Using film as both embodied research and explication in a creative practice PhD

Abstract

ABSTRACT Creative practice methodology encourages a playful space in which art experimentation can occur within the PhD. There is a debate within the methodology about whether explication needs to take place in an accompanying text, or if it can be implicit in the artwork. A new approach is emerging where art practice and academic explication combine, most notably in audio and audio-visual media. The art medium can be used, rather than text, as a way of communicating the research findings. In my case, I am a documentarian, and using audio-visual media allows for what was considered implicit – body language, visuals, voice tone – to become explicit. It allows for a different type of knowledge transfer where multiple congruent interpretations of the ‘text’ are encouraged, and where the viewer completes the formation of meaning through their act of viewing. Using my artform as the method of communication encourages an iterative process where the digital papers and the experimental films I create influence each other and even influence the research questions being posed.