The Practice of Research

Domain, Field, Long-term Memory, Planning - Generative,

Serendipity

Analysis of my own work

Practice-Based Creative Research Method

Conduct Background Research

Establish Research Problem

Area of Research Interest

Creative Writing & Digital Media

Multimodal Creativity

Rhetorical Problem:

How does transitioning from a prose writing practice to a digital writing practice affect the writer, the practice, and the narrative itself?

Planning:

Use HTML & Javascript to create a Hyperfiction.

(Hyperfiction located here: http://lyleskains.com/FW/Streams/index.html )

Background Research

Domain:

Creative Writing, Literature, Literary Studies, Electronic Literature, Media Studies

Field:

Writers, Critics, Scholars, Examiners***

Long-term Memory:

Prose writer. Some early '90s experience with HTML. No exposure to e-lit. Not a gamer.

Domain, Field

Long-term Memory

Planning - Exploration

Planning (Exploration):

Engage in the Practice

Chapter in a larger work. Themes of exploration, being lost, seeking a savior, adventure. Drawing on The Wizard of Oz.

Write, read, review.

Rhetorical Problem

Planning - Generative, Goal-setting

Contextual Readings/Analysis

Reviewed hyperfiction written in Javascript & HTML from Andy Campbell, Alan Bigelow, others. Reviewed websites that made use of Javascript for functionality.

Viewed source code.

Critical Readings

Broad readings at this stage:

• Scholars in e-lit theory (Hayles, Ryan, Landow, Moulthrop, Bolter, Ensslin)
• Practitioners & practice-based researchers in e-lit (Weight, Amerika, Sondheim)

The Practice of Research:

Revisit Research Problem

Revisit Research Question

Rhetorical Problem (unchanged):

How does transitioning from a prose writing practice to a digital writing practice affect the writer, the practice, and the narrative itself?

Planning (generative, exploration, goal-setting):

Draft story. Build a fantasy map (displayed online, through HTML & Javascript) that the digital reader can explore, unlocking the narrative (in hyperfiction - image + text) as they do. Explore functionalities of Javascript.

Practice-Related Research

Practice-as-Research

Rhetorical Problem, Planning

(generative, exploration, goal-setting)

The research consists entirely of the creative practice, with no critical output deemed necessary.

Practice-and-Research

Creative artifacts and critical outputs are disseminated separately, while knowledge acquired from the creative practice informs the critical explorations.

Practice-led Research

Focus is the nature of creative practice, leading to new knowledge of operational significance for that practice. Results may be communicated in a critical exegesis without the creative artifact.

Practice-based Research

Creative artifact is the basis of the contribution to knowledge. This method is applied to original investigations seeking new knowledge through practice and its outcomes, disseminated through both the artifact and the critical exegesis.

A Methodology for Practice-Based

Research in the Creative Arts

Auto - Ethnomethodology

Make "everyday" activities (e.g., creative practice) visible by applying a “special motive” to make them of “theoretic interest” (Garfinkel 1967, 37).

Documentary Method of Interpretation

Semiotic approach to activities: treats the actual appearance of an activity (arguably the signifier) as evidence “documenting” that activity’s underlying pattern (that which is signified).

Reflection

Retrospective, dependent upon memory ==> unfortunately fallible method

Often fails to offer insights into the cognitive processes of creation

*Clearly defined research question

*In situ observations & logs supplemented with

media specific analysis

Foundations of the Cognitive Model

(The blog post is online here:

http://lyleskains.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/art.html )

Cognitive Process Model

Geneplore Model

I wrote about it on my research blog, hashing out my thoughts on the process...

My implicitly collaborative image.

Serendipity

Systems Model of Creativity

So, instead of being able to use this image, I used it for inspiration (and not a little tracing), using its basic structure to create my clickable map.

Conduct Empirical Research

Csikszentmihalyi 1996

Long-term Memory:

Prose writing; increasing technical (HTML, Javascript), critical (e-lit), & contextual (digital works) knowledge.

