Site-integrity: An embedded and embodied approach to practice-based research

Abstract

Practice-based research in the arts typically uses artistic processes and creative artefacts as part of its methods and approach. The focus is often on exploring and understanding the creative process itself rather than simply producing a final product or outcome. Such approaches have evolved from the understanding that life and experiences of the world are multifaceted, and that art offers ways of knowing the world through a more experiential approach compared to the intellectual and verbal ways that have traditionally dominated western discourses of knowledge. When it comes to practice-based research in the arts, audiences can engage with representations in a sensory, emotional, psychological and intellectual manner, expanding and deepening their understanding and knowledge. This article examines the key features of practice-based research through an analysis of ‘site-integrity’. By making artworks with and for a site-specific community, site-integrity directly responds to the social, religious, political and architectural discourses present. By implicitly performing involvements in, as opposed to observations on site, the research activity becomes an embedded engagement in the world of which it is part. The aim of site-integrity is to ensure that the research process is beneficial to both the researcher and the site community and that the research outcomes are useful, relevant and applicable in the real world. The focus of this article is to critically examine the role of artistic fieldwork in research, as well as to explore the ethical implications and effectiveness of such methods of engagement. By questioning the role and impact of such methods, the article may contribute to ongoing debates around the use of artistic and creative approaches in research and the broader implications of such approaches for knowledge production and dissemination.