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  A Creative Research Methods project

"researchers who use creative methods are at risk of finding ways to express themselves, learn, and have fun. " ( kara 2020 :237), date: 9-10 september 2024, venue: the studio , 51 lever st, manchester m1 1fn.

Helen Kara founded this two-day hybrid conference to bring together people with an interest in creative research methods. Keynote speakers for 2024 are the renowned experts in creative practices Su-ming Khoo from the University of Galway, and Dawn Mannay of Cardiff University in Wales. There will also be presentations and activities in breakout rooms, and scope for going out into the city to try creative outdoor methods.

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Watch the Keynotes from 2023!

Enormous thanks to all who came to our 2023 conference, which was a stunning success. Our two keynote speakers delivered wonderful sessions, which are now available on YouTube:

Pam Burnard: Performing a Rebel Yell: Doing Rebellious Research In and Beyond the Academy

Caroline Lenette: The Importance of Being Disruptive: On Decolonising Creative Research Methods

If you would rather read than watch, there are blog posts by Helen Kara , Dawn Wink and Victoria Bartle .

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What is Creative Research?

What is "creative" or "artistic" research how is it defined and evaluated how is it different from other kinds of research who participates and in what ways - and how are its impacts understood across various fields of inquiry.

After more than two decades of investigation, there is no singular definition of “creative research,” no prescribed or prevailing methodology for yielding practice-based research outcomes, and no universally applied or accepted methodology for assessing such outcomes. Nor do we think there should be.

We can all agree that any type of serious, thoughtful creative production is vital. But institutions need rubrics against which to assess outcomes. So, with the help of the Faculty Research Working Group, we have developed a working definition of creative research which centers inquiry while remaining as broad as possible:

Creative research is creative production that produces new knowledge through an interrogation/disruption of form vs. creative production that refines existing knowledge through an adaptation of convention. It is often characterized by innovation, sustained collaboration and inter/trans-disciplinary or hybrid praxis, challenging conventional rubrics of evaluation and assessment within traditional academic environments.

This is where Tisch can lead.

Artists are natural adapters and translators in the work of interpretation and meaning-making, so we are uniquely qualified to create NEW research paradigms along with appropriate and rigorous methods of assessment. At the same time, because of Tisch's unique position as a professional arts-training school within an R1 university, any consideration of "artistic" or "creative research" always references the rigorous standards of the traditional scholarship also produced here.

The long-term challenge is two-fold. Over the long-term, Tisch will continue to refine its evaluative processes that reward innovation, collaboration, inter/trans-disciplinary and hybrid praxis. At the same time, we must continue to incentivize faculty and student work that is visionary and transcends the obstacles of convention.

As the research nexus for Tisch, our responsibility is to support the Tisch community as it embraces these challenges and continues to educate the next generation of global arts citizens.

Creative Methods

Anonymity, Visibility, and Ethical Re-representation

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• First Online: 02 April 2020
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• Dawn Mannay 2  

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Researchers employ creativity in their studies when designing, conducting, and presenting their data; in this way, creativity is central to academic practice. Within this more general sense of being creative, “creative methods,” as presented in this chapter, refer to creativity in the literal sense, where researchers and participants are involved in producing visual images, artifacts, or other representations, through a range of arts-based or performative techniques. This creative and novel “making” is often associated with the field of creative methods in visual studies, particularly in relation to photography and film. The recognizability of people and places in these photographic modes has invoked tensions between revealing and concealing the visual images we produce in social research, in relation to confidentiality and anonymity. This becomes more problematic in a climate where the burgeoning use of new technologies means that images are more easily shared, disseminated, and distorted. Accordingly, once a visual image is created, it becomes very difficult to control its use or remove it from public view if participants decide that they no longer want to be represented in a fixed visual trope for time immemorial or if they decide to withdraw their data from a study.

Arguments around anonymity and participant visibility are most closely related to photographs and film. However, it remains important to explore the ethical issues around other creative practices where researchers and participants make something new and understand that such issues can also be contentious. This chapter focuses on techniques of data production, including drawing, collaging, and sandboxing, where participants are involved in creating some form of artifact to represent aspects of their lives and experiences. It examines how these creative approaches generate a number of uncertainties around voice, confidentiality, informed consent, avoidance of harm, and future use. The chapter also explores the opportunities that creative approaches, which produce novel outputs, can offer in re-representing and revisualizing research data, engaging audiences in nontraditional formats, and increasing the impact of research studies. In this way, the chapter offers an insight into the ethical risks and potentialities of creative methods as tools of both data production and dissemination.

