Artifacts and 3D ideas

During my PhD (Akinleye 2012) I was thinking about how there was more than one way to experience, communicate, and witness an idea. I developed the proposition of 3D ideas: communication of an idea that uses more than one 'language'. I proposed the notion of 3D ideas as a way to describe the multi-layered nature of communication for acknowledging  embodied experience. 

“ideas are statements not of what is or what has been but of acts to be performed” – J. Dewey

This picture illustrates the ideas.

small language vessels that carry ideas from the inner, isolation of the immediate empiricism of embodiment, to a communicative expression – extract from Akinleye thesis

This is the notion that an idea generated by the nucleus of embodied experience has aspects of it that are well communicated in words, but also has aspects of it that are well communicated physically as well as experientially and representationally. All of these aspects do not replace each other but rather seem to add layers of depth to the communication of the idea and so also to the understanding of the kernel of the idea that was generated through the embodied experience. In this course we ask you to engage with this multi-communication in DAN4760 (Module Three) when you present your work in the form of an essay (University artifact) and Professional artifact (which is whatever is an appropriate form for communicating your ideas in terms of your practice) and a viva when you talk about your experience 

Narrative Inquiry and Ethnography: where am ‘I’ !!

MAPP acknowledges that ‘I’ am in the situation through the qualitative nature of the methods you are encouraged to use, such as  Ethnography. Ethnography acknowledges a place for the ‘I’ in research. Narrative inquiry acknowledges the problem that the ethnographic endeavour encounters as it attempts to represent and communicate my embodied experience. 

The courses encouragement of the use of ethnography and narrative inquiry originates in an interest in better understanding the conditions of experience or embodied experience. Ethnography and narrative inquiry are used to acknowledge attempts to communicate across the isolation and immediacy of empirical agency (feeling). 

Ethnography and the narrative turn also allows your essay (for example) to acknowledge the Reader who similarly plays a role in the translation of meaning having their own continuity of experiences as they interact with the activity of reading of your work. In other words, ‘you’ are writing to someone about what you think. 

However, neither ‘ethnography’ nor ‘narrative’ are standardised terms therefore let us take a moment to define how they are used here. Classic Ethnography has its roots in nineteenth century anthropological research (Hammersley et al. 2007). Researchers such as Robert E. Parks and Frederic Milton, within what is now known as the Chicago school (1920 to 1950) began to question the location of ‘other’ cultures. As they started exploring groups within their own country and communities, they also gave ethnography a broader scope. 

The inferences of subject / object (observer / observed) of early ethnographic study were replaced by the idea we are all a part of an event. An idea that resonated with methods for allowing for the embodied in research. Today ethnography covers a range of approaches but central to them all is the researcher’s voice, thoughts and experiences being present in the data. The use of ethnography in research can acknowledge that ‘I’ am not an impartial observer but ‘I’ feeland this becomes a part of the situation/event (Clifford et al. 1986). To do this you can use your own reflective notes as part of the data and cite them in the same way you would cited participants’ notes or verbal comments. You also need to use first person throughout your work on MAPP.

Likewise, the narrative turnhas broadened from its early beginnings in 1900s where researchers attempted to give ‘objective’ accounts of events. As narrative became a credible method in research it retrospectively became a vehicle for the voice of the ‘other’.  The documentary voice of women and those who had colonising imposed on them had been captured in narrative accounts in the past and the development of narrative inquiry method gave new legitimacy to these accounts. (Clandinin and Connelly 2000;  Denzin and Lincoln 2000). Feminist theory particularly saw the significance of rethinking historical and social constructions by considering whose voice describes events and situations (Clifford et al. 1986;  Strathern 1995).

In the late twentieth century the notion of narrative inquiry was further interrogated by a crisis of representation that generated exploration into experimental writing pushing the boundaries of narrative by raising questions about how researchers can attempt to engage with ‘truth’ within a non-positivist paradigm. Within sports science and dance the problem of capturing the embodied experience is highlighted by the dualist informed divide between words and actions that a range of experimental narrative strategies attempt to address (Sparkes 2002). (i.e. they attempt to present the felt within the experience – this is why we ask for an artefact as well as straight written essay more than one way of explaining the complex experience of doing something - in the case of the final artefact case the experience of doing the inquiry.)

Bibliography

Clandinin, D. J. and Connelly, F. M. (2000) Narrative inquiry : experience and story in qualitative research,Jossey-Bass education series, 1st ed.,San Francisco, Calif.:Jossey-Bass.

Clifford, J., Marcus, G. E. and School of American, R. (1986) Writing culture : the poetics and politics of ethnography,School of American Research advanced seminar series,Berkeley, CA ; London:University of California Press.

Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. (2000) The handbook of qualitative research, 2nd ed.,Thousand Oaks, Calif. ; London:Sage.

Hammersley, M., Atkinson, P. and dawsonera (2007) Ethnography : principles in practice, 3rd ed.,London:Routledge.

Sparkes, A. C. (2002) Telling tales in sport and physical activity : a qualitative journey,Champaign, IL:Human Kinetics.

Strathern, M. E. (1995)Shifting contexts : transformations in anthropological knowledge,Routledge.

Wrote this for the BAPP's

Working with the full time students through the summer: we have been talking about data and analysis when working within dance research (or other arts based practices). Remember that within an arts practice research project data and analysis look different from a more 'traditional' research project. This is because what we see as an 'artistic process' is analysis on one level.

As we are creating a piece of choreography or interpreting a dance instruction in class we are in a process of analysis: taking ideas and working out connections for them and finding our own way of understanding them within the context of our unique experience /knowledge.

As you are in the analysis process you are looking at not just reproducing the information you have found as data, you are in a process of interpreting it knowledgeably within the wider context of your whole project/question/inquiry. Just as if you are given a dance sequence as a professional you don't just reproduce it as a flat copy of the steps: you make it your own. You use your skills, strong points, past knowledge, understanding if the whole choreography to interpret with timing and dynamic. At a small level you are analysing the steps in order to better understand them and perform a stronger piece of choreography.

Does that make sense?
Please comment - what do you think?
Adesola