Visual Research

Disseminating Visual Research

This paper explores the potential of different art practices to affect the field of visual research. The paper is written to researchers as a request for the incorporation of more creative ways of presenting information.

This paper explores the potential of different art practices to affect the field of visual research. The essay is formulated around Marquad Smith’s book “What is Research in the Visual Arts: Obsession, Archive and Encounter”, where he asks the question “How might other models of research from other fields and disciplines influence and shape the future of visual research?  Donal O’Donoghue provides examples by focusing on the works of artists Tacita Dean and Willie Doherty. In analyzing their works he ties to find understanding and meaning, and also discusses the strengths of their different approaches.

Starting with Tacita dean, O’Donoghue focuses on one of her works from 2005, Presentation Sisters. The documentary-style film follows the lives of the last five nuns in the Presentation convent of Ireland. Dean says that she was intent on recording and representing whatever decided to show itself on the three days in which she was recording. Her initial plan of documenting a story of one of the nun’s missing  graves turned out to be a misunderstanding and after this was when she decided to switch her focus to the nuns in the convent. The words used by O’Donoghue to describe the film are “organic” and “unplanned”. He notes that usefulness for her project being used for visual research for those interested in studying specific populations.  on the surface / many layers of meaning

The next piece, created by Willie Doherty, Same Difference, highlights a time in Irish history called The Troubles. O’Donoghue notes this time period as being a moment of an increasing divide of political identities along religious lines. Doherty’s piece focuses on icon Donna Maguire, allegedly a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army. His installation piece consists of two projectors, positioned so that their screen and shown at opposite diagonals of the darkened room they are shown in. The screens depict a tightly cropped image of Maguire’s face where Periodically words appear on the screen taken from the press, adjective such as “misguided, pitiless, and evil appear on one, with words like “volunteer and honourable on the other. As interpreted by O’Donoghue, the work is a play on the divides in society as well as the uncomfortable and temporary space in between the two opposing sides. The benefits of this medium as listed by the author are that it, being installation art, is naturally immersive and has capability experience through all of the senses.  Similar to Dean’s work, the piece is neutral and lets the viewer draw their own judgement, making it an experience.

O’Donoghue concludes this paper with a an installation he created named “Safe Distance” where he plays with the juxtaposition of word and image as he documents the role of masculinity in the training of male college students. It is with this that the highlights how artists often call attention to thing that would normally go unnoticed. The examples he listed in this essay are to be seen as examples for researches in finding more imaginative ways to present their information while also promoting creative thinking.

Disciplinary Visual Research

This article tries to give insight on the way visual research is used in contemporary society in relation to the availability of images due to the use of technology. The author starts off by identifying the ways in which such research is carried out currently. After establishing this, Emmison reviews photography’s use as a research tool in the fields of anthropology as well as sociology. In providing this basis, Emmison goes on to high many contemporary concerns related to the use of image in the field of research such privacy and authenticity.

Michael Emmison begins by briefly defining visual research as being founded on the idea that “valid scientific insight in society can be acquired by observing, analysing and theorising its visual manifestations: behavior of people and material products of culture”. In quoting this definition from Belgians sociologists Luc Pauwels, Emmison states that this definition is that it does not integrate the new capabilities presentation by recording technologies such s the camera and video recorder. In critiquing this definition further, Emmison states that “In the last decade or so interest in ‘the visual’ has grown to such an extent that it cannot be viewed as it once was, as a marginalized specialty with only tenuous connections to mainstream social science.” It is with this statement that he highlights social sciences in a visual format becoming a growing field and one that is constantly adapting and changing.

“visual researchers need to embrace data which goes beyond the typical photograph or 2D image with which they have been traditionally preoccupied.

Co-Creative Media

The article this paper summarizes was created in order to discuss the use of “co-creative” media in education. In order to help explain co-creativity the author uses digital storytelling as an example and highlights its use as a tool for analyzing culture.