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Mannay, D. (2020). Creative Methods. In: Iphofen, R. (eds) Handbook of Research Ethics and Scientific Integrity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16759-2_21

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Creative research methods in the social sciences: A Practical Guide 1st Edition

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Policy Press; 1st edition (April 10, 2015)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 232 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1447316274
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• #142 in Social Sciences Methodology
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About the author

Helen Kara is a leading independent researcher, author, teacher and speaker specialising in creative research methods, radical research ethics, and creative academic writing. With over 25 years’ experience as an independent researcher Helen teaches doctoral students and staff at higher education institutions worldwide. She is a prolific academic author with over 25 titles; notably Creative Research Methods: A Practical Guide (2nd edn) and Research and Evaluation for Busy Students and Practitioners (3rd edn). Besides her regular blogs and videos, she also writes comics and fiction. Helen is a Visiting Fellow at the National University of Australia and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. In 2021, at the age of 56, she was diagnosed autistic. Her neurodiversity explains her lifelong fascination with, and ability to focus on, words, language and writing.

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Research Methodologies for the Creative Arts & Humanities: Practice-based & practice-led research

Practice-based & practice-led research.

Known by a variety of terms, practice-led research is a conceptual framework that allows a researcher to incorporate their creative practice, creative methods and creative output into the research design and as a part of the research output.

Smith and Dean note that practice-led research arises out of two related ideas. Firstly, "that creative work in itself is a form of research and generates detectable research outputs" ( 2009, p5 ). The product of creative work itself contributes to the outcomes of a research process and contributes to the answer of a research question. Secondly, "creative practice -- the training and specialised knowledge that creative practitioners have and the processes they engage in when they are making art -- can lead to specialised research insights which can then be generalised and written up as research" ( 2009, p5 ). Smith and Dean's point here is that the content and processes of a creative practice generate knowledge and innovations that are different to, but complementary with, other research styles and methods. Practice-led research projects are undertaken across all creative disciplines and, as a result, the approach is very flexible in its implementation able to incorporate a variety of methodologies and methods within its bounds.

Most commonly, a practice-led research project consists of two components: a creative output and a text component, commonly referred to as an exegesis . The two components are not independent, but interact and work together to address the research question. The ECU guidelines for examiners states that the practice-led approach to research is

... based upon the perspective that creative art practices are alternative forms of knowledge embedded in investigation processes and methodologies of the various disciplines of performance … the visual and audio arts, design and creative writing ( "Guidelines and Examination Report for Examination of Doctor of Philosophy theses in creative research disciplines," para. 1 ).

A helpful way to understand this is to think of practice-led research as an approach that allows you to incorporate your creative practices into the research, legitimises the knowledge they reveal and endorses the methodologies, methods and research tools that are characteristic of your discipline.

Additional advice and guidance on the nature and implementation of a practice-led research project may be sought from your supervisors and from the research consultants .

• Boyes, E. Masquerade of the feminine (2006)
• Clarke, R. What feels true? (2012)
• Ellis, S. Indelible (2005)
• Grocott, L. Design research & reflective practice (2010)
• Hicks, T. Path to abstraction (2011)
• Mafe, D. Rephrasing voice (2009)
• Noon, D. The pink divide (2012)
• Wilkinson, T. Uncertain surrenders (2012)

ECU Library Resources - Practice-Based/ Practice-Led Research

• Art practice as research : inquiry in visual arts
• Art practice in a digital culture
• Artistic practice as research in music : theory, criticism, practice
• Creative research
• Design research through practice : from the lab, field, and showroom
• Live research : methods of practice-led inquiry in performance
• Method meets art : arts-based research practice
• Mapping landscapes for performance as research
• Thinking through practice: art as research in the academy
• Digital research in the arts and humanities

Further Reading

• Practice Based Research: A Guide
• The practical implications of applying a theory of practice based research: a case study
• Evaluating quality practice - led research: still a moving target?
• Creative and practice-led research: current status, future plans
• Developing a Research Procedures Programme for Artists & Designers
• Inquiry through Practice: developing appropriate research strategies
• Illuminating the Exegesis
• A Manifesto for Performative Research.
• The art object does not embody a form of knowledge
• From Practice to the Page: Multi-Disciplinary Understandings of the Written Component of Practice-Led Studies
• Scholarly design as a paradigm for practice-based research
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