It can be argued that artworks often embody such generalisable and transferable knowledge, so that aspect of the definition is not necessarily problematic to creative arts practitioners (if they ‘increase the stock’), though higher education administrators may find the idea that art can transmit knowledge more problematic. However, there is also an unstated implication in this definition, or at least in most interpretations of it, that knowledge is normally verbal or numerical. Since it is clear that a sonic or visual artwork can sometimes transmit knowledge in non-verbal and non-numerical terms, we believe that any definition of knowledge needs to acknowledge these non-verbal forms of transmission. p3
It also must include the idea that knowledge is itself often unstable, ambiguous and multidimensional, can be emotionally or affectively charged, and cannot necessarily be conveyed with the precision of a mathematical proof. This concept of knowledge as unstable is fundamental to a postmodernist view of the world. But the idea that there are only falsifiable hypotheses, not absolute truths, is also at the core of a conventional Popperian approach to scientific knowledge. p3
this research is normally ‘secondary’ rather than ‘primary’ because it does not usually constitute activities which are central to basic historical research, such as comparative interpretation of sources or the discovery of new sources. Having said that, the novel may convey the impact of historical events on the lives of ordinary people in ways which are difficult to glean from those sources, which show the information they contain in a new light, and which are intellectually and emotionally extremely powerful. p3
This quote resonates. Dealing with emotions and audience, my research should have the backing of reliable material, potentially encompassing science or history. But the idea of Material Thinking definitely comes into play because using practice, I can glean information from my viewers and explain aspects of multimodality which are difficult to explain with science, but more guided by feeling. This quote validates this form of research as an effective way Artistic research.
An assumption behind qualitative research is that the best way to gather data about an issue or idea is to allow the subjects to express their thoughts in their own way, rather than making it essential for them to respond to a preconceived analytical framework drawn up by the researcher. The qualitative approach to gathering data permits both documentary evidence (where the researcher has no contact with the person who provided the evidence) and investigational evidence (where the researcher talks with those who can provide information).
Qualitative research methods can allow me to make visual pieces and gauge elements of it with levels of control that I decide. Depending on my research question and methods, I can create a structure where I decide the thoroughness of what I gauge from my subjects.
‘we come to know the world theoretically only after we have come to understand it through handling’ (Bolt 2007: 30)
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