Domain

Field

Person

The convergence of the knowledge and experience to make the mental connection and to recognize the significance of that connection, with the skills necessary to exploit the connection and produce a worthwhile outcome or artifact (Makri & Blandford 2012a, b).

Planning (all):

Story outline, how to build the site, seeking images online for inspiration.*

Translating (all):

Writing the story, building the site, constructing images, recording voiceover, seeking out music.

Reviewing (all):

Evaluating and revising the text-produced-so-far.

Monitoring:

Contextualizing work, practice, self within actual world, progress, etc.

In my image search, I found this image, which was highly inspirational, just the sort of thing I wanted to use (but could never produce my non-artistic self) - but it was the dreaded "All Rights Reserved."

*Serendipity:

Enters during the overlap between Planning and Monitoring.

Practice-related research

Ethnomethodology

Cognitive approach to creativity

Media-specific analysis

Overview of Method

Planning: clickable "fantasy" map

Given that I have no visual artistic skills whatsoever, I planned to collage together a clickable fantasy map, similar to the one pictured, using Adobe Photoshop Brushpacks of map icons from deviantart.com.

Importantly, unlike flickr.com or Google Image Search, deviantart.com has

no Creative Commons filter. So in searching for inspiration maps, I was seeing ALL images, including those I usually excluded, as they were not labeled for reuse or derivatives.

Practice-related research

Ethnomethodology

Cognitive approach to creativity

Media-specific analysis

Overview of Method

Practitioner Model of Creative Cognition

Long-term Memory, Planning (all),

Translating (all), Reviewing (all),

Monitoring, Serendipity

(Continue) Contextual Research

Domain & Field

remain the same.

Long-term Memory

continuing to incorporate

knowledge gained from reading e-lit, reviewing critical literature, engaging in the practice.

Planning (Generative)

is adjusting planned

story/site to new ideas, revisions.

Serendipity

entering into the project in the form of

external stimuli.

Link to this presentation:

Media Specific Analysis

Hayles 2002

grounded in relevant critical theory

Post-textual analysis

Semiotic analysis

Visual grammar

Structural analysis

Source code analysis

Literary theory

Navigation

Narratology

Interactivity

http://tinyurl.com/PBRmethod2016

...calling for further Contextual Readings and Critical Research

assemblage

palimpsest

appropriation

remix

Appropriation in art & writing

compound mediation

c

o

l

Kenneth Goldsmith

Mark Amerika

f

o

u

d

a

r

t

a

g

citation

surf-sample-manipulate

Henry Jenkins

Johnson-Eilola, et al.

e

"The great thing about the Net is that if you see something you like, whether that be 'content' or 'source code,' many times you can just download the entire document and manipulate it according to your anti-aesthetic needs" (Amerika 1997, n.p.).

playgiarism

uncreative writing

"Uncreative writing" has "as many decisions, moral quandaries, linguistic preferences, and philosophical dilemmas as there are in an original or collaged work" (Goldsmith 2011, 119).

Process of Composition

http://labs.dreamingmethods.com/changed/beta/

Collaboration: Economies & Ethics

Creative Commons

Andrew Currah

Image use, code borrowing...

Sinnreich, et al.

GNU

Revisit Research Problem

Revisit Research Question

(Again...and again...and again...)

Overall Rhetorical Problem remains unchanged:

How does transitioning from a prose writing practice to a digital writing practice affect the writer, the practice, and the narrative itself?

But as a result of Serendipity and Reviewing (evaluation), new "sub-" research questions emerged:

How does appropriation affect narrative composition (process and narrative)?

Do effects vary according to material (e.g., image vs code)?

When does appropriation become (implicit) collaboration? Who 'owns' it in what proportions?

