Arts-based research and the performative paradigm

Abstract

Art-based methods are gaining popularity across the academy and psychology is no exception. In this commentary, we explain how artistic research can be considered within its own paradigm which differs methodologically and epistemologically to quantitative and qualitative research paradigms. This difference is critical and demands that artistic research attends to process-oriented questions and the ineffability of the knowledge it generates. By contrasting paradigms, we argue that research within the performative research paradigm uniquely generates practice-based insights, through artistic processes, that are embodied and non-representational. Our aim in this commentary is to increase awareness of the performative research paradigm among arts-based researchers in psychology and to encourage them to embrace the performative power of artistic research.