This drifting blog aims to talk about one of the difficulties facing the artist in academia - in terms of the position they hold - between critic and artist. It is taken, in part, from a paper I presented at the University of Wolverhampton's Postgraduate Research conference.
One of the difficulties facing the practice based researcher is finding the balance in the positions one has within the academic environment: a space that sits between artist and critic. In their essay, "Agnostic" thinking: creative writing as practice-led research, Jennifer Webb and Donna Lee Brien look at the differences in knowledge outcomes between artists in academia and academics who deal with the criticism of existing products. They begin by acknowledging the divide between creative and critical outputs, saying: “as artists, we need to produce work according to the logic of the field of creative production: work that is autonomous (made "for art's sake") and critically respected. We also need to produce work according to the logic of the field of knowledge production [...] i.e. with attention to a more traditional approach to methodically uncovering a piece of knowledge". "Focus on the production of a fine artwork can give precedence to aesthetics at the expense of knowledge. Focus on the production of knowledge can generate art that is didactic, and 'academic'". What is called for, according to Webb and Brien, is an acceptance of the ambivalent and fluid quality in knowledge that comes from the product itself. They refer to the poet, Keats’ ideas in “Negative Capability”, suggesting that the understanding of produce directly arising from creative practice needs to be understood within its own language. They say, “Negative capacity is like negative space: that which is available to be filled [...] it is not a refusal to establish meaning, but is rather a refusal to be irritated when facts and reason are not immediately evident”. For Webb and Brien this is "agnostic research",and is formed from two major principles: “first is the basic philosophical view that "truth value" is unknowable”. The second is borrowed from the IT industry; “it is important to have "agnostic" systems - those that don't depend upon a single model, but can operate in a number of places and ways, and for a number of users”. So, an agnostic researcher embraces the multi-disciplinary and understands that whatever is produced can be knowledge - just not a fixed, quantifiable knowledge. This is particularly pertinent to the practice-based / led researcher because “artwork is rarely undertaken on a sufficiently systematic basis, being more about exploration, chance and intuition than hypotheses and laboratory systems [...] instead applying an approach that is closer to agnosticism. [...] one less committed to linearity and logic, and more committed to "going around" a problem”. It’s reasonable then, I’d argue, to accept and engage with a drifting or magpie approach to research when undertaking this sort of exploration. It is reasonable (and arguably best) to use and link local history, archive maps, Wikipedia, overheard conversations, newspapers, myth, the lyrics of Geezer Butler - cut them up, re-map them and produce something larger than the sum of its parts. One good example to illustrate this is psychogeography. Guy Debord defined psychogeography as, “The study of the specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organised or not, on the emotional behaviour of individuals.” It focusses on Urban Wandering, “the imaginative reworking of the city, the otherworldly sense of spirit of place, the unexpected insights and juxtapositions created by aimless drifting, the new ways of experiencing familiar surroundings”. So, the psychogeographer no longer walks to work and says this is the library - a place for books, this is the lecture hall - a place for teaching. The psychogeographer drifts and allows a reimagining of space and thus the structures of power that are at play within those spaces. In his Pocket Essentials to Psychogeography, Merlin Coverley argues, “The city must be rebuilt upon new principles that replace our mundane and sterile experiences”, and that the way this can be done is through this Urban Wandering, essentially becoming, one who “remakes the city in accordance with his own imagination […] that seeks to overthrow the established order of the day”. One could see this as almost taking a pick and mix approach to looking into one’s sense