voi Ceschoice of communicative form early in the process becomes as important as choosing
perspectives, since it is an integrated part of the making and since we thereby also
choose which actors/actants will contribute, which relationships we construct, which
points and links to articulate, and how we can communicate with ourselves and with
others. These articulations can be switched, altered and set in motion along with the
other research parameters, in a process largely conducted by a developed sense of
intuitive accuracy and timing.
But, in turn, as the hegemony of written text is challenged by other modes of
communication, language also has a performance capacity that can be expanded
far beyond scientific conventions, and take on more diverse roles in the modelling
process by interacting rather than describing. Text can engage graphically with images,
constitute designations, factual descriptions, poetry and fictions (hughes 2007: 99f.).
Text can become both material and image. it can work rhythmically, poetically, or
spatially as a score that emphasizes lines of tension, points of special interest, conceptions
of movement, etc. it can also function both as mindmap, rhetorical convention and
operative model for how to go on with an investigation.
performance and abR can have a tremendous impact on contemporary culture by
producing examples that may affect individual choices and shared values, and spread
rapidly as processes of change. While performance is a matter of singular actions or a
limited series of interventions, performativity implies a stabilizing process made up by
series of performances. as the political is often acted out through art, and with the
increase of pluralistic research outside academia: what John ziman discusses as post-
academic research (ziman 2000), practice- based methods and attractive examples may
become fashionable objects that can instantly live a short medialized life. But they can
also form dominant features with long- term impact on processes and larger collectives,
providing ideas for others to take up, discuss, change and develop. When Judith Butler
speaks of performativity, she especially investigates how the acts of performance, as
well as of defining and categorizing them, are fixed by matter and materialization, thus
creating self- generative mechanisms that influence the construction of boundaries
and areas. These mechanisms, Butler contends, must constantly be exposed to critical
scrutiny to avoid getting caught up in the hegemonic social status quo (Butler 2000: 136–
81). similarly, sara mills demonstrates how a field of research can become ensnared in
power games as a result of various perspectives, approaches and proclamations (mills
1999: 21 and 49f.). it can be marginalized or become a dominant part of the set of
rules that constitute, activate and develop the game. This is of course particularly
sensitive when it comes to abR, which has been relegated until recently to the margins
of academia, but is now assuming an important place. as artistic strategies are now
largely being appropriated, the autonomy of academic ‘truths’ are exposed to, and
interact with, other constructions of meaning, knowledge and socio- political processes
in society, changing the legitimization process of research. This will be further discussed
below, as theme 5.
theme 3: staging explorative experimentsstaging explorative experiments is often the first part of performance. The operations are
often interventions in a situation, fictional or real. according to donald schön there are