Flying in the slipstream with Shaun McNiff: Using art-based research as eyes of the heart

Abstract

Shaun McNiff and his work is the subject of this article with particular review of his integrative and collaborative ideology. Leading a global commitment to art-based research, the article traces McNiff’s approach and contribution to the field of applied arts and health with beginnings in expressive therapies from the 1970s. His work in developing a practice-based research methodology called ‘art-based research’ is internationally renowned. Art-based research is distinguished by the inclusion of the artistic objects in addition to the practitioners themselves. He explicitly values the interplay between the creator and the created in providing greatest potential to the practitioner researcher. McNiff’s writing and practice reinforces his personal commitment to creating with others to supplement the value of working alone. His personal philosophy of the ‘creative slipstream effect’ manifests as multiple forces of the group augmenting creative energy and participants can merge together into common flow that carries everyone in it.