God, gods, myth and facts

According to Blaikie, when it comes to art-informed research, its main purpose is to advance in the understanding of the ‘human condition by using unconventional means of inquiry, while also expanding on the on its audience. This type of research is a combination of language, methods, visual and performative arts so as to on the understanding of academic inquiry. (Blaikie, 2009) This kind of research requires the researcher to have an underlining moral purpose for the study, because according to Cole and Knowles, Art-informed research is meant to stand for something. Besides the moral aspect to the research they have also distinguished that this type of research is meant to produce both a written text and a visual image, while also possessing meaning. (Cole, 2007). 

In my B.Tech work I had explored the idea of using two interdisciplinary art forms in order to depict/ translate my chosen bridal narrative. I had focused my attention specifically on artists who had applied the same concepts such as Erismann, who had done so through collaboration with other arts.  In a report I recently came across I found an example of Interdisciplinary Collaboration which occurred between poets and scientist in order to experiment with poetic inquiry within the science field. This involved the exploration between of the differences, similarities and incompatibilities which existed between the two fields (María E. Fernández-Giménez, 2018); this will be something I would also have to take into consideration when conducting my own research using poetry and jewellery as my bases for inquiry into my theme. 

One of the relevant literatures which I have come across was an article entitled: “Poetic Inquiry as a Research and Engagement Method in Natural Resource Science”, written by three authors. In the article there was a section which discussed Poetic Analysis and the process they had adopted for their own research.  What these researchers had done was to create poetry from their qualitative data so as to observe whether or not poetic analysis would result in a new perspective or understanding of ‘social-ecological dynamics’ in a given area, which they had previously analyzed in 2012 using ‘conventional qualitative coding analysis.  They had decided to approach the writing by using a singular transcript form their interviews with their respondent to create 27 poems, which comprised solely on the respondent’s own words, mainly focusing on words which had best articulated meaning most relevant to their chosen theme. These words were then rearranged into order to create the p...

There are various ways in which a researcher could adopt the use of Poetic Inquiry in research such as writing a poem based on the qualitative data which has been gathered through interview transcripts. The researcher would then write poems based either on the research process, the participants, or collaborate with the participant to write the said poem.  According to Faulkner poetry “…embodies experience to show truths that are not usually evident”, it offers research a unique portrayal and expression of the human condition; which ultimately allows for new understanding of any given subject or theme as inquiry forces the researcher to reflect on the entire research process. (María E. Fernández-Giménez, 2018) 

Art-based Research can be described as a set of methods chiefly focused on the various divisions within the arts, such as music, visual arts etc. Therefore ABR would be involved throughout the research process, which would include “data generation, analysis, interpretation, representation, and presentation” (María E. Fernández-Giménez, 2018). 

I recall a childhood me who questioned the role of the “Virgin Mary”, I could not seem to reconcile the Mary who I was being taught in my catholic school to the one I had read about. I failed to find definitive evidence which supported the idea which was presented to me and I therefore could not follow nor stand behind a "truth", which I could not reconcile with. This was the first moment where I learnt to question the teachings of faith given to me.  From that moment on nothing became simply acceptable to me, especially when it came to the matters of God, just because someone of some kind of authority said so. If I couldn’t find definitive proof, or feel some sort of strong conviction in my soul, then it was left as questionable to me or like Christmas a practice which I could no longer follow.  Were giants, angels, monsters, dragons etc.  purely all from the imagination or was the real proof which either proves or disproves them all? The Bible speaks of them, sto...