FACULTY OF CREATIVE AND CRITICAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF CREATIVE STUDIES 2011 12 Winter Term 1

CREATIVE RESEARCH METHODS {3 credits} IGS 506B 001

Michael V. Smith, Arts 129 Office Hours: Wed 2pm-3pm, Thurs 4pm-5pm, other times by appointment Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes Creative Research Methods is designed to assist students in the development of their own creative research methodologies, approaches to praxis and examine the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary practice. This course will also give students an opportunity to unearth a direction or an origin point, further develop existing research questions and focus their creative practice as they move towards their thesis production. Assigned readings and exposure to a broad range of research projects by an interdisciplinary group of presenters will also be explored. The outcome of this process of inquiry will culminate in the public dissemination of individual projects in the IGS MFA Open House Week of events towards the end of term. Objectives: Facilitate and encourage practice-based research Develop personalized creative research methodologies as they pertain to a students individual projects Further reading and writing skills in support of research Begin the preliminary work for the written thesis document & creative production Course Format This course is designed to suit the needs of the graduates who take it. That being said, as with many things, the more we put into this course the more we get out of it. Suggestions are welcome. The format will evolve through any or all of the following: seminar presentations, writing assignments, readings, discussions, field trips, workshops, public presentations, and visiting creative practitioners. Students will also have an opportunity to present their research in class and provide and receive feedback. The instructor will also work with students individually and assist them according to their needs. There will be off-campus classes that all students will be expected to attend which may involve some significant (but within reason) travel time. Possible excursions include: Hardy Falls salmon run, Vernon Community Arts Centre, Big White, Woodhaven Park, Kalamalka Lake, Orchard Park Shopping Mall, Kelowna Art Gallery, Alternator Gallery, etc.

Course Requirements Some small course assignments will be given out during the semester. They are non-graded, to encourage you to explore, experiment and play without the spectre of assessment. Although they are not graded, the more you puzzle them, the more they stand to teach you. Below are the graded requirements for the course: Seminar: Students will lead a seminar on a topic of their choosing related to artistic creation and methodology in their field of interest, in consultation with the instructor. The goal is for you to select a topic related to your creative interests, which may inform, guide and inspire your own creative work. The seminar should both instruct the class on the topic selected as well as tie that work to your own creative and research goals. One week prior to the presentation, the student is to distribute 1 or 2 texts associated with the research topic as well as a handful of relevant questions for the class to consider. All students are to read/experience/watch the assigned texts and consider the questions posed in advance of the class, to be prepared for active discussion during or after the seminar. Students are encouraged to present the seminar off-campus, at an appropriate research-related site of their own choosing (within reason, and in consultation with the instructor and class, to suit whats possible). If two students are presenting on one day, perhaps they share a location? Students are expected to exercise and strengthen their library research skills in generating a bibliography of sources for their presentation. These presentations allow students to reflect upon their practice in an environment that promotes contributing to the development of others in a spirit of reciprocal dialogue. A hardcopy of your presentation and an annotated bibliography should also be submitted to the instructor and posted online (blog or WebCT). Practice-based Research Project: Students will undertake a research project that speaks to the students interests in her/his field of study. Project ideas are finalized in consultation with the instructor. Your project should explore your primary creative area/s of interest. This project is designed to be a starting place for your creative thesis production. Consider this project the first rudimentary draft, or a mini-trial, of your thesis. Try to use this project to isolate your creative research question. The Practicebased Research Project is due in the final week of classesNovember 28th to December 2nd 2011. Process-and-Practice Blog: The blog is a receptacle for the semesters work. Journaling your experience in the course, cataloguing or documenting your creative work, responses to seminars, further thoughts on class discussions, research spawned by the course, further ideas, cross-discussions amongst class

members, links to other relevant sites, updates and background to course material are all encouraged. Although the blog web addresses are meant to be shared with your classmates, the web address neednt be shared more publiclythats at your discretion. The goal is to create a network think-tank, to last for the duration of this course and perhaps beyond. A substantial portion of the blog should concern the method and process of creating and researching your course work (most notably the Practice-based Research Project). A focus on research and reflection, methods and approaches, ideas and readings is key to the success of this blog, and the course. Open House Week Presentation: During the week of November 14th 18th 2011, students will present their work to the public in the FINA Gallery. The gallery is reserved for this presentation alone, meaning students have a green light to make of the gallery what they will. Students must work together, in consultation with the instructor, to share the space equitably. The quality of the work and the means of presentation are both a factor in the success of this presentation. Given that this is a public presentation of your work, the obvious choice is to have your final Practice-based Research Project complete, or nearly complete, by this date to present in the Gallery. This could be a test-run for the project, with feedback from your audience that you can then use in the remaining two weeks to help improve the project with final touches/edits. Evaluation