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Arts & Communication A perspective on art-based and academic research

which must be planned and budgeted. However, these five In two recent articles, I explored this further. In the
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core criteria could be used in many theater productions. It article, Artistic freedom and privacy: Challenges in the use of
could, therefore, be debated whether performing arts can biographical material in three productions at The National
be classified as R&D. The fifth core criterion is that the Stage, I discuss biographical fiction. From 2012 – 2019,
result should be “transferable and/or reproducible (to lead I was the CEO and the artistic director at The National
to results that could be possibly reproduced),” Actors are Stage (DNS) in Bergen, Norway. One article focuses on
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trained to reproduce and develop their work on stage night the debates created by three theater productions at DNS:
after night. However, all actors are part of specific esthetic Reksten-The Company’s Man (2014), Our Honor/Our
transmissions that define the method and quality of their Glory (2016), and Kim F. (2018). All three productions
work. It can therefore be debated how creative and original were based on and inspired by biographical material,
a performance truly is. This is probably the reason why and they created polarized debates on artistic freedom
actors are classified as performing artists and not creative and privacy. I received anonymous threats and faced the
artists in copyright laws, despite the fact that actors use their prospect of legal action by individuals who wanted to have
own unique body, voice and imagination as their tool. As an the scripts changed. My research question was: Who owns
actor I would claim that we are producing both original and the right to describe a real person’s biography and private
reproducible work. life? Through an autoethnographic lens, the article is
based on my extensive archive from all three productions.
4. Narcissist, researcher, or both? The article reflects on the legal and artistic circumstances
Reflecting on my own acting in China almost 25 years connected to the use of biographical material in all three
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later for my master’s thesis, philosopher Merleau-Ponty productions. I continued my research on art and freedom
(1908 – 1961) encapsulated with his words: “Thus, since of speech based on my own experience in an additional
the seer is caught up in what he sees, it is still himself he academic essay to be published in December 2023 in
sees: there is a fundamental narcissism of all vision”. 7(p139) the Norwegian journal DRAMA. The title My job is to
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The question that arises is: How can I reflect on my own art make art, not validate facts indicates my conclusion. In
in a way that is relevant to others? In the above-mentioned Norway, freedom of speech triumphs over an individual’s
article for the Ibsen Studies journal, I based my arguments right to privacy, but it is an ongoing debate to decide
on the well-established fact that no cultural standpoint is where the legal borders lie at any given time. It is the law
central. In that article, I reflected on my experience as part of the country and not “common sense” that decides the
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of director Wu Xiaojiang’s intercultural production of A limits of what a performer can claim and express through
Doll’s House in Beijing and Shanghai in 1998, and I strived art without being persecuted.
to contextualize my own work. My research shows how 5. Practitioner–researcher as subject
everybody involved brought their own cultural, social, and
political values into the rehearsing process. It is clear to me Vincent B. Leitch wisely points out that “there is no
now, but at the time, in 1998, I was less conscious of the position free from theory, not even the one called “common
pitfalls. In 1998, my aim was to perform my job well and sense.” 12(p1) In my experience, autoethnography can be a
adhere to the director’s guidance. While I was dedicated fruitful tool for a practitioner–researcher. Autoethnography
to my role as Nora, I was less attuned to the academic and can be described as a method where the researcher uses
political discourse surrounding intercultural productions, personal experience (“auto”) to describe and interpret
post-colonial studies, and orientalism. (“graphy”) cultural texts, experiences, beliefs, and practices
The article My Nora in Wu Xiaojiang’s A Doll’s House (“ethno”). 13(p3) Similar to phenomenology, the researcher
(1998): Esthetic Transmission and Political Context is an describes how individuals “immediately experience space,
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example of a Werkstattbericht – meaning a workshop or time, and the world in which they live.”
rehearsal report in the German academic tradition. 8(p105) In the past, many actors and directors have explored
Contextualization in its full width became the core of my fruitful methods to connect personal experiences to the
research on performance. By contextualization, I refer cultural context to enrich and share their own work. The
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to acknowledging and confronting the “embeddedness Russian actor and director, Konstantin Stanislavski (1863
and situatedness of history in culture (society, economy, – 1938), wrote his books on acting almost a century before
and everyday life) as well as the discourse on art,” which is the term autoethnography was coined by David Hayano
where “the merit of relational esthetics and all constructivist and developed further by Carolyn Ellis and Art Bochner
approaches to artistic research” lie. 5(p56-57) This raises a valid in Autoethnography, Personal Narrative, Reflexivity
question: What methods can performers employ to analyze – -Researcher as Subject. It is a method where the
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and share their work in an academic manner? researchers’ own experience is made “a topic of investigation

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2024) 3 doi: 10.36922/ac.1807