of place, space and history, drawing conclusions on how it affects the community and / or how it might be challenged. If we accept that psychogeography works, then isn’t it just as viable to be a psychohistorian or psychosociologist – essentially giving oneself the power to re-write our histories and our links with community. Fundamentally we may be approaching an instinctual, rather than intellectual, approach to assessing who we are and where we’re from. Certainly this is problematic, as it leads to the potential for unsubstantiated intellectual leaping, however, this subjective act can also work in a similar way to how schools like post-colonial literature or queer writers have re-written or undermined master-narratives. So this subjective act can be a political or radicalised act too In terms of my own argument here, I'm suggesting several things:
Clearly the best way forward for the creative writing researcher is to adopt an agnostic or drifting approach. One that understands that what has been produced is not a solid, quantifiable piece of knowledge, but one that lingers, brings about its meaning through a slow, passive infiltration. Like Webb and Brien say, “the creative arts disciplines must understand that artist-researchers typically produce not fact but artefact, not unique prototype but novel example, not truth but possibility”. Merlin Coverley, Psychogeography: Pocket Essentials, (Harpended: Pocket Essentials, 2010) Jennifer Webb and Donna Lee Brien, Agnostic Thinking: creative writing as practice led research, https://www.herts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/12434/WPIAAD_vol5_webb_obrien.pdf
34 Comments
9/5/2022 06:11:00 am
Really informative article, I had the opportunity to learn a lot, thank you. https://freecodezilla.net/porto-wordpress-theme/
Reply
9/5/2022 06:11:00 am
Really informative article, I had the opportunity to learn a lot, thank you. https://freecodezilla.net/elementor-pro-nulled-free-download-a/
Reply
9/5/2022 06:11:00 am
Really informative article, I had the opportunity to learn a lot, thank you. https://freecodezilla.net/psyplay-wordpress-theme-for-movies/
Reply
9/11/2022 02:53:39 pm
Really informative article, I had the opportunity to learn a lot, thank you. https://kurma.website/
Reply
9/12/2022 03:49:43 am
Really informative article, I had the opportunity to learn a lot, thank you. https://odemebozdurma.com/
Reply
9/14/2022 03:08:29 pm
Really informative article, I had the opportunity to learn a lot, thank you. https://bit.ly/site-kurma
Reply
9/30/2022 06:32:24 am
It's great to have this type of content. Good luck with your spirit. Thank you. https://bit.ly/site-kurma
Reply
10/5/2022 10:25:35 am
It was a post that I found very successful. Good luck to you. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/sakarya-escort/tarakli-escort/
Reply
10/6/2022 02:52:10 am
I follow your posts closely. I can find it thanks to your reliable share. Thank you. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/sanliurfa-escort/ceylanpinar-escort/
Reply
10/6/2022 12:21:55 pm
I support your continuation of your posts. I will be happy as new posts come. Thank you. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/ordu-escort/mesudiye-escort/
Reply
10/7/2022 02:02:58 pm
Thank you for your sharing. I must say that I am successful in your content. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/mus-escort/korkut-escort/
Reply
10/8/2022 03:23:31 am
Thoughtful and real content is shared. Thank you for these shares. https://escortnova.com/escort-ilanlari/erzurum-escort/senkaya-escort/
Reply
11/21/2022 04:46:32 am
Tıkla evde calismaya basla: https://sites.google.com/view/evden-ek-is/
Reply
12/9/2022 05:09:41 am
Düşmeyen bot takipçi satın al: https://takipcialdim.com/
Reply
12/9/2022 05:10:23 am
Garantili Tiktok takipçi satın al: https://takipcialdim.com/tiktok-takipci-satin-al/
Reply
12/15/2022 04:44:42 am
uygun fiyatlardan takipçi Hemen Göz At: https://takipcim.com.tr/
Reply
4/27/2023 04:34:06 pm
Anabolik Steroid Satın Al: https://www.anabolickapinda14.com/urun/
Reply
5/10/2023 09:40:24 am
Heets Çeşitlerine Göz At: https://bit.ly/heets-heets
Reply
6/30/2023 03:49:07 pm
En iyi bilecik ilan sitesi burada. https://bilecik.escorthun.com/
Reply
8/9/2023 06:13:30 am
Steroid Siparis Steroid Fiyatlari Steroidler Anabolizan Orjinal Steroid Steroid Satis Steroid Satın Al Steroid Siparis Et
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
June 2020
Categories |