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Practice or discovery led research
Physical research gives information on:
· How to adapt the tripod to the needs of the artists
· How to adapt artistic possibilities to the limitations the object provides the play
· How to live up to safety standards
· How to compare to my own safety standards
· The research method is practice as research and it is performative research, research by doing. The practice consists of a number of partly improvised performances, with public settings chosen differently each time: in circus building, on the street with passers-by, in a parc, and in a festival setting. In this situation I sometimes asked the audience a question on forehand or afterwards. Sometimes it will be only my observations that I use. I used this article: https://www.musework.nl/image/2017/3/23/op_weg_naar_performatief_onderzoek_falk_hubner.pdf Where Bart van Rosmalen en Falck Hubner state that researchers are makers who physically live through the performance. It is a public process with a feedbackloop between all the attendees, and co-authorship of all present. This underlines and validates making performances while using all influences I get in the creation process.
Performative research
I call what I do performative research. I use the performance to find out what it is I do when I create while using the influence of audience, performers, the material and space in the creation it self. Results of the research until now is that we see: playfulness, care, the tri-pod as the main character in the play, shared experience, audience wanting to participate. This resonates with the definition that performative research is collective, it is merging objectivity and subjectivity, it is non teleological and there is a combination of disseminating and doing.
Multi disciplinarily collaging, (see what I mean in the video on the right)
in Collaging invites the viewer to new ways of thinking, new ways of perceiving things.
While reading books about fine arts, I came across a book with collages and I saw similarity with circus and my way of working. Perhaps making a circus show is comparable to collaging. Multidisciplinary collaging!
Pushing and pulling is like tearing and pasting, but to put down the right shape (the why of a spatial effect) I cannot articulate. But by touch and a feeling that it fits I can create the visual effect I want to communicate. I create images like in a collage, showing both vulnerability, strength & power. The sense of community is the glue.
references: Graswinckel, A. (mei 2022) verdwaalatlas, kunstenaars mindset als leidraad.
Dialogue thinking/second brain
I discovered that in dialogue I help myself to order the information. In the past year I recorded a lot of conversations and by playing back I could better understand and capture my thoughts. I had regular conversations about the research with my peers, my family and my performers. I also use a method from the the HKU, https://makersmanierenblogs.hku.nl/where I had a conversation about the way of working with other artists from the outside theatre scene. You can hear an interresting conclusion about the way we work below.
I found the methodologies I use, after analysing my way of doing and then finding the right words to discribe them. I need a dialogue to think, I record conversations and so I use 'second-brain' to re-think what I see, do and hear. References for my practical and artisitc research are:
Barrett, E. (2019). Practice As Research.
Beard, C., & Wilson, J. P. (2018). Experiential Learning: A Practical Guide for Training, Coaching and Education. Kogan Page Publishers.
Met makers, voor makers! - HKU Makersmanieren ✣ blogs. (2021, 29 oktober). HKU Makersmanieren ✣ blogs. https://makersmanierenblogs.hku.nl/
Naafs, J. (2010). Weet het (nog) niet: over relaties in het transdisciplinaire maakproces.
Naafs, J (2017) On the opportunity of performative research in art education.
Schon, D. A. (1984). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think In Action.
By understanding that I do performative research and using all the influences I discribed befor on the performance, I learned (from the performance outcome) what the meaning is for me. I did this by merging objectivity and subjectivity in a combination of dissaminating and doing.