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Art Practice as Research
Inquiry in the Visual Arts



December 2004 | 288 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

This book will publish in a new edition on December 1, 2009. We are no longer supplying instructors with complimentary review copies of this edition.

 * If you need an urgent desk copy of the existing edition for a class this semester, please call 1-800-818-7243 and we will be pleased to process your request.

"In this rich and layered reflection on visual arts practice as research, Graeme Sullivan launches a passionate and convincing case that rewrites the definitions of 'art' and 'research' as it unapologetically claims for the visual arts the respect and admiration of the academy."
—Jessica Hoffman Davis, Harvard University

Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in the Visual Arts presents a compelling argument that the creative and cultural inquiry undertaken by artists is a form of research. The text explores themes, practices, and contexts of artistic inquiry and positions them within the discourse of research. Author Graeme Sullivan argues that legitimate research goals can be achieved by choosing different methods than those offered by the social sciences. The common denominator in both approaches is the attention given to rigor and systematic inquiry. Artists emphasize the role of the imaginative intellect in creating, criticizing, and constructing knowledge that is not only new but also has the capacity to transform human understanding.

The book is divided into three content areas that provide a unique framework for carrying out inquiry in the visual arts:

  • Contexts for Visual Arts Research is a historical review that positions the visual arts as a culturally grounded and institutionally bound area of artistic and educational inquiry
  • Theorizing Visual Arts Practice presents the thesis that visual arts practice is a theoretically robust area of inquiry and a transformative approach to creating and critiquing knowledge
  • Visual Arts Research Practices describes a range of strategies and approaches to planning and carrying out visual arts research
is a historical review that positions the visual arts as a culturally grounded and institutionally bound area of artistic and educational inquiry.

Art Practice as Research is perfectly suited as a text for courses in art education, the visual arts, as well as general research methods courses in education and the humanities. This will also be an invaluable reference for anyone with an interest in interdisciplinary research in the social sciences and the role of imaginative inquiry in human understanding.


Meet the author! www.tc.columbia.edu/academic/a&hdept/arted/faculty/gs354/


Art Practice as Research: http://www.artasresearch.blogspot.com
A blog by Graeme Sullivan welcoming contributors interested in discussing ideas and sharing information about art as a form of research


Praise for this text:

"Sullivan challenges our assumptions about what constitutes research practices and in doing so presents a ground-breaking analysis for visual arts practice as research. This compelling image-text book opens the possibilities for the construction of new forms of knowledge in our increasingly visual world." 
—Dipti Desai, New York University
 
"Sullivan provides a timely and excellent introduction to the emerging field of visual cognition and educational research." 
—Pradeep A. Dhillon, University of Illinois 

"Art Practice as Research is long overdue. Graeme Sullivan eloquently crafts a methodology text and articulates for contemporary visual artist-researchers how arts practices are, in fact, rich forms of research inquiry." —Rita L. Irwin, University of British Columbia, Canada

"Sullivan's text is an important addition to the literature associated with research, critical inquiry, and arts education. I wish that such a text would have been available at the time that I was working on my dissertation. I will recommend it to my graduate students and colleagues."  —Doug Blandy, University of Oregon

"Art Practice moves through a description of accepted methods of research in the sciences.  A person interested in art research would be well-served by the foundation Sullivan provides."  —COMMUNICATION RESEARCH TRENDS



 
Acknowledgments
Graeme Sullivan
Introduction: Reviewing Visual Arts Research
Changing Demands of Visual Arts Theory and Practice

Graeme Sullivan
Limitations of Current Visual Research Methodologies

Graeme Sullivan
Art Practice as Research

Graeme Sullivan
Strategies for Using Art Practice as Research

Graeme Sullivan
Graeme Sullivan
Part 1: Contexts for Visual Arts Research
CONTEXTS FOR VISUAL ARTS RESEARCH
PART ONE
CONTEXTS FOR VISUAL ARTS RESEARCH
PART ONE
CONTEXTS FOR VISUAL ARTS RESEARCH
PART ONE
CONTEXTS FOR VISUAL ARTS RESEARCH
Contexts For Visual Arts Research
Graeme Sullivan
1. Pigment to Pixel
The Enlightenment as a Research Project

Graeme Sullivan
Promise of Progress

Graeme Sullivan
Fractured Realities

Graeme Sullivan
Conclusion

Graeme Sullivan
Graeme Sullivan
2. Paradigms Lost
Method as Truth

Graeme Sullivan
Doubting Doctrines

Graeme Sullivan
Conclusion

Graeme Sullivan
Graeme Sullivan
Part 2: Theorizing Visual Arts Practice
Graeme Sullivan
3. Explanation, Understanding, and Beyond
Theorizing in Practice

