- Embodied Methodology – Reflection on my first dialogue (1 of 7 dialogues) – An explosion of data and methods I did not anticipate.
- Analyse Data
- Autoethnographic Research – (ethnographic research)
- Photographic Essay/Diary
- Embodied Methodology – Reflection on my first dialogue (1 of 7 dialogues) – An explosion of data and methods I did not anticipate.
The naïve researcher
At the very beginning of Sage Research Methods Social Research: A Practical Introduction, SAGE Publications, 2011, they suggest a spiral as a visualisation for the analytical process. However, having completed my 7 one-to-one dialogues it feels to me more like an explosion of possible routes, methods, data collection etc. than a spiral because even if the act of spiralling could be interpreted as uncertain or confusing it is still linear suggesting a beginning and an end. I on the other hand felt completely overwhelmed after the first dialogue having a starting point with numerous outward-pointing endpoints and numerous methods on the way, thus choosing the word explosion.
The same paragraph explains that at the starting point is the naïve researcher and at the end there will be the researcher with greater knowledge. This I relate to very much. As I have never undertaken a research project with actual participants, I did not anticipate the immense number of possibilities regarding research, research methods and data collection all originating from a small research project including just 7 dialogues. Therefore, I felt very naïve after my first dialogue and now having completed the 7 dialogues already so much more knowledgeable.
Embodied methodology
As my teaching mostly consists of one-to-one tutorials, I was fairly confident that I could handle those dialogues for my ARP. Yet, when I did my first dialogue, I was overawed by the presence of an actual adult human being in front of me and my responsibility to ensure a safe environment for this intimate dialogue. This feeling partly originated from having had spent a long time refining the ethics form; partly because I didn’t know my colleague so well and partly perhaps because of who I am.
Consequently, I was taking in more the first participant’s non-verbal communication and body language than the actual verbal responses. I counted how many chocolate truffles the participant ate; I noticed that the participant’s eyes were tearful twice; I realised that my participant took on a slightly slouched, relaxed position on the chair which I literally copied because I didn’t dare to sit straight to avoid appearing taller and therefore, superior than my participant; and I observed that my participant looked out of the window when trying to focus just like I do, etc. I completely relied on the recording device on my phone and now understand so much better why many of my students record my tutorials.
One could argue that since it was my first dialogue, I was more nervous, my senses were heightened and my experience therefore, possibly different than during my 7th dialogue. However, regarding copying my participant’s posture I am aware that I have imitated other people’s sitting positions in the past. In Embodied Methodology by Torkild Thanem & David Knights I found two quotes which reflect and explain my experience well. Merleau-Ponty argues in The Phenomenology of Perception that ‘it is the body, then, and the perceptual nature of the body, which involves us in things (p. 215) and puts us in contact with the world, with other people and with ourselves.’ By imitating somebody else’s body posture, I am mentally in touch with them and myself and possibly understand them better.
Embodied Methodology goes further explaining ‘The profoundly social nature of our bodies is further elaborated through his concept of ‘the intentional arc’: while our body schemas make us ‘totally’ aware of our own posture in the intersensory world (p. 114), the dynamic form of the intentional arc subtends in a broader sense our consciousness, desire and perception by projecting around us our past and future, our human setting, and our physical, ideological and moral situation (p. 157).’ This again relates very much to my experience of being not only aware of my participant’s body language but also of my own body and posture. As it states that our consciousness is further enfolded and supported perhaps this is another reason for my mental state of overload.
In the same text the book The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart, by Ruth Behar (1996) is mentioned: ‘shares her personal experience of grief and loss. For Behar, the ‘body is a homeland … where knowledge, memory and pain is stored’ (p. 134).’ This statement supports the significance of my physical dialogues because according to Ruth Behar my participants’ (and my) body represents a physical storage of lived knowledge and memory which I would have missed if I had done a questionnaire or brief interview.
Conclusion:
As mentioned earlier it is important to stress that this is a small research project and therefore, this fact will help me to select and focus on certain methods and put others on hold for now. The above text demonstrates my awareness of and interest in embodied methodology however, I will not utilise it for the ARP because it is not realistic in my given timeframe.
Simultaneously, I could imagine that this will become an important part in future research projects because for somebody like me who finds verbal conversations very exhausting and only enjoyable to an extent the focus on the body as a tool for expression and understanding continues to be appealing and stimulating.
Further, having been a performance artist and reacting to dress and space often through bodily or physical movement it makes sense to utilise bodies for future research methods, too. Interestingly Julie Phillips connects creativity and motherhood through bodies in The Baby on the fire escape – Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem, 2022, p. 21: Creativity thrives on physical sensations and strong feelings. Mothering, too, begins, if not in pregnancy or childbirth – neither one a requirement or a given – then in the sensuous or comforting touch of parent and child.
