THE ARTS-BASED

RESEARCH DESIGN
RESEARCH PURPOSE

 your
primary purpose may be to explore, describe,
evoke, provoke, or unsettle
Philosophical Statement

 Philosophy of Arts-Based Research by Gerber et al. (2012)

 Recognizes that art has been able to convey truth(s) or bring about awareness
(both knowledge of the self and knowledge of others).
 Recognizes that the use of the arts is critical in achieving self/other
knowledge.
 Values preverbal ways of knowing.
 Includes multiple ways of knowing, such as sensory, kinesthetic, and
imaginary
Philosophical Statement

 “aesthetic intersubjective paradigm”

 Aesthetics draw on sensory, emotional, perceptual, kinesthetic, embodied,
and imaginal ways of knowing (Chilton et al., 2015; Cooper et al., 1997;
Dewey, 1934; Langer, 1953; Harris-Williams, 2010; Whitfield, 2005).
 Intersubjectivity refers to the relational quality of arts as knowing, as we
make meanings with others and with nature (Conrad & Beck, 2015).
Philosophical Statement

 Embodiment Theories
 all social actors are embodied actors. We experience the world through our bodies, through our
senses. Celeste Snowber (2012) reminds us that “we do not have bodies, we are bodies.”
 The inscribed body
 The lived body
 The Art-Science Continuum
Participants

 data are collected from research participants using traditional quantitative, qualitative, or
mixed methods designs.
 participants make art, and the art pieces become the data
 the artistic practice is both the method of inquiry and the content. In these instances, you
create the art and there aren’t any research participants
Genres and Practices

 Literary Genres and Fiction-Based Research

 Performative Genres
 Visual Art Genres: Photography, Photovoice, and Collage
 The following is an excerpt from my 2015 novel, Low-Fat Love: Expanded Anniversary
Edition (Sense Publishers), which is grounded in interview research with women about
body image, relationships, identity, and self-esteem.
 The following is an excerpt from my 2015 novel, Low-Fat Love: Expanded Anniversary
Edition (Sense Publishers), which is grounded in interview research with women about
body image, relationships, identity, and self-esteem.
Fiction-based h (FBR), fiction as a research practice (FARP), or
social fiction, is an emergent practice with unique capabilities for
creating engaging, evocative, and accessible research. FBR is well
suited for portraying the complexity of lived experience because it
allows for details, nuance, specificity, contexts, and
texture. FBR is adept at cultivating empathy and self-reflection
through relatable characters and disrupting dominant narratives or
stereotypes by showing and not telling.