List of publications related to a/r/tography from the year 2015: Journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, and theses Please note that these works mention or use a/r/tography and not all of them focus on a/r/tography explicitly. LU: JUN 25, 2023
Bickel, B., Springgay, S., Beer, R., Irwin, R. L., Grauer, K., & Xiong, G. (2011). A/r/tographic collaboration as radical relatedness. Http://Dx.Doi.Org/10.1177/160940691101000107, 10(1), 86–102. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691101000107
Abstract
In this paper the authors examine a/r/tographical collaboration in a community-engaged research study investigating immigrant understandings of home and place. The study, The City of Richgate, involves a complex collaboration between community members, community organizations, educational institutions, and a research team comprising artist-educators. The study crosses border zones of cultural, ethnic, geographic, institutional, public, private, and disciplinary boundaries, reflecting the ever-changing character of postmodern reality. In this paper, the authors reflect critically and theoretically on the lived experience of radical relatedness found within the complex collaboration, particularly within the a/r/tographic research team. This offers a qualitative methodology of radical collaboration applicable to many fields of inquiry in the academy, art world, and community.
Beare, D. M. (2011). Social art effect : The a/r/tography and complexity of theatre education learning systems, developmental stages, and change mechanisms [Doctoral dissertation, The University of British Columbia]. https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0072447
Abstract
This study examined how the Compassion Project, a collective theatre and social learning program, fostered positive youth and group development. The Compassion Project involved over 200 secondary students who participated in four theatre-making and social learning phases, where they inquired upon the topic of safe and caring schools. Through the process of collective theatre-making, students co-created two original plays (The Flip Side and Focus) about their social and emotional experiences in school. A/r/tography, the arts education research methodology for this study, emphasizes living inquiry and reflective practice through the examination of the in-between spaces of art-making/researching/teaching (a/r/t). Expanding upon the field of a/r/tography, this study introduces the rendering of the fourth wall as a theatre education research lens. By conceptualizing the theatre classroom as a stage, the rendering of the fourth wall directs attention to several perspectives: to the students, teacher-directors, players, and audience on both the classroom and stage sides; to the spaces in between the imaginary world of the play and the real life experiences of the inquirers; and, to the theatre-making and reflective practices. Based on observations, interviews, circle talks, and students’ written reflections, stories, and scripts, the data are analyzed and presented throughout the dissertation. The findings are conceptualized as the social art effects, which are the benefits that result from students’ social and theatre-making actions and interactions. The conceptualization also combines psychological, pedagogical, and theatre-based theories, such as positive psychology, complexity in education, and collective theatre. As a way to organize the data, the findings on the social art effect are categorized into three components: learning systems, developmental stages, and change mechanisms. This study illustrates how students’ social conditions are critical, and precede learning conditions. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the importance of integrating social learning and complex systems theories into the curriculum as a way to optimize learning spaces and to foster positive youth and group development.
Carter, M., Beare, D., Belliveau, G., & Irwin, R. L. (2011). A/r/tography as pedagogy: A promise without guarantee. Canadian Review of Art Education: Research and Issues, 38, 17–32.
Abstract
Writings around a/r/tography have frequently focused on research, methodology, and artistic purposes. This article foregrounds the pedagogical lens of a/r/tography and outlines six features of a/r/tography as pedagogy in theatre teacher education. The paper reports findings from an investigation into the experiences of a university instructor of a secondary theatre methods teacher education course at a Canadian university. The instructor introduces teacher candidates to a/r/tography as a pedagogical approach while assisting them in understanding the connections between complex system learning theory and secondary theatre teaching.
Dayhoff, D. L. (2011). One Art Teacher’s Journey into Curriculum Review and Revision – ProQuest [MA thesis, Corcoran College of Art + Design]. https://www.proquest.com/docview/871115102?accountid=14656&pq-origsite=summon
Abstract
This qualitative research study focused on the process of curriculum review and revision in an independent Christian school. The author, who developed the current visual arts curriculum for secondary students, sought to identify how to evaluate the current visual arts curriculum. Considerations that directly impacted the study were school culture, teacher isolation, and curriculum transference. Curriculum inquiry was conducted using methods developed by Sullivan (2009), Art Practice as Research, and Irwin (2004), A/r/tography. The existing curriculum document was evaluated based upon Bloom’s Taxonomy and the Eight Studio Habits of the Mind developed by Hetland, Winner, Veenema, and Sheridan (2007). Findings of the study will guide the future revision of the curriculum.