2. Analyse Data
On my ethics form I already had established that I will focus on an emergent approach to qualitative data as opposed to quantitative data and I will continue to do so. At the same time, I will aim to keep an open mind and perhaps embark on a mix of methodologies whichever seems most appropriate to my transcript and also considering the below text which suggests that one can utilise more than just one method.
In Creative research methods in the social sciences: a practical guide by Helen Kara it states, ‘In qualitative terms you could of course focus your analysis on the themes from the academic literature that you used to facilitate the discussion in the first place.’ This method seems very clear and focussed. Additionally, relating a theme directly back to references can lend the research a certain weight or justification and therefore, I will try this method to an extent. However, perhaps it could also prevent me from uncovering and seeing other findings.
The text continues explaining that data analysis is complex, and it is vital to not invent or distort data but also that there is no ‘best way’ or ‘right answer’. As I recorded the audio of the 7 dialogues, I have now endless transcripts and numerous things to consider when trying to extract data from the transcripts. The text asked similar questions as I did during my dialogue: ‘Should you record non-speech sounds that people make, such as laughter, coughs, sighs and so on? If so, how? Do you record pauses? If so, do you measure their length, or just note each occurrence? When transcribing video data, should you include body movements, gestures, information about the surrounding environment? How do you lay out your transcription on the page, and how do you identify the different speakers/actors in the transcript?’
During the dialogue I wondered: Should I record the visible distress of the participant and if so, how? I made the spontaneous decision to say something like ‘it clearly affected you and still is present now’ – when only audio recording is used the ‘behavioural or physical performative’ data is invisible – how do I make it visible? How neutral am I supposed to be? Was I too intrusive and bias by even having said it and therefore, making it visible?
Or at the beginning of the dialogue some of the participants did not want to turn on the light and again I felt an immediate connection and was afraid to being ‘too bias’. But I was also aware of things like, oh, she likes the snacks, that’s great, she keeps eating them, she seems comfortable etc. I can continue talking as she seems not too stressed about time yet etc.
According to the text there are two main methods when analysing talk or in my case dialogues: discourse analysis and conversation analysis. The conversation analysis focusesnot only on the words but also on all the other ‘non-words’ such as pauses, laughter, ‘um’, volume of speech etc. The book describes it as the following: ‘Conversation analysis (CA) is an evolving analytic method based on the idea that any verbal interaction is worth studying to find out how it was produced by the speakers (Liddicoat 2011: 69).’
The book provides the following description for discourse analysis (DA): ‘Discourse analysis is based on the concept that the way we talk about something affects the way we think about that phenomenon. ‘Discourse’ in this context doesn’t refer solely to talk itself; it refers to talk that is constructed within the constraints of a social structure.’
Conclusion:
Both conversation analysis and discourse analysis represent to me quite complex concepts and applying them without possessing more knowledge would seem to me that I would run the risk of being illusive in the sense that I would see things in my dialogues which might not be truthful.
In the same text Michael Corman, from the University of Calgary in Qatar utilised DA when selecting sections from nine interviews with mothers by developing predetermined questions such as:
- Why is the subject matter being brought up now and in this way?
- How is participants’ talk being used to make claims?
- How do participants make their talk persuasive?
I am adding this to my conclusion because I think I could try out similar questions as my subject are also mothers. Through those above questions Corman reveals how the mothers constructed their realities and created their own meanings. It also created an ‘increased understanding of the ‘mothers’ stress factors and coping mechanisms.’ As ‘stress factors’ and ‘coping mechanism’ could be key themes in my findings I should probably explore this method and bear in mind for future research projects.
3. Autoethnographic Research – ethnographic research – related to motherhood and my art practice
As the making of my most recent art project Princess Dress Continues is tightly interlinked with the ARP, I investigated autoethnographic research because my art projects are often about myself or parts of my life. At first, I came across the term ethnographic research which constitutes one part of the word autoethnographic research and is strongly related to it. I realised that ethnographic research could become one of my research methods if I developed the ARP into a future project.
Having chosen a particular community of participants who are mothers and work on the CSM BA Fashion course, and having conducted in-depth dialogues in a workplace which represented a different form of interviews my ARP could be described as the beginning of ethnographic research. However, vitally the lengthy participant observation is missing and therefore, my ARP cannot be ethnographic research yet.
According to Sage Research Methods, Social Research: A Practical Introduction in Chapter 4, ethnographic research is: ‘the study of cultural groups or communities in their natural settings. These settings include villages, neighbourhoods, workplaces, and any other venue in which a group of people with some shared characteristic may be found. The primary method used by ethnographers is participant observation – a form of fieldwork. In ethnographic research, such observation is often accompanied by other methods, particularly in-depth interviews and the analysis of existing records.’