Immediately, the paper tries to define what is “co-creative” media. As described in the article, “ co-creative media provides a tool for describing the ways in which participatory media are facilitated by people and organizations, not just technology.” I feel if this explanation provides more of an idea what co-creative media can be used for rather than what it is. In defining the term, I would have to assume that co-creative media entails media that can be interacted with an in-part produced with active impression and feedback from the viewer. I base this definition of another quote in the passage on co-creativity. In the article, the author Christina Spurgeon says that co-creative media is “digital storytelling as an action research platform for investigating participatory new media culture.” The key word in this seems to be “participatory, as the rest of the paper talks about participatory media and the “participatory gap” between creators and viewers being a concern.

    Later in the article, Spurgeon reveals that “the underlying purpose of digital storytelling is to facilitate social participation in the process of building community-based capacity for the end-user engagement in digital media production.” I interpreted this as creators being able to get higher level and more instantaneous amount of feedback from their audience.The author listed Youtube as a good example. It makes sense that, because of this, Spurgeon cites that co-creative media is often defined as “training in content creation”. This would be good point in justifying its use as tool of education as long as the feedback is constructive.

Stating digital storytelling as a “social movement,” Sprunger goes on to explain how digital storytelling has become a worldwide practice, though more common in North America due to their advantage in starting the trend. The author cites as source that lists the four types of institutions most likely to utilize these programs are those based on “education, community, cultural and miscellaneous others (including public broadcasters, companies, and consultancies). It is from there that she begins to note the number of understated factors in this type of media. The first being that “institutional context of production shapes the content, purpose and outcomes,” where more or less draws attention to how user-generated content tailors more to its audience. The second is “the role of experts and expert knowledge play in negotiating the participation gap.” Sprunger states that the role of the professional in contemporary media is open to change. A comparison to this is to imagine the use of professional directors on Youtube.

The paper continues on to explain participatory media’s connection co-creativity. Media relying on such interventions as those highlighted earlier give a good depiction of social relations in the process. Spurgeon believes that the term “co-creative media” is useful in analyzing this as it serves as a tool in evaluating the role of “organizations, experts and technology.” Before closing, Spurgeon also notes that co-creative media’s role in culture has yet to be explored and how this also opens the gate for analysis of digital storytelling.

Thinking Outside the Box

This article, written by Julia Marshall, explores the role of creativity in the classroom, and analyzes how the creative process helps provide students with critical thinking skills. Marshall lists the creative process as a four step system, able to re-cycled through, and also explores three different types of creative thinking in proving her point.

This article was written in response to growing interest in creativity in the practice of education. Starting it, the author, Julia Marshall notes that “many art educators believe that creativity is fundamental to artistic practice and, therefore, the art classroom is one of the best places for its cultivation.” The article explores this topic and investigate the methods based on sources which support the process of creativity as being a form of learning. Marshall defines it as “Experiential Learning,” basing the term off experience and reflection. According to her, creative thinking is a key factor in understanding how we can learn through art-making.

In understanding the Creative Theory, Marshall quotes a source in stating four stages of the creative process: preparation, where materials are gathered; incubation, where the gathered material is incubated; illumination, where ideas are formed; and verification, where the idea is evaluated before further execution. It is noted that this process is not linear and is often cyclical, sending the individual have around, re-evaluating ideas and gathering further research. To further explore this, Marshall includes the different ways of thinking and conceptual strategies included in creativity. The first of the three is analytical thinking, where something is examined and the individual tries for form an abstract concept. The second type is connective or associative thinking, where associates are formed betweens and possibly construct metaphors. The third is transformative thinking, which entails of elaborating, revising, constructing, or translating something into another medium.

Is is from here that the paper goes on to give an example project. The project was created in accordance the previously listed methods and strategies concerning the creative process though somewhat modified. The project was performed on a high school art class where the students were led to identify the problem of an investigation and locate the cause of the problem. In preparation, they were then to gather source material on the subject and analyze this information. As a part of Incubation, the students were then to recombine ideas in order to create new concepts  in the hopes of being able to find a new perspective, where those ideas would then be extended into the next application. Then came the steps of construction. After the students created their projects, they were told to analyze and reflect on their process.

