This short piece of writing is designed to explore my idea of research and how this idea fits into my studies. I say fits into my studies so my first question is whether my research is a part of my project distinct from activities such as the creation of artworks or is my research the whole of my project which encompasses everything?

If I consider that my project, or indeed any project, starts from nothing more than an idea or experience, then it seems clear that any forward step cannot be taken without first conducting research. My project could be therefore be said to be a research project. Although this is a basic thing to say, in my project I am the researcher.

I feel many of the steps and statements I will make here are going to be as basic as my last sentence but to begin to comprehend what research in the arts might mean I need to start at a simple level. The learning outcome for this unit speaks of ‘relevant research methods’. I will use this as my doorway into this topic. Just what is meant by ‘relevant research methods’?

A quick search on the internet provides a host of confusing and contradictory answers; there are four types of research, there are twelve types of research, there are fifteen types of research, there are five methods of research, there are ten types of quantitative research and so on.

My search, however, did throw up a basic (my favourite kind) description. “Research methods are the strategies, processes or techniques utilised in the collection of data or evidence for analysis in order to uncover new information or create better understanding of a topic.”(What are research methods?, 2022)

Using that definition as a starting point, the steps I have taken in my project so far:

1. Find written works related to my project.
2. Find other practitioners working in a field similar to my project.
3. Identify themes and areas of interest in these works.
4. Explore related works.
5. Analyse my findings to try and identify relevant areas of interest with my project.
6. Based on what I have discovered, record my findings in written works and in creation of visual test pieces.
7. Evaluate my progress.
8. Based on this ongoing evaluation go back to step 1.

It is clear that there is a moving target in play here. The works which form a foundation for my research cannot be known until after I have conducted research. It is also clear that there are addition steps such as my developing ideas crystalising are my research having more depth and form, the creation of the literature review, my ideas for a dissertation and my progress against defined aims of the educational unit.

This feels good but still very basic and general. To expand on this, I will think more specifically about my own project.

In my research,

I have been researching my areas of interest and developing my project used three main strands;

• firstly, my research looks at the writings of other academics who have explored my areas of interest
• next I look at creative works to see how other practitioners explore their topic and how this could potentially influence me
• and thirdly, I explore my research and learning through the design and creation of new test works.
• Beyond these three main areas, there is a feedback loop where I reflect on what I have written, what I have created and test my thoughts against previously developed assumptions.

My project is part of my study in photography. Photography is a visual medium so it follows that much of my research will be based around visual culture. I have looked briefly at a few texts but as a recommended text around research is Visual methodologies: an introduction to interpreting visual materials by Gillian Rose so why not start here? The edition of this book am using is the 2^nd edition.

Rose quite rapidly moves away from my basic start but I will try and follow her.

My first take from the book is her description of critical visual methodology, “By ‘critical I mean an approach that thinks about the visual in terms of the cultural significance, social practices and power relations in which it is embedded.” (Rose, 2007, p. xv)

I already stated that I felt there was a moving target at play and so there must be an order in which the research choices sit. Rose explains that, “Choosing a research methodology means developing a research question and the tools to generate evidence for its answer” (Rose, 2007, p. 1) This then helps me understand why when I looked ahead at the learning outcomes at the start of the unit and found one which stated, “Apply relevant research methods and subject knowledge to test, inform, and develop your work” that this left me cold. I was looking at project out of sequence. This 3.1 Practice and Research unit builds towards a research question so the idea of finding a research methodology which suits me and my project before I know my research question makes no sense.

Jumping ahead and moving away from very basic observations, Rose suggests a series of different approaches depending on the project and which methods you feel are best suited to your chosen approach. In my case there is more than a single approach:

• Firstly, my latest interpretation of my project has made use of photographs from the family album and of texts based around loss, death, grief and how the dead might be remembered or forgotten. For the visual element of this research there is “an anthropological approach directly observing the social life of visual objects” (Rose, 2007, p. 216)
• Secondly my work involves “making photographs as part of a research project”. (Rose, 2007, p. 237) This second concept gave me pause for thought. Is the creation of my visual test pieces part of my research? I think yes, as soon as I self-review my work or ask for feedback and comment, I am using my creative works as a form of research.