Rhetorical Problem, Reviewing

(evaluation), Serendipity

Lyle Skains

School of Creative Studies & Media

@lskains | r.l.skains@bangor.ac.uk

Paper or Monograph

Introduction

• My argument (stated conclusion)
• Context (background, state of the art)
• Purpose (why did I do this research?)

Methodology

• How did I do the research?
• Models for practice-based research
• Models for creative practice
• Models for critical theory
• Why was this method appropriate?

Analysis

• Results of the research
• Analysis of my creative practice (process &/or artefact)
• Comparative analysis of contextual research

Discussion

Conclusion

• Practical & theoretical implications of my analysis
• Practical & theoretical significance of the findings
• Direction/questions for future research

Form Argument/Discussion

Form Argument

Working in multiple modes, particularly with easily transferable digital resources, can lead to an artistic practice of implicit collaboration.

Domain, Field, Long-term Memory,

Planning (all), Reviewing -Evaluation,

Serendipity

This implicit collaboration, shown to be widespread in internet gift economies, has significant implications for questions of authorship, ethics, and commercial economies.

@lskains

http://tinyurl.com/PBRmethod2016

Thank you!

References

Candy, L. and Studios, C., 2006. Practice Based Research: A Guide. Sydney: Creativity & Cognition Studios.

Csikszentmihalyi, M., 1996. Where Is Creativity? In: Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, 1st ed. New York: HarperCollins, pp.23–50.

Finke, R.A., 1996. Imagery, Creativity, and Emergent Structure. Consciousness and Cognition, [online] 5(3), pp.381–93. Available at: <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8906409>

Flower, L. and Hayes, J.R., 1981. A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing. College Composition and Communication, 32(4), pp.365–387.

Flower, L. and Hayes, J.R., 1984. Images, Plans, and Prose: The Representation of Meaning in Writing. Written Communication, [online] 1(1), pp.120–160. Available at: <http://wcx.sagepub.com/cgi/doi/10.1177/0741088384001001006>

Garfinkel, H., 1967. Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Hayles, N.K., 2002. Writing Machines. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Makri, S. and Blandford, A., 2012a. Coming Across Information Serendipitously : Part 1 – A Process Model [Open Access Version]. Journal of Documentation, [online] 68(5), pp.684–705. Available at: <http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1309396/1/1309396_Makri & Blandford - Coming Across Information Serendipitously (Part 1).pdf>

Makri, S. and Blandford, A., 2012b. Coming Across Information Serendipitously : Part 2 - A Classification Framework [Open Access Version]. Journal of Documentation, [online] 68(5), pp.706–724. Available at: <http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1341009/1/1341009_Makri & Blandford - Coming Across Information Serendipitously (Part 2).pdf>

Sullivan, G., 2009. Making Space: The Purpose and Place of Practice-Led Research. In: H. Smith and R.T. Dean, eds., Practice-led Research, Research-led Practice in the Creative Arts. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp.41–65.

Practice-Based Creative Research Method

Establish Research Problem

Conduct Background

Research

Background Research

Domain:

Creative Writing, Literature, Literary Studies, Electronic Literature, Media Studies

Field:

Writers, Critics, Scholars, Examiners***

Long-term Memory:

Prose writer. Some early '90s experience with HTML. No exposure to e-lit. Not a gamer.

Planning (Exploration):

Engage in the Practice

Chapter in a larger work. Themes of exploration, being lost, seeking a savior, adventure. Drawing on The Wizard of Oz.

Write, read, review.

Contextual Readings/Analysis

Reviewed hyperfiction written in Javascript & HTML from Andy Campbell, Alan Bigelow, others. Reviewed websites that made use of Javascript for functionality.

Viewed source code.

Critical Readings

Broad readings at this stage:

• Scholars in e-lit theory (Hayles, Ryan, Landow, Moulthrop, Bolter, Ensslin)
• Practitioners & practice-based researchers in e-lit (Weight, Amerika, Sondheim)

Revisit Research Problem

Write Exegesis

Form Argument/

Discussion