What is Arts Based Research?

What is art’s based research?

 I define art’s based research as using artistic practices and thinking to visually work through and reflect upon information, producing a broader, more meaningful understanding of the research phenomenon. In other words, using and making art to better understand something.  

In most every instance, a visual representation of the topic being discussed adds to the comprehension that is created by the individual. I believe the being the creator of that visual representation creates even far deeper understanding of the topic. Working with information in a creative way creates an enhanced personal familiarity of the information that is difficult to replicate. The use of the highest order of thinking is required to accomplish such a task.

My exploration of the characteristics of arts based research has led me to create visual work based on a variety of topics. I can certainly testify that my understanding of the topics that my work was based on was always enhanced by working with the information creatively. I feel that creating some sort of visual understanding helps to further expand the knowledge developed.  To me, it presents a new perspective of which to interact and reflect on the information.

These are some examples of my experience of arts based research.

These first two images were created due to an investigation into the history of color theory and who the main contributors to our current understanding of color.

This image was created as a visual representation of my personal art education timeline.

These two images were created as a visual understanding of the art education historical figure, Walter Smith. These images were meant to highlight some of his major contributions and philosophies he had in the field of art education.