Durham, D. B. (2011). Art, music, and story at Woods Charter School An exploration of a/r/tography methods [Doctoral dissertation, East Carolina University]. In ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.
Abstract
Over the course of the 2009–2010 school year, I worked with my 8th grade art students to implement a series of projects using an interdisciplinary approach within the art classroom. The main thrust of the project was the creation of a children’s book with a focus on art history using an interdisciplinary approach. Students initially explored different artists and art movements to narrow the subject for a story. Through that process, students created large scale works based on those artists’ styles, illustrated possible characters for a children’s story book, and brainstormed different story themes and ideas. These projects were conducted in a series of individual projects and group work. Once the theme and plot had been selected for the story, students began illustrating and refining the story. Music and a performance were created to accompany the book. This project culminated with a final performance of the book for the entire middle school. Once the entire project was complete, questionnaires and focus groups assessed the impact of these projects.
Lea, G. W., Belliveau, G., Wager, A., & Beck, J. L. (2011). A loud silence: Working with research-based theatre and A/R/Tography. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 12(16). http://www.ijea.org/v12n16/
Abstract
Arts-based approaches to research have emerged as an integral component of current scholarship in the social sciences, education, health research, and humanities. Integrating arts-based methods and methodologies with research generates possibilities for fresh approaches for creating, translating, and exchanging knowledge (Barone & Eisner, 1997; Barone, 2000; 2008; 2008; Knowles & Cole, 2008). This article explores two such methodologies, a/r/tography and research-based theatre, by closely examining the development of the theatre-based piece “Drama as an Additional Language: Creating Community, Confidence, and Comfort” (Beck, Belliveau, Lea, & Wager, 2009). Using the six a/r/tographic renderings (contiguity, living inquiry, metaphor and metonymy, openings, reverberations, and excess), the authors investigate the development of “Drama as an Additional Language” as an example of how research-based theatre and a/r/tography may be integrated.
Leggoa, C., Sinnerb, A. E., Irwinc, R. L., Pantaleod, K., Gouzouasise, P., & Grauerf, K. (2011). Lingering in liminal spaces: A/r/tography as living inquiry in a language arts class. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 24(2), 239–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518391003641908
Abstract
In this article, we explore how we live among students and teachers as a/r/tographers and how we become creatively immersed in the wholeness of the classroom experience as a result. This is in contrast to our initial intentions of using ethnographic techniques and qualitative methods. As we began our project, it became apparent that another lens would be more appropriate for our study: this lens was a/r/tography. Exploring our research processes and practices as relational acts and ruminating on our ways of being in the academy as a/r/tographers, we explore the liminal spaces between the use of a/r/tography as practice‐based research and the use of ethnographic techniques, as qualitative research, and consider how shifting amid these realms can re/shape research in new and innovative ways.
Silvers, A. T. (2011). Learning by he/art [MA thesis, The University of British Columbia].
Abstract
My work emerged out of my taking an opportunity, after 15 years of teaching secondary school, to think in depth about my life and practice. As teachers, we are used to gathering elements from all around us to make up the ideas, methods, and materials with which we teach. The creation of this thesis has come about in much the same way. Rather than strict adherence to a single methodology, or voice, I have pulled from a host of tools. A/r/tography (Irwin, Stephenson, Robertson, & Reynolds, 2001), reflective practice, poetic inquiry, and creative nonfiction are all terms that fit this work. Instead of a singular adherence to one theory or practice, I have employed a process that exists in and among the spaces between the roles of artist, researcher, and teacher. Much of my process has been unstructured and nonsystematic. I have created, researched, and reflected in the midst of the moments, as life is lived. I have been developing, as I have gone along, appreciation for those elements that bring meaning to my work and to my life at this time. Through this work I have found inspiration and the capacity to continue teaching with enthusiasm and heart. Telling our stories holds keys to living with sensitivity, compassion, and vision in a world that so very much needs all three.