The same text examines autoethnography which is in the first instance the study of the self.
I had never heard about the terms ethnography, autoethnography or autoethnographic research until my tutor introduced me to it generating a new way for me to perceive and understand my own art practice. Initially, the term constituted for me an ‘academic reasoning and justification’ for my artwork which perhaps should be insignificant however, after many years of not producing any artwork, I experience an even bigger lack of confidence than previously and therefore, gladly embraced my new discovery.
Multiple layers of consciousness
Further, I am fascinated how the definition of autoethnographic research baresclose resemblance not only to my state of mind and ways of working on my art projects but also the state of motherhood. Multiple layers of consciousness represent one key term of autoethnography and are described as getting increasingly blurred at times. When looking at my current art film I am combining personal footage with artistic footage exploring the notion of different identities such as mother and artist.
Additionally, in my art film I share the role of the artist with my daughters by putting my camera into their hands and therefore, revealing my motionless self through the eyes of my daughters. Carolyn Ellis writes: ‘as an autoethnographer, I am both the author and the focus of the story, the one who tells and the one who experiences, the observer and the observed, the creator and the created. I am the person at the intersection of the personal and the cultural, thinking and observing as an ethnographer and writing and describing as a storyteller.’ (Ellis, 2009: 13)
The above can also be referred to motherhood as for instance in the book The Baby On The Fire Escape – Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem by Julie PhillipsLouise Erdrich writes ‘parents live and work with a divided consciousness’ and Lisa Baraitser ‘looks at what could be gained from embracing a shared self’. Further, while a woman is being a mother and brings up her children she could be interpreted as writing the story of her children’s life and being ‘the author and the focus of the story’.
A good story
In the same Sage Research Methods text Robert J. Nash provides ten guidelines for autoethnographic writers which I can relate to my art practice as I am interested in communicating a narrative through visual films. I find Robert J. Nash’s list liberating lending me further confidence because a lot of times I was questioning my ‘subjective’ way of working in that I was often concerned about the story’s flow and aesthetic seemingly neglecting academic rigour. Robert J. Nash advises ‘always try to tell a good story’ including ‘plot, colourful characters, suspense, a climax, etc.’ and ‘show some passion’ and ‘resist the conventional academic temptation to be “objective” – stoical, qualified, subdued and distant’ (2004: 63). Finally, he advocates open-ended stories to invite the reader or viewer to reflect on numerous possible viewpoints. Once more this reflects my way of working as the narratives in my artworks resemble more a compilation of fragments and moments without real conclusions or endings so that the viewer is able to continue the story in their mind.
Aesthetic merit
The Sage Research Methods Social Research A Practical Introduction text mentions Laurel Richardson whose notion around aesthetic aligns with Robert J. Nash’s ‘good story’. She asks in Evaluating ethnography. Qualitative Inquiry, 6, 253–254 ‘Is there aesthetic merit?’ and ‘Is the text artistically shaped, satisfying, complex, and not boring?’. The fact that Laurel Richardson values the term ‘aesthetic’ in context with autoethnographic research evokes strong feelings of reassurance and understanding in me because my work and life evolves around aesthetic.
Emotional Impact
Additionally, Laurel Richardson elevates the general key research question ‘does it have impact?’ to another level in that she includes its emotional force rather than measuring the number of people who read the book or saw the film. By doing this Laurel Richardson believes that this will stimulate new realms of research. Again, this thought resonates with me because when I began my art practice around 23 years ago the emphasis on impact did not exist instead the focus was on the quality of the work. Ideas and work of outstanding merit would be given an opportunity. This enabled me to receive funding and show in renowned places such as the V&A and ICA immediately after graduating. Once the question around ‘impact’ was introduced I had found it much more difficult to secure funding.
Narcissism
There is an issue around the autoethnographic research methodology in that it can be associated with ‘narcissism’ according to the Sage Research Methods Social Research A Practical Introduction text or with ‘self-indulgence’ as described in Autoethnography: Self-Indulgence or Something More? by Andrew C. Sparkes. However, Mark Freeman suggests in Rewriting the self: History, memory, narrative. that autoethnographic work ‘might be of value to someone besides ourselves’ (Freeman, 1993: 229). I, too, use the term ‘self-indulgence’ in context with my artwork frequently suggesting doubts and lack of confidence. On the other hand, I have stated many times “If I think something I have to remember that I share those thoughts with millions of other people and therefore, there is a connection and possibly a value even if the viewer just gets reassured”. This very much relates to Mark Freeman’s thinking.
