13

naVigaTing in

heTeRogeneiTY:

aRChiTeCTuRal

ThinKing and aRT-

Based ReseaRCh

Catharina Dyrssen

Introduction

The research landscape becomes increasingly multifaceted and heterogeneous. Tra-
ditional disciplines are constantly undermined by crossover problems and networking
structures, and stable, coherent areas of knowledge production are rare. approaches
and strategies become more diverse and combinatory. We also see a growing interest
from both technical research and the humanities to incorporate strategies such as in-
novation, elements of fiction, or associative rethinking of problems, using several tools
for representation and communication apart from verbal text. Recognizing this some-
times contradictory diversity as a fundamental condition for most research today opens
new possibilities for art- based research (abR).^1
Through art we can accept that most research problems are not ‘pure’, but often
contradictory and vague, impossible to regulate, open for interaction, and where logical
thinking is naturally intertwined with associative and intuitive conceptualization. The
usual non- linear structure of abR processes allows researchers to cope with complexities
without controlling them. as abR becomes more academically established, it faces
increasing demands to be not merely creative on a personal level, or promote art as
such, but to also generate effective contributions to knowledge production in a wider
sense. if abR is to reach out to a larger research community, it implies that more
developed strategic tools are needed for enquiry, and for making abR research methods
explicit so that they may open up communication with other modes of research.
This chapter discusses how research can be approached through active construction
and composition, oscillating interaction between experiments, critical re- modelling,
and multimodal conceptualization and communication. it is an attempt to systematize