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

in its own right.” 15(p733) In the books such as An actor prepares, process, McAuley utilized contemporary ethnographic
Stanislavski uses his own experience as the basis for his practice to reflect on her observations. Researching my
research on how actors could utilize their own emotions to own experience portraying Nora in a Chinese production,
develop a character. He was a practitioner–researcher, an I was both the insider, looking in as a participant observer,
actor, and a director doing research on his own and other and an outsider trying to understand the context. On
practitioner’s art. Through this research, he developed the the inside, I was part of the team, yet as a foreigner, I
method that was required for Henrik Ibsen’s final 12 plays. was also observing the play from the outside. When I
In a letter written by Henrik Ibsen to Harald Holst in 1878, started reflecting on my own experience in China at the
he stated that his characters should be portrayed lifelike Centre for Ibsen Studies, I had to unwrap my own acting
and credible to the audience through what he called being in Wu Xiaojiang’s production. It was an eye-opener to
continuously true to reality, or “jævn natursandhed” in contextualize the work and name my theoretical and
Norwegian. By doing so, Ibsen revolutionized the concept artistic references. The fact that more than 5000 actresses
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of acting. Stanislavski, recognizing Ibsen’s call for “life-like” have played Nora since the world premiere in Copenhagen
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acting, dedicated himself to researching how to achieve in 1879 stunned me. A challenge was that Agnete, in 2022,
such authenticity. By publishing his experiences, he made had other perspectives on life and art than the 1998 version
it possible for other actors and actors–teachers to follow of myself. Unwrapping my own culture, class, and values
his method to get comparable results. Actor–teachers such became essential to understand the process and my own
as Stella Adler, Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner, and Uta experience. I saw myself through “the lens of culture.” 18(p1)
Hagen later developed Stanislavski’s method into different In other words, I used an autoethnographic approach to
paths in new autoethnographic publications based on their write an academic article on my own practice. I was an
own personal experiences. However, it is challenging to actor turning into a researcher – and not a researching
capture a non-verbal experience in a verbal explanation. actor. Even though a rehearsal process is a quest for new
In art, there exists an elusive aspect, an “it,” something answers, it cannot be called art-based research in the way
that defies explanation and cannot be replicated through this is understood in higher education for fine arts.
imitation. This is because each individual is different with
an uneven distribution of talent, which makes every actor 6. Embodied knowledge
unique. From an actor’s perspective, one could claim Fine arts universities worldwide are engaged in developing
that acting is creative and, therefore, can be considered art-based research. In my homeland, Norway, the Oslo
research. By unwrapping the art of acting, these actors National Academy of the Arts (KHIO) is the most
and directors researched, verbalized, and shared personal distinguished school for the arts, encompassing performing
experiences. Their written reports on acting illustrate how arts, design, and visual arts. The academy defines artistic
autoethnography was an effective research method in the practice as the core of art-based research. At the Ph.D.
arts long before its acknowledgment in academia. It is a level, artistic practice must be accompanied by “an explicit
method that displays multiple layers of consciousness by reflection, which, when the project is presented, grants
“connecting the personal to the cultural.” 15(p739) Actors and others access to the working methods and insights that
directors have contributed to building bridges between emerge from the artistic research.” According to this
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art-based research and academic research long before the definition, art becomes research when the artist unfolds,
term art-based research existed. By doing so, they proved unwraps, and reflects on it from an insider’s perspective. The
that autoethnography is one of the methods that allow the process of art-based research is highly individual and lacks
integration of research on art as well as research in and standardized procedures. The artist’s own unwrapping of
through art to be into one another, making the unconscious the art makes embodied knowledge visible, with reflections
aspects of their work conscious – a fundamental aspect of resulting in objects, sound files, non-verbal conclusions,
art-based research. performances, or whatever art form the artist chooses.
Autoethnography refers to both a theory and a method Art-based research is a young field where recent and
used in academic research to explore one’s own practice. valid contributions have been made. 1,20-25 However, my
However, valid contributions to researching the process experience is that art-based research still has a long way
from page to stage can also be made by an observer who to go to achieve equal recognition with academic research.
is not involved in the creative process. In Not magic but This disparity may have to do with the fact that academic
work – an ethnographic account of a rehearsal process, research is primarily presented in words and graphs,
Gay McAuley gives a detailed description of the intensive following standardized methods for conducting and
work involved in the making of the play Toy Symphony in disseminating research. In art-based research, conscious
Australia in 2007. As an outsider observing the rehearsal reflections on embodied knowledge are often presented
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Volume 2 Issue 2 (2024) 4 doi: 10.36922/ac.1807