Reflection
In Sage Research Methods Social Research, A Practical Introduction Carolyn Ellis writes 1999: Autoethnography is an autobiographical genre of writing and research that displays multiple layers of consciousness. Back and forth autoethnographers gaze, first through an ethnographic wide-angle lens, focusing outward on social and cultural aspects of their personal experience; then, they look inward, exposing a vulnerable self that is moved by and may move through, refract, and resist cultural interpretations. As they zoom backward and forward, inward and outward, distinctions between the personal and cultural become blurred, sometimes beyond distinct recognition.
In my ARP research I am utilising the emergent approach originating from the nature of Princess Dress Continues and talk Notes on Motherhood where I presented the beginning of the artwork to the CSM Fashion Research and Knowledge Exchange community. I have never shared work in progress before instead I always only showed completed work. The unfinished nature of the piece invited the audience to participate in forming further findings and questions which are informing both my artwork and active research project. The artwork itself emerges through reacting to evolving circumstances including the ARP and sharing the role of the artist with my daughters by putting the camera into their hands.
My ARP project focusses on an emergent approach to qualitative data over time which means every process constitutes a point of reflection and emerging themes relating to each other, sometimes in a back-and-forth flow. Reflection has always been and remains a vital part of my art practice. I have always utilised talks, exhibitions, and reactions from members of the audience to inform and grow my work further. I enjoyed the slight random nature of incorporating a stranger’s advice into my way of working and therefore, lending my process and work a sense of spontaneity. One viewer’s comment influenced me to be more radical and emotional within my act of performance which then led me to secure funding from a dance institution without having a dance background.
In context to autoethnography Anderson mentions analytic reflexivity. His description reflects my approach and project and relates to the significance of my dialogues well: ‘Reflexivity involves an awareness of reciprocal influence between ethnographers and their settings and informants. It entails self-conscious introspection guided by a desire to better understand both self and others through examining one’s actions and perceptions in reference to and dialogue with those of others.’ Anderson L. 2006. Analytic autoethnography. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 35(4), 373–395.
As I am investigating motherhood, lived experiences and wisdom constitute an integral part of the project. To reflect this in my approach I have held 7 dialogues with CSM BA Fashion staff. As opposed to interviews the position of participants changes in dialogues in that both the participants and I, the project initiator, are on the same level emphasising and confirming the active and collective involvement of the participant in the project and its outcome.
Despite existing negative voices around autoethnographic research because of its association with Narcissism, loose methods and therefore, questionable validity Sage Research Methods Social Research: A Practical Introduction is supportive towardsautoethnographic research methods because of its increasing popularity: On the positive side, autoethnography is an increasingly popular form of self-expression and is aligned with the most rapidly developing, contemporary technologies. We believe its popularity creates an imperative to harness and use autoethnography as research.
4. Photographic Essay/Diary
Autoethnographic texts can take on many different forms including photographic essays.
My new artwork Princess Dress Continues which is autobiographic consists of endless animated personal and artistic photographs and therefore, resembles a photographic essay or even diary.
The reason for choosing the medium of endless animated still photographs combined with actual videos was my observation of how my preadolescence daughter creates films of herself and her friends on her phone consisting of a mixture of slideshow and short video clips originating from her phone library, a source of endless photographs and videos.
By making the conscious decision of utilising my preadolescence daughter’s approach to filmmaking I do not contribute to advancing new technology however, I utilise a popular communication tool and significantly, a widespread way of self-expression among youth and therefore, adopt their language, actively invite youth to participate in my work and I engage with the Zeitgeist.
Sage Research Methods Social Research: A Practical Introduction concludes:
Autoethnography is an increasingly popular form of self-expression, and is aligned with the most rapidly developing, contemporary technologies and media. Variants of autoethnography seem to capture the Zeitgeist or spirit of the age.
Being a visual artist and simultaneously not being able to visually document the ARP dialogues because of having to protect the participants’ anonymity I developed a different form of visual documentation of the dialogues which resulted in a photographic essay or diary. I took pictures of the space including table and chairs prior and after the dialogue imagining capturing the remaining aura of the bodies’ and words’ presence after the participants had left the space.
This photographic essay or diary represents data which I could analyse however, as mentioned previously due to the given short timeframe I will not utilise it for the ARP. Also, as the dialogues required a lot of focus and work, I sporadically missed to take the photos in time and therefore, this method does not feel rigorous enough to use as reliable data.
Having now uploaded all the photographs it became apparent how valuable those photographs are because they function as another layer of memory for me and remind me on so many nuances and emotions during each sitting even things like who liked the light off; offering my tissues for wiping tears; forgetting to ask about allergies; being too ill to sit through a second dialogue and realising how mentally exhausting the dialogues are etc.
Please, note that I uploaded the actual photographic essay/diary of the dialogues under a separate section because the point is that it works without words.