The exercise was intended to promote creativity in the students. In concluding the article, Marshall uses the example to confirm the the expectations of the process mentioned from her sources, in saying that it does, “describe in general terms the steps learner-artists go through when they make art.” She goes on to say that creative theories make sense and help her to understand this process. She concludes, agreeing that creative think can “supply critical wisdom” that would be seen as beneficial to students through creative education.

Digital Storytelling

This article tries to prove the capabilities of educating students through computer technology. To do this, Sheng Kuan Chung examines an experiment where students were assigned to create a digital story from beginning to end using software available to them on their computers.

Sheng Kuan Chung creating this article in the hopes of exploring the capabilities of computer technology in educating students through creating media with a narrative. In order to prove this, the author highlights an experiment, or rather an assignment given to a group of art students at the University of Houston. In looking at this assignment, Chung tries to prove that storytelling is a power tool in teaching, promoting traits such as “multiliteracy and, aesthetic sensitivity and critical faculty.”

Chung defines storytelling as “a narrative account of an incident, person, event, or position.” The importance they not to stories in human culture is that they are able to “explain, interpret and assess situations, experiences, and ideologies, leading in turn to creation of new meanings”. Storytelling is a core part of human communication and is a practice that predates written word. In this context, Chung defines the meaning of digital storytelling as “the practice of incorporating digital text, imagery, video, and audio into the presentation of a computer-mediated, multimedia story.” The author highlights sources that see digital storytelling as not only a helpful too, but a “revolution,” as the medium allows many individuals to produce their own stories with their own meanings. A good example of this would be the site Youtube, which is talked about in the other reading.

The rest of the article goes in depth on the university course explained earlier. The project was given to a graduate-level class and focused on the idea of digital storytelling. The learning goals were as listed: first, to experience digital storytelling as being a tool for various aspects; secondly, to participate in class discussion and talk out inquiries of the digital medium in relation to education; and lastly, go work through the process of producing their own digital films, and in doing this, participate in evaluating each others’ work. The intent for the films made were to be used as presentations to teach students of varying age groups about an “event, theory, approach, style, person, or practice related to art/art education as was listed in the article.

After giving this basis of the assignment, the article goes into more depth about each particular step of the assignment. The students started by viewing digital stories created by students and others as an exercise of analysis. The students were told to brainstorm their topics, coming up with something related to art or art education. From there on the students were told to conduct research and complete a script through a set of guided questions. Next the students were introduced to the process of storyboarding. Chung goes on to explain storyboarding in relation to making sketches, but as in animation, storyboards are aware the of inclusion of music and diegetic audio and dialogue in each scene as well as camera movements and transitions. After completion of the storyboards, the students went into the production phase, creating movies using software available on their Windows and Apple computers.

Space/Place/Displace

In this project I analyzed the boundaries of a space and contemplated on why those boundaries are created. As a comparison, I played with the idea of boundaries in nature. The space I chose for the assignment was the campus dance studio in the recreation center. This place is of peculiar existence as its purpose is to be as empty as possible in order to only be temporarily inhabited. Without the presence of dancers, the room is nothing but a shell, an expanse of hardwood floor with four walls. The artificial lighting and climate of this room simulate the ideal of having an open environment to house exertive work. I find it interesting that we create places such as these for ourselves. As humans, it makes us very unique that we are able to create artificial environments. Just to emphasize the peculiarities of these boundaries, my assignment was to play with context and analyze how this changes the perspective of the space.

Graze

My first image was the most plain. Though the room was empty in all of my photographs, this one felt particular bare, mainly from its flat angle and head-on perspective. Initially thinking of dance, I imaged the opening scene from The Sound of Music. The protagonist of the film dances through a field, singing much louder than what would be socially acceptable indoors or in the urban area she resided. Imagining this experience, I couldn't help but draw tactile sensations from what I imaged: the feel of the grass under your feet, the sensation of wind. The latter is very ironic as there is a fan inside the room which has been obscured. I played with the artificial replication by bringing grass and wildlife into the room.

