ART IN ACTION RESEARCH (AiAR) AND THE GLOCAL ROOTINGS OF ART: METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Abstract

This paper discusses transformative research conducted from 2016 to 2021 that aimed to establish an alternative art practitioner paradigm: Art in Action Research (AiAR). This paradigm seeks to guide methodology creation for working on and through art in socio-cultural settings while considering the global turn. The 2021 study configures four baseline discourses (BD) that are needed to perform the global turn: The first BD concerns the diversity of art and the consequences of acknowledging that all art is related to traditions and histories (thus accepting the glocal rootings of art and thus the need to integrate diverse art notions). The second BD constructs an ideal-type model of canonization. The third BD addresses artistic research as a supranational, worldwide phenomenon and shows that increased awareness of the glocal rootings of art is essential for further developing artistic research. The fourth BD discusses the literature on practitioner research across disciplines. Finally, the study derives the principles for AiAR from the four BDs and further substantiates these principles. The study performs the global turn. It introduces an alternative paradigm, AiAR, which excludes limiting, paradigmatic assumptions about art from its research base, and issues a call to elicit project-relevant understandings of art. AiAR enables creating a methodology that serves reality-oriented, setting-specific, and people-centered art practitioner research aimed at co-creating livable futures.