Multiple layers (tracks) within the audio use

differently sourced voices and sounds. Other media and materials are layered into the app, such as a live map, images and interface functions (play and pause buttons).

Figure 15: A section of Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau: Grosse Gruppe (Grand Group), Hannover c.1932. Room installation with paper, cardboard, pasteboard, plaster, glass, mirror, metal, wood, stone, and electric lighting,

destroyed 1943. Photograph Kurt Schwitters Archive im Sprengel Museum Hannover (Dietrich 2006: 156).

Schwitters’ Merz needed to be interpreted by individuals, using movement around the object to ‘read’ it, using the body-mind. Movement and use of the body-mind, the senses rather than the eyes or the ‘mind’s eye’ (Ingold 1993: 154) is needed in locative media experiences. The three-dimensionality of the approach to the research questions through practice, research, reflection and writing-up is implied with the term Merz. Much

experimentation with collage has been done in literature and the visual arts but this research presents collage in another form – locative media, a three-dimensional embodied experience. Just as Merz three-dimensional collages had to be presented in a new way, as immersive installations rather than hung on a wall, locative media forces collage to be experienced on a new platform.

The open, unfinished nature of Merz is an important difference between Merz and other collage or assemblage. Others were invited to add to Merz collages or to take parts of Schwitters’ work to use in theirs (Dietrich 2005: 158). In the same spirit, parts of this practice and thesis can be taken and built on. The app was created with the intention that participants could co-author the work by uploading their stories. The thesis refers to others’

work and builds upon it providing knowledge that can be built on, for example in the reference tool (p. 197 and in booklet form to photocopy p.382-392). The word assemblage sounds static but new additions or borrowing of material in Merz implies movement and flow. There is no specific end point, the work can continue to adapt. This idea of movement and openness suits a locative work of place when place is viewed as a flow of trajectories.

A flexible term that ‘could be applied to any and all matter of things’ (Dietrich 2005: 158), richly textured and layered to the extent of being three-dimensional and open to further additions, makes Merz a useful approach that runs through the practice and research. It is used here to describe a layered ‘family of methods’ (Karen O-Reilly 2005: 3), a ‘multi-method strategy’ commonly used in arts and design practice (Gray and Malin 2004: 15).

Although collage has been used to assemble elements within the practice, which is

experienced as a nonlinear assemblage, in order to aid the reader’s comprehension of this thesis, a piece of academic rather than creative writing, it has not been used throughout the written thesis beyond the layering of ideas and disciplines and within the chapter on Hayle.

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