The Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts

researCh and the seLf

Further, (5) embodiment is crucial. The world is understood through the body and
also perceptions of our bodies constrain our relationships with others and ourselves
(merleau- ponty 1962; Battersby 1998). This observation is at the heart of much theory
of otherness, in a wide range of theories. Think of the Black Skin, White Masks of
Fanon (1986); or of the imaginary in irigaray (1985); or of queer theory; or disability
theory. more recently, overviews by Brand and devereux (2003) and leibowitz (2003)
relate female and black bodies to self and to aesthetics. Carrie sandahl (2003) discusses
queer and crip (disability) solo autobiographical performance. To mention feminist,
Black, queer and disability theorists is to introduce issues of socio- political structures
of power. These are closely linked to the self and identity. so (6), a self constructs itself
in response to the social and political power structures it inhabits. power relations are
present in all aspects of the self: who and what it can be and which relationships are
ones of belonging.
These six different elements of a self are not like discrete building blocks. Rather they
should be seen as fluid with semi- permeable walls, each one leaking into the others.
For instance: the process of becoming is closely linked to changes in time or place; and
relationships are partly made through, with and against the social and political power
structures where they occur.

the research process

in this section, i outline an account of what it is to do arts- based, practice- based
research in order to consider the relation of self and research in the rest of the chapter.
in this chapter, the term ‘arts- based, practice- based research’ signifies research which
depends methodologically on practice in the arts. i make no attempt to cover the full
range of possible research methodologies and methods, concentrating rather on those
research methodologies which have so far proved particularly relevant to arts- based,
practice- based research. These include reflective practice, action research and self-
study. They also include ethnography, autoethnography, performance ethnography and
documentary research. all of these methods may be inflected as feminist, postcolonial,
socially just, queer or antiracist, etc. For simplicity, i have not addressed research which
takes it that the practice of art is itself research (Chapter 6) or research specifically
about design though neither are necessarily excluded from the argument.
all of these research methodologies can be described as a series of stages. To do this
is to describe the research in retrospect, as an analytical history. That is, the stages
are analytical constructs, demonstrating a logic; they are not a description of what
happened in real time. Viewed analytically, the research journey can be seen to start
with one stage and move on to another. a more descriptive story would show that the
stages are not experienced as being so discreet. They evolve, often mutually affecting
each other, and, indeed, do not become finally stable until the research is completed.
moreover, they need not be reported linearly as stages. The stages are iterative and
cyclical in much reflective practice or action research. in some arts- based, practice-
based research, the focus only becomes clear towards the end of the process (Chapter
19).
in brief, the stages of the research process usually include, explicitly or implicitly, the
following: (1) Focus: there may be an overall focus, or the focus may radically change as