Grotto

The next image I edited, I decided to focus more on mood than sensation. Immediately a fish setting came to mind. I wondered, if animals danced, and sought the need to acquire a particular space for it, what kind of space would this be? Already in the state of mind for a nautical theme, the idea of fish in an enclosed space made me think of an aquarium. This image takes on the same concept of displacement of natural textures as the first image, but also with a particularly somber mood. Maybe it is the blue of the water that leaves a somber expression, but I image the idea of fish compressed behind glass to be a melancholy scene. This fish in the image flow around in the open air as if the room has been submerged in water, a hidden grotto of sorts made from human wreckage.

Galaxy 

The third scene was an extension of both of the previous ideas. I was now interested in how animals from the opposite spectrum of mobility would inhabit a similar space. This image is the most altered of three, as one of the planes is removed entirely. I dropped out the floor of the studio and replaced it with sky. The dance studio has now become a rookery, or birdhouse of sorts. I imagined that if birds were to inhabit this place as opposed to land animals, that the room would have to be significantly

altered to create more space.

Just staring and contemplating the logistics of these images began to raise a lot of questions. What is dance? (Give examples of animals as dance). Can what animals do in their everyday life also be considered as dance, a celebration of life? As a human being, it made me think of the many reasons we create spaces. For Protection. Privacy. Comfort. Our artificial spaces are utilized so frequently that at times they feel more natural to us than the organic world that surrounds us. In conclusion of the assignment, I was left with many more questions that arose after executing my initial idea.

Creative Cognition

This article written by multiple authors confronts the traditional ideas of creativity in, particularly the idea that the creative process is something that can only be attributed to geniuses such as famous inventors. In exploring creative cognition, and creativity’s role in everyday life, such as in the execution of language and in imagination, the authors provide new evidence that challenge this historical notion and provide for future studies.

Creative Cognition

2 Goals

1. “To gain understanding of creative and “non-creative thought”
2. To conduct experiment observation of the creative process

The question of this article is whether or not the cummulative creative progress belongs a select few geniuses, or should the credit be spread more broadly. Before exploring this, the authors explain that there is not yet a definite answer to this question. However, they do come up with a set of claims.

We claim that (a) the hallmark of normative human cognition is its generative capacity to move beyond discrete stored experiences, (b) the processes that underlie this generativity are open to rigorous experimental investigation, and (c.) creative accomplishments , from the most mundane to the most extraordinary, are based on those ordinary mental processes.

These assumptions were formed in the hopes of understanding creativity, and were the steps toward utilizing Creative Cognition. The authors claim that we are missing a crucial piece in understanding creative cognition. As a majority of lifes situations are generative situations, it makes sense to them that research in cognition should be performed through these tasks as opposed to receptive ones. The authors use the rest of the article to highlight the generativity of what they call “ordinary human cognition” in relation to creative cognition and support their claims with examples.

    The authors first try to prove that their idea of creative cognition means that it is possible for normal humans to have the capacity for creativity as it is a key component in cognition. They go on to explore the creative process by giving examples such as the thoughts we generate in everyday life, as in ability to craft language, creating a multitude of novel combinations with words and letters. Processes such as these satisfy the criteria set for the execution of creative thinking: novel and utility. The authors use these examples as building blocks to further support their overarching topic.

    When the authors then return to creative cognition, they give examples of the approach. These approaches are reflected against the traditional ideas of creativity, being that it was something only rare geniuses were capable of. The authors believe that through the investigation of processes such as imagination provide new evidence that once again challenges this historical notion. A particular example used is what the authors call “preinventive structure,” in which something is creative internally before actual construction. The authors then go on to list other aspects such as insight and creative imagery which further support their claims.

The article concludes with the authors have provided evidence that not entirely disproves the initial argument, but provides more to researched on the topic.