What is Action Research? –
Research is an important part of any art project and ‘Action Research’ is one way to approach this. Action research is a unique combination of ‘Action and Research’.
In essence it is research by the practitioner into the practice to change and improve’.
This link points to a video about Action Research.
Below are some of the key points from the video.
Some research questions –
*The practitioner allows themself to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation which they find uncertain or unique.
They reflect on the phenomenon before them, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in their behaviour.
They carry out an experiment which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomenon and a change in the situation.*
(Schön 1983: 68)
Schön, D.A., (1983) *The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. *New York: Basic Boo
1. How do you respond to the encouragement to be surprised, puzzled and confused?
2. Donald Schön is not writing specifically about artists, so when he says ‘carry out an experiment’ what do you think that could look like for artists in general and specifically for you?
Answers –
In answer to question 1. above, I think that it is really important to be surprised, puzzled and confused when working on projects. I believe that this is all part of the learning process and what makes for a great artist. Once the joy of surprise and the frustration of confusion is lost then I think it is time to re-evaluate any form of work or hobby.
A real world example of the experience of surprise, puzzlement and confusion happened to me when I was working hard to replicate a photographic technique using only light to make ‘Luminograms’ popularised by the artist Michael Jackson.
‘Michael Jackson is a photographer based in Carmarthenshire. He spent over eight years studying and photographing a single beach in Pembrokeshire which resulted in him winning the Chris Beetles Award in 2013 and being a Hasselbad Masters Award finalist three times. He has more recently been working with photographing rocks and exploring the Luminogram process. His work is exhibited and collected internationally. According to Michael it took him a while to refine his process and no objects were placed on the light sensitive paper (photographic paper), as in the case of photograms’. – Ilfordphoto.com
I was first introduced to Luminograms by a colleague who was showing me around the darkroom at work. He showed me the work of Michael Jackson and I was intrigued. I tried on numerous occasions to replicate his style but to absolutely no avail. In short if light is shone onto photographic paper it goes black in the developer. However one afternoon when helping a student photograph some balloons, I had a ‘eureka’ moment. I remember the moment well. I was completely surprised, puzzled and confused in equal measure! I was surprised that I had found a solution, puzzled that it could even work and confused as to why I hadn’t though about it before. Below are some examples of Luminograms.
In answer to question 2. the idea of experimentation is continually trying out different ideas and techniques until I finally achieve what I set out to do. It may be, as in the example above, that I have a ‘happy’ accident in which case the act of experimentation has proven itself to be invaluable.
Below are two of my early Luminogram experiments. The first example is a large scale Photogram made by placing numerous sheets of paper on the floor and lying on it, while my students light onto light sensitive paper and then developing them. Yes that’s actually a large photograph of a real person on the floor. I knew that no objects on photo paper were used in the making of Luminograms but I wanted to try to understand the process of how the images may be formed on paper. The second example is a photogram with developer selectively thrown over the surface.
Although these images were interesting and fun to make, visually they are not really similar to the images above. However, with my surprising discovery and a lot of experimentation I produced a series of images below. I feel these images represent Michael Jackson’s Luminograms much better. My images were created digitally but the technique will work in exactly the same way with photographic paper. Only modified light was used to create the images below , although I did add some digital filters for creative effect. I feel that there are still many refinements I can make. I can also fully understand why it took so long for Michael Jackson to refine his process. Indeed, there was a lot of experimentation and trial and error in creating the images below. Light is my ‘thing’ and I would love to refine this further with more experimentation. If you would like to learn how to make Luminograms – think balloons 🙂