Graeme Sullivan
Theorizing Visual Arts as Practice-Based Research

Graeme Sullivan
Theorizing Art Practice as Transformative Research

Graeme Sullivan
Visual Arts Research Practices

Graeme Sullivan
Conclusion

Graeme Sullivan
Graeme Sullivan
4. Visual Knowing
Visual Cognition

Graeme Sullivan
Thinking Practices in the Visual Arts

Graeme Sullivan
Visual Arts Knowing: A Framework

Graeme Sullivan
Visual Arts as Transcognitive Practice

Graeme Sullivan
A Case Study: Critical Influence

Graeme Sullivan
Conclusion

Graeme Sullivan
Graeme Sullivan
5. Artist as Theorist
Sites of Practice

Graeme Sullivan
Reemergence of the Artist-Theorist

Graeme Sullivan
Critical Perspectives and Practices

Graeme Sullivan
Conclusion

Graeme Sullivan
Graeme Sullivan
Part 3: Visual Arts Research Practices
Graeme Sullivan
6. Practice as Theory
A Framework for Visual Arts Research Projects

Graeme Sullivan
Visual Practice: Experiences

Graeme Sullivan
Empirical Inquiry: Exercises

Graeme Sullivan
Interpretive Discourse: Encounters

Graeme Sullivan
Critical Process: Enactments

Graeme Sullivan
Conclusion

Graeme Sullivan
Graeme Sullivan
Epilogue: Conclusions and Beginnings
Chipping Away

Graeme Sullivan
Uncertain Conclusions

Graeme Sullivan
Graeme Sullivan
References
 
Index
 
About the Author

“Sullivan challenges our assumptions about what constitutes research practices and in doing so presents a ground-breaking analysis for visual arts practice as research. This compelling image-text book opens the possibilities for the construction of new forms of knowledge in our increasingly visual world.”

Dipti Desai
New York University

“Sullivan provides a timely and excellent introduction to the emerging field of visual cognition and educational research.”

Pradeep Dhillon
University of Illinois

“In this rich and layered reflection on visual arts practice as research, Graeme Sullivan launches a passionate and convincing case that rewrites the definitions of ‘art’ and ‘research’ as it unapologetically claims for the visual arts the respect and admiration of the academy.”

Jessica Hoffman Davis
Harvard University

Art Practice as Research is long overdue. Graeme Sullivan eloquently crafts a methodology text and articulates for contemporary visual artist-researchers how arts practices are, in fact, rich forms of research inquiry.”

Rita L. Irwin
University of British Columbia, Canada

“Sullivan’s text is an important addition to the literature associated with research, critical inquiry, and arts education. I wish that such a text would have been available at the time that I was working on my dissertation. I will recommend it to my graduate students and colleagues.”

Doug Blandy
University of Oregon

"Sullivan has writen a complex, closely reasoned, and very detailed dargument about a topic that, at first glance, seems superfluous to anyone who has ever had the good fortune to observe serious artists seriously engaged in making their art...  Sullivan has created an excellent, even poetic, excercise in his own endeavor to share his understandings of the creative process."

W.S. Johnson
Monroe Community College
Choice Magazine

"I can recommend Sullivan's book for those who want a thorough overview of the field of inquiry in the visual arts. It is well structured and Sullivan presents many examples to illustrate his arguments."

Folkert Haanstra

"Art Practice As Research is encyclopedic in depth and scope of material supporting the author's vital thesis, and the vision of studio art as fully acknowledged academic research, may be elusive as the dragonfly."

Patricia M. Hancock
Maharishi University of Management

"The book eloquently explains research practices found in the art studio and argues that visual art research is grounded in the practices that come from art itself. This profound and visionary book . . . is an essential text for every research student of art and art education in art schools and schools of education."

Susan Paterson
University of Wales Institute, U.K.
Key features
  • Approaches the processes used by artists as the theoretical and practical source of visual arts research.
  • Argues that the approaches to inquiry that occur in studios, in galleries, on the Internet, in community spaces, and other places where artists produce art, describe visual arts research that is grounded in art practice itself.
  • Rather than adopting methods of inquiry from the social sciences, the research practices explored in the book subscribe to the view that while similar research goals can be set, they can be achieved by following different paths.
  • Gives attention to rigor and systematic inquiry in a way that does not deny the role imagination plays in constructing new knowledge. In other words, visual arts practice is research.

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