My first consideration is in making choices based on my use of existing photographs I have purchased. These pictures are what I would describe as lost, their history and context is missing. Someone has found them and put them up for sale online. I imagine many such photographs have ended up in the skip. These photographs once existed in a family setting. People looked at them and treasured them. The act of looking at the album was a shared family act. A family ritual for a Saturday night. A performance. The faces were well known. As time passed it is possible the album was passed to a child and the perspective shifted as they looked at the album and the spectre of death appeared. What was previously a wedding photograph with happy memories in a well-known place became a wedding perhaps of parents who are now dead. What was a happy photograph changes. Time shifts again, a marriage breakup and the album has a new home. This time that wedding photograph is of unknown old people and maybe the location becomes more important as it is recognised but different to how it is today. Another time shift and for whatever reason the album been lost or abandoned. Nobody cared enough to keep it safe. A new person finds it and it is a commodity to be sold. It then passes to me. I look at the wedding photograph, I don’t know the places or the people or the relationships or the date. I start to build a new story and a new sense of the performance of the photograph but to do that I must first assess the photographs, looking for something specific about a specific photograph for which I see new possibilities. My choices here are based on my own likes and dislikes and on where I envisage placing that old album photograph. Rose presents an interesting thought, “Images can present things that words cannot and can therefore be used as evidence to develop and support, or to supplement, research findings.” She adds a proviso saying that, “ images still need to be contextualised to some degree my words.” (Rose, 2007, p. 256) It becomes clear to me that the anthropological approach ties in with the making of photographic images and then of testing these through review and feedback.

This mention of words brings me to the non-visual part of my research. My research into death looking at written and verbal sources.

My research around death is varied and I have looked into a large number of areas such as history, social care, medicine, cancer, bereavement, memorial, memory and more.

My experience of research methods to date and the outcomes in my work.

My reading and choice of sources has been a progression. At the early stage of this unit, I expressed to my tutor my sense that my research was leading me as if I was adrift and the wind taking me wherever it blew. I allowed my interests to take my down any path ad recorded my thoughts. In the second half of unit, my research seemed to reset. I took time to revisit texts I had read previously and which specifically interested me and was surprised that I was able to find different levels of meaning I had not noticed before. I then started to use the works I had researched and the ideas I was exploring to help define a series of test creative pieces. In all of this I put in place a feedback loop so that each shift in thought, new source or new test piece would be analysed and my revised thoughts fed back to see if it changed how I thought about previous works as well as moving me forwards in my studies to me next work.

At an early stage of my project when I thought my topic might lean towards the medical scan and the patient, I conducted research asking for input from other parents who have lost children to cancer or to children who had survived cancer so. Such research is a very painful and emotionally trying experience both for me and for the people I am asking to relive such traumatic experiences. I wanted to know firstly, if they would help and contribute photographs and their children’s medical scans so that I could use these in my work. It quickly became clear to me the many challenges I would face if I tried to pursue this option; medical privacy, the mental and emotional toll, the difficulty of taking personal photographs and scans and shaping them in my work without the parents or cancer victim becoming embroiled in my creative choices and more. I abandoned this approach and looking back, I realise that I breathed a sigh of relief.

That side of my research still has an indirect place in my work. It is an emotional connection so far and I am uncertain how my research might form part of my work. Today I shared cancer experiences in a Cancer Insight Panel I joined working with Pfizer. This panel looks at cancer outcomes and asks how things might be done differently. As we attend workshops and things and look into this area, we share many details of our journeys which is very emotional. I have learned my lesson from my early attempt with cancer parents and do not intend to use my Pfizer panel in any visual sense but it is interesting how this heightened emotional sense impacts my overall degree work. When I research books and articles and artworks these aren’t just dry dusty works that not been looked at for a while, pure academia or works with a limited reach, instead that emotional drag keeps the very idea of loss and pain and the vast impact of cancer alive within me and provides a drive within my coursework.

I mention the medical scan and my Pfizer panel as these things are about perspective. All of death is, which is why, to me, that the field is so interesting and worthy of research.

The research methods and outcomes I mention such as my creative works, my reading, my attempts at understanding other people impacted by cancer all feed into one final outcome and part of my process; my emotional state which in turn, must feed back into my research. It one of these things where I feel too close to make a judgement on how or where these things impact one another

References

Rose, G. (2007) Visual methodologies: an introduction to interpreting visual materials. 2nd edn. London: SAGE Publications Inc.

What are research methods? (2022) LibGuides, University of Newcastle Library, Australia. Available at: https://libguides.newcastle.edu.au/researchmethods (Accessed: 27 October 2022).