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

in non-written forms. Consequently, these two modes of
reflection can therefore be seen as contrasting approaches
to thinking.
A fresh example of art-based research on theater is
Lisa Charlotte Baudouin Lie’s Ph.D. project from KHIO in
2023. Through several stage performances, she investigated
techniques and insights from the intersection between
magical and artistic practices and how to evoke collective
forms of thought that have since inhabited the work. Her
advantage as a researcher is that she is a performer, writer,
and director. In other words, she is both a performing artist
and a creative artist. Performing artists are not considered
creative artists in copyright laws (as mentioned, in what
way a performing artist is creative or not can truly be
debated, but that discussion belongs to a different study).
The main difference is that as a writer and director, she
could refer to art outside herself – in addition to her
embodied experience as an actor. The challenge for actors Figure 1. In art-based research, the art is the core, whereas in
is that their use of their own body, voice, and imagination is autoethnography, the researcher’s own reflections and cultural viewpoint
the product. Actors are their own tools and instruments in are the subjects of investigation. The diagram illustrates the intertwining
a complicated loom where everybody involved contributes of these two lenses.
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in different ways during a rehearsal process. Unwrapping the Centre for Ibsen Studies can be visualized in Figure 2.
oneself is, therefore, a complex task.
In academic research, one utilizes academic methods
Former protector of research at KHIO (The Norwegian and theories to contextualize, criticize, and reflect.
Art Academy) and multi-media artist Camille Norment Conversely, in art-based research, the artists employ their
describes her embodied knowledge as an artist with the artistic practice to reflect, understand, and seek answers.
following words: “The body is a site where various forms of Artists can use multiple lenses in their artwork. The artists’
knowledge converge. This knowledge is a manifestation of task as researchers at the Ph.D. level is to unwrap the art
the information that the body has gathered, conscious and that they have created. By reflecting on the process, the
unconsciously, in reckoning with its sensory experiences, artist sheds light on their own investigation into how the
creating our sensory knowledge spaces.” This means that art found its shape and form. The artist may reflect in
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embodied knowing includes recognizing how our sensory words but may as well find a way of reflecting through a
motors process feelings and emotions. 27(p145) Norment led non-verbal event, a performance, or pieces of art. On the
a seminar during the artistic research week at KHIO in contrary, academic research culminates in a written paper.
January 2023, where she reinforced the artistic core of art- Broadly speaking, this makes academic research, “thinking
based research. Inspired by Norment, my experience in in print,” as opposed to art-based research, which is
Beijing can be visualized as depicted in Figure 1. “thinking in and through art.”
The diagram illustrates how autoethnography enabled 8. A fruitful dialog
me to understand, contextualize, and communicate my
personal story behind my artistic experience in China. 28(133) Despite the difference between academic and art-based
In addition, it can be interpreted as a depiction of art- research, they share points of connection and dialog, and
based research, where the actor becomes the object of I will highlight three crossroads where academic research
investigation. and art-based research intersect, illustrating how theater
might illuminate the world and vice versa. 29(VIII) They serve
7. Academic thinking as examples of enlightening knowledge that will impact my

Academic students are drilled into assembling reasons future artistic endeavors.
and evidence to support their claims and to describe The first intersection is the crucial discussion that arose
their research in a written form for everybody to read, when theories and awareness around post-colonialism
share, criticize, and build on. In addition, students are entered the discourse. The philosopher Frantz Fanon
dexterously trained in citing their references and quoting (1925 – 1961) significantly influenced post-colonial theory
other researchers. My experience of academic research at with his critiques of how Western culture perpetuates

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2024) 5 doi: 10.36922/ac.1807