Tayyar, A. (2011). Exploring melancholy (Place to Place) [MA thesis, University of Stanford]. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2512706648?accountid=14656&pq-origsite=summon
Abstract
This study presented here is built on practice-based research into photographic images of melancholic landscapes. According to Stedman et al. (2004), few photographers are interested in examining the different meanings of the settings in their work. This wider field of research will address how setting effects meaning in my work. The aim of this research is to explore the idea of melancholy through the study and practice of landscape photographic imagery. Moreover, sometimes melancholy may be understood in relation to unhappiness and pain; nevertheless, it usually accompanies happiness. The photographs will be shaped by the viewpoint of the researcher and the influence of ideas about, for example, melancholy, the Sublime and nostalgia. Those kinds of emotions, which are rarely similar to unhappiness, nonetheless are more advanced and refer to some level of enjoyment. In addition, on this level of melancholy, positive motivation and pleasure will be more deliberate. This study is limited to a certain cultural, historical context, especially with regard to particular fine artists and poets, and also my emotional response, as a self-reflexive person, to the body of work that I have produced in the content of my findings regarding the concept of melancholy. This study adopts an innovative approach to the historical and aesthetic language of melancholy. In terms of symbols, cultural knowledge in relation to the meaning of melancholy in both Iran and the UK is reflected. Theoretical and practical perspectives are introduced, in order to gain an understanding of the way in which the language of images and culture is similarly or differently implied. The range covers the provision of previous historical contexts, myths, poems and paintings. As for the methodology, this study is based on photography and paintings. The method I have used is qualitative; the nature of my approach is A/r/tography, which for Sullivan (2010: 59) is “a creation of new relationships among theories, ideas, forms, and contexts as assumptions about concepts, and categories that tend to fix meanings are brought into question”. In relation to my research practice, based on A/r/tography, some ideas about melancholy by artists should be considered, as well as theoretical understandings and their practical work through melancholic arts. Consequently, I have decided to write in the first person, an active voice, in order to communicate self-awareness. For this purpose, I have also decided to integrate self-evaluation and self-reflection into this research. On the whole, melancholy is recognised as an action of love by Sufism, in Eastern countries, whereas it can be understood as a feeling of love and misery according to some philosophical theories in Western culture. It can be concluded that melancholy in Persian culture contains more happiness than that in Western culture. In addition, a book of 84 landscape photographic images, and writing in the region of 20,000 words, with a 70/30 split and balance, have been submitted.
Yalte, Z. (2011). The song of the soul: transforming disabling illness through art [MA thesis, University of Victoria]. https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/handle/1828/3762
Abstract
The focus of this qualitative, arts-based inquiry was to understand how disabling illness might be transformed through art. A/r/tography — art/research/teaching and writing, was the method used to explore and understand the meaning(s) held within the art: Border Crossings — a conceptual, figurative, sculptural installation. The installation embodied the experience of disabling illness, symbolically depicting power relationships, identities, subjectivities and the multi-dimensional nature of being, of one coming up against the institution, the illness and the self. Guided by the work of Heidegger (Hermeneutic Circle), Deleuze and Guatarri (Rhizome and The body without Organs) and Foucault (Power Relationships), the A/r/tographer examined the installation through the lens of the poststructural feminist writers Grosz, Davis, Gatens, Weedon, Moss and Dyck with a focus on the body/subjective to explore notions central to understanding being in a body. A further analysis through art theorists Eisner, Allen and A/r/tographers Irwin and Springgay’s aesthetic perspectives, explicated the nuance of how art transformed the ill researcher and larger community. The results of the inquiry revealed a multi-dimensional, generative process of opening multiple thresholds of complexity, understanding and transformation of the experience of disabling illness for inquirer, and the art participant/observers/larger community. The research illuminates the value of A/r/tography as a potent means of inquiry into lived experience and how art enhances the understandings and possibilities for the transformation of the experience of disabling illness/lived experience.