The Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts

researCh and the seLf

for the audience to make judgements about his or her social and political positionality.
This is especially relevant for personal narrative (in whatever medium). in particular,
it is this attempt at self consciousness about value positions, positionality and personal
relationships – while all the time acknowledging the inevitable incompleteness of the
attempt – which distinguishes autoethnography and reflective action research from
autobiography or the writing of a journal.

Conclusions

my argument in this chapter has been that an understanding of the self and its place
in research is crucial in the carrying out and presentation of arts- based, practice- based
research. in arts- based, practice- based research the self is inescapable, because the
person creating, responding to, working on, developing or evaluating performances,
artefacts and practices is central to those activities. sometimes, as in autoethnography,
the self is the main focus of the research. i have shown that the model of self is crucial
in that researchers need to be aware of the interaction between self and research at all
stages, just to do unbiased, trustworthy and transferable research. But they also need
to be able to deflect criticisms from other researchers working within the experimental
and data driven paradigms of the physical sciences.
The self is best understood, i have suggested, as being embodied and embedded in
both physical and socio- political time and place. The chapter also shows that arts-
based, practice- based research has a crucial role to play in the world. it is not just
another attempt to get knowledge or understanding, important as that is. it is this kind
of research that stands against the tendency in our post- modern society to valorize the
impersonal, the byte of information, the technical fix, the obsession with measurement
and the elimination of risk, luck and chance. arts- based, practice- based research
upholds the personal, the creative, the imaginative and the passionate, the human. in
short, it provides an essential reminder of the humanity at the core of society and its
well- being.^3

Notes

1 part of this account is excerpted from scriven et al. (2009). Cosmos is a partnership project
between dragon Breath Theatre, narrative and interactive arts, nTu and Cels, nTu alumni
Fund, leicester Theatre Trust and dance 4 national dance agency in the east midlands.
2 This account is excerpted from giddens and Jones (2010).
3 The author would like to acknowledge the contribution of Tony gemmell, nettie scriven, peter
Rumney, iryna Kuksa, sara giddens and simon Jones to the writing of this chapter.