When talking about research, it isn't something that is confined to just Context of Practice, with separate research for Personal and Professional Practice and another isolated approach to Studio Practice. Research is fundamental across all areas of my practice and it should underpin all modules continually; not singularly. Research isn't just about collecting data - it is also organising, documenting, analysing critically, interpreting, evaluating and reflecting. It is a practice where going to places, experiencing things and talking to people drive independent learning. Activities drive ideas. Trying and applying, bringing together the results of findings into a coherent output. Research is practice.
• PPP - research of practice: research into practitioners, researching about practice and reflecting on my own practice.
• COP - research as practice: making up a fundamental part of my written responses as essays and visual journal.
• SP - research put into practice: through experimentation, conceptual ideas as making.
There are a range of different ideas as to what research is. The process of research is more important than the outcome, it isn't about a defined end point but about exploring a plethora of possibilities appropriate to the brief. Without research there is no development or innovation - only sameness and familiar solutions. Not knowing should propel me forward. Research itself isn't clarifying the world but posing more questions, problem solving, experimenting, discovering. Everyone is a genius at least once a year. As a professional I need to be able to come up with idea after idea after idea... with strategies, methods and models as a foundation to success. I need to evolve strategies to go into a situation where I am inspired and want to innovate and generate visual communication.
I have to get over my fear of failure and accept that I will get things wrong and make mistakes - otherwise, I will forever sit in my comfort zone. I will have a stagnant process that won't evolve. Failure is central to developing my practice. 'Practice makes perfect!'. Knowledge will come through iterating, repeating, making mistakes, failing quicker. I need to learn to get it wrong straight away, rather than later on, to improve quicker. More time to get it right next time. 'You won't know the outcome until you engage with the process'. As humans, we want to get it right before we get it wrong but developing work will help from the mistakes that are happening - rather than doing no work at all in fear of failing in the first place. Even when I do get it right, I need to push further!
When considering research, in its many guises, if we knew what we were doing it wouldn't be called research... it would just be doing. Part of the process is not knowing, it should be embraced. Ultimately, the Context of Practice module is based on not knowing. Stupid people don't ask questions - be open about not knowing! - by discussing and talking to people a path can be found to lead to solutions. Ideas are the currency of what we do as practitioners. Technical skills and practical work are the core of our work and we should be able to draw connections between ideas and research. They are not separate entities but part of a whole practice. Ideas are what drive our practice and form possibilities but research drives our skills, understanding and knowledge. We all live in the same world, in the same city, go to the same university, see, hear and taste the same things - but how we make contemporary or historical connections forms our opinions, interpretations, responses, visualisation. Research is about looking at what is there but thinking about it individually. Conceptual thinking, ideas generation, design theory and design principals. Collect information and material from a range of sources - online, library, lectures, seminars, magazines, podcasts, ephemera.
Approaches
• Stimulated approach: Looking for inspiration all around us. Putting ourselves in situations to see, hear, touch, taste and smell. Listening, watching, visiting, talking, being inspired by what's happening around us. Going to the library, watching a film, looking at an artist's work and practice. Making analogies to it; relating to your own work the exhibition you visited or the work you've seen. Drawing connections to the problem that needs solving.
• Systematic approach: Taking something that exists (images, collected items) deconstructing and reconstructing to see how it works. Draw it, redraw it, using systems and processes to restructure what has been collected. For creative people it is the core of their practice. You know your process of developing ideas and experimenting in your sketchbook to creating a visual journey to publication. We set ourselves up to do that.
• Intuitive approach: The previous two are an external processes; working physically. An intuitive approach is different. It is an internal repertoire of what we know, the skills we have developed and a reliable, successful approach to a problem. Not copying but acknowledging what has worked for someone else. It is something that comes from experiences. This approach is what we aspire to in relation to practice, in my profession as an illustrator... Where I become the person that people come to with a brief, an issue, a problem. My internal repertoire is my practice.
Research Types
• Primary Research: Collected for a specific end use and for solving a certain problem. Physically doing something we have never done before. Generating new experiences for yourself and new knowledge.
• Secondary Research: Facts, data, stuff that is already out there. Written by someone else, researched for something else at a different point in time. Analysing that research, considering tis relevance to your project. Secondary research has an analytical angle.
• Quantitive Research: Numerical data, figures, provable facts through measure. Objective.
• Qualitative Research: Observation, opinion, talking with people and finding out what they think, quality rather than quantity. Not necessarily provable but doesn't mean it's wrong. Subjective.
Process
• Assimilation: Process of analysis. Accumulating, processing and organising data in such a way that it turns into body knowledge.
• General Study: Structured, stimulated approach leading to ideas generation.
•Development: Identifying possibilities to move forward and develop further. Concepts, content, composition. Refining and solving.
• Communication: Understanding who is receiving the information and creating a sense of meaning.
For an essay, we need to read and research in order to form the basis of our writing. It is the same for other aspects of the illustrative practice. Finding facts leads to knowledge, which forms the basis of an intuitive approach. Innovation is born out of research. How do we use our starting points, initial concepts and ideas to go into the unknown? It isn't just about physically creating and being happy with the outcome - but also trying something else. Extending points of resolution. Asking questions is central to being an intelligent, forward-thinking practitioner. What are those questions? How do we identify the right methods of questioning? How? Why? What if? Developing answers and possible solutions. Research is driven by a question. In terms of research having an output, we need to understand that information has to be sufficient, competent and relevant.
Start anywhere! We don't know where we are going and we can't predict the outcome but we can make a start on finding out and making connections. The process is what is important and will lead to resolutions. When given a research problem or essay do not worry about getting it right from the start - just start doing it and a body of work will be created. You are at the centre of your research; you are the research tool, the interpreter, generating the material. You are the person making sense of the experience and the world unique to you. Research is what i'm doing and I don't know what I'm doing. Negotiate the space of what we know and don't know. Get it wrong, evaluate any mistakes and don't do it again next time. It is an ongoing process through blogs, test pieces, roughs, ideas and drafts - developing a body of research to document, reflect on and evaluate. Avoid panic and putting things off - just do!
