when u r at a lost for words... how else will u communicate?
...as i always am when writing papers.
to help with my major project proposal i am reading this book- 'handbook of the arts in qualitative research'.
i guess it would be much easier if i just decide to write a major paper instead of a project, since i have already written almost everything i need for a major paper in previous essays. like my advisor said, i have the topic, i have the theory, i have the words, all i need is the last bit of development and putting a paper together would not be difficult. n then i can graduate and cha boh back to sg.
but after brooding over this thing for awhile, i think that if i am to really do a paper instead of a project, i will regret it for the rest of my life.
however i lack the most important part of a major project. the project itself. how do i turn my paper into a project?
hence am 'speed-reading' through this book..
in it i rediscover that art-based research can be used for
1. data
2. inquiry
3. interpretation or representation
now somehow i am obsessed with no. 3.
how can you present the results of your research in non-written language? it is possible it seems or as the book says. some knowledge cannot be written out and in history it is known that knowledge has also been transmitted in non-written forms, through embodied forms. for example through dance, storytelling, images, songs etc. with that said, poetry and lyrical proses are also used to express things that cannot be expressed with objective writing. not that it is dissing academic writing or anything but i think the book is trying to say that there are different ways of knowing and that people has depended too much on one way of knowing that we have neglected the other forms, the different senses that we can activate and express with which are equally important. one good example the book gave: how can you comprehend the world of an alzheimer patient or the lives of people whom it has affected outside of the patient? a socialogist took pictures of little bags of rubberbands, needles, etc that her mother hid around the house while she had alzheimer and which she had found after her death. i imagine what a person will feel and think when viewing these pictures in an exhibition.
the thing about art-based research is that it cannot give a definite answer to a posed question. instead it poses more questions. at the same time it is more easily accessible to people who may not acquire the skills to understand difficult academic journals.
as i was saying... i am obsessed with no. 3: art-based research as interpretation and representation.
i have kinda decided that i will interpret/represent my research in an art-based form(s). at the same time i would like to use art to inquire further developments in my topic. (ya its a bit hanging there)
as i am thinking of this, i suddenly realise that the little exercises that i have been working with prof honor and jiha were doing just that, inquiring.
the one we did last week: think about before and after you came to canada and draw 2 pictures that shows how you were before and after. of course, we talked about what we drew after that.
honor meant for the information in these exercises to be useful for me to look deeper into the identity issues that i am questioning for her course. as i read the book, i came to understand that. and all this time she has been asking me, 'was this helpful?' and while i knew what she meant, somehow it didn't register in my mind that informations from these drawings are to be used to think deeper into the problem. no. 2: art-based research as inquiry! haha! now i know.
----
thoughts-
a writing practice: inquiring into the middle world.
sometimes i think that i have to make art my life in order to grasp for myself the channels of peace.
yet the research that i do, how is that connected to the peace that i am trying to find, and trying so hard to understand?
is the middle world of my theory a way for the people to balance power or to understand power or to empower themselves so that they will have a peace of mind? if we can comprehend the power structure and struggles that are working itself in the society, and if we interject that with our abilities, will we be happier? even if that provokes aggression, ignites anger.
maybe anger and agression will be present in the other party. maybe it will be present in ourselves because of that. however i think that the doer, the protagonist, the provoker, the interjector herself should remain calm, as calm as the particles in water and air. unabashed and unafraid by the waves and winds because they understood the fact that they are within and posessed the elements themselves.
if we remain calm as we ride the waves, will the others see?
simple may be beautiful but i think that things will always seem complicated the way we see it.
we are walking down this needlessly complicated road, i feel like i am walking down this friggin maze of a path.
the middle world is only plausible if the protagonist is able to balance the official and unofficial world with patience, understanding, repose, confidence and acceptance.
are there examples of that?
----
to help with my major project proposal i am reading this book- 'handbook of the arts in qualitative research'.
i guess it would be much easier if i just decide to write a major paper instead of a project, since i have already written almost everything i need for a major paper in previous essays. like my advisor said, i have the topic, i have the theory, i have the words, all i need is the last bit of development and putting a paper together would not be difficult. n then i can graduate and cha boh back to sg.
but after brooding over this thing for awhile, i think that if i am to really do a paper instead of a project, i will regret it for the rest of my life.
however i lack the most important part of a major project. the project itself. how do i turn my paper into a project?
hence am 'speed-reading' through this book..
in it i rediscover that art-based research can be used for
1. data
2. inquiry
3. interpretation or representation
now somehow i am obsessed with no. 3.
how can you present the results of your research in non-written language? it is possible it seems or as the book says. some knowledge cannot be written out and in history it is known that knowledge has also been transmitted in non-written forms, through embodied forms. for example through dance, storytelling, images, songs etc. with that said, poetry and lyrical proses are also used to express things that cannot be expressed with objective writing. not that it is dissing academic writing or anything but i think the book is trying to say that there are different ways of knowing and that people has depended too much on one way of knowing that we have neglected the other forms, the different senses that we can activate and express with which are equally important. one good example the book gave: how can you comprehend the world of an alzheimer patient or the lives of people whom it has affected outside of the patient? a socialogist took pictures of little bags of rubberbands, needles, etc that her mother hid around the house while she had alzheimer and which she had found after her death. i imagine what a person will feel and think when viewing these pictures in an exhibition.
the thing about art-based research is that it cannot give a definite answer to a posed question. instead it poses more questions. at the same time it is more easily accessible to people who may not acquire the skills to understand difficult academic journals.
as i was saying... i am obsessed with no. 3: art-based research as interpretation and representation.
i have kinda decided that i will interpret/represent my research in an art-based form(s). at the same time i would like to use art to inquire further developments in my topic. (ya its a bit hanging there)
as i am thinking of this, i suddenly realise that the little exercises that i have been working with prof honor and jiha were doing just that, inquiring.
the one we did last week: think about before and after you came to canada and draw 2 pictures that shows how you were before and after. of course, we talked about what we drew after that.
honor meant for the information in these exercises to be useful for me to look deeper into the identity issues that i am questioning for her course. as i read the book, i came to understand that. and all this time she has been asking me, 'was this helpful?' and while i knew what she meant, somehow it didn't register in my mind that informations from these drawings are to be used to think deeper into the problem. no. 2: art-based research as inquiry! haha! now i know.
----
thoughts-
a writing practice: inquiring into the middle world.
sometimes i think that i have to make art my life in order to grasp for myself the channels of peace.
yet the research that i do, how is that connected to the peace that i am trying to find, and trying so hard to understand?
is the middle world of my theory a way for the people to balance power or to understand power or to empower themselves so that they will have a peace of mind? if we can comprehend the power structure and struggles that are working itself in the society, and if we interject that with our abilities, will we be happier? even if that provokes aggression, ignites anger.
maybe anger and agression will be present in the other party. maybe it will be present in ourselves because of that. however i think that the doer, the protagonist, the provoker, the interjector herself should remain calm, as calm as the particles in water and air. unabashed and unafraid by the waves and winds because they understood the fact that they are within and posessed the elements themselves.
if we remain calm as we ride the waves, will the others see?
simple may be beautiful but i think that things will always seem complicated the way we see it.
we are walking down this needlessly complicated road, i feel like i am walking down this friggin maze of a path.
the middle world is only plausible if the protagonist is able to balance the official and unofficial world with patience, understanding, repose, confidence and acceptance.
are there examples of that?
----