Studying artists’ own experiences underlying their artistic shaping processes requires developing a methodological approach doing justice to non-theoretical concepts. Certain qualitative research methods, such as focusing (Gendlin) and micro-phenomenology (Petitmengin), allow researchers to collect verbal descriptions involving propositional concepts related to felt sense. However, more challenging methodological questions arise when developing an approach appropriate for investigating artists’ first-person experience involving perceptual, non-propositional concepts—often difficult to verbally articulate, yet crucial to understanding artistic shaping processes.
This presentation addresses the question of whether and to what extent it is possible to direct artists’ attention towards such non-propositional experiential dimensions without relying on verbalization techniques. It introduces a novel research approach, developed by the author in collaboration with several art practitioners since December 2022, which is inspired by the micro-phenomenological interview technique. A key premise of the micro-phenomenological interview method is that first-person descriptions can be collected most effectively from the second-person perspective, with a trained interviewer who directs the interviewee’s attention towards their experiences and the ways they undergo those experiences on a moment-to-moment basis, rather than the content of the experience. While the micro-phenomenological interview technique was originally designed as a verbal method, the author explores nonverbal adaptations of this approach: the potential of a nonverbal micro-phenomenological approach is examined, involving practice-centered researchers who accompany and engage in the artistic shaping processes as co-shapers. The relationship between these co-shapers and the original shapers, a topic that is in line with the conference theme of "resonance," will be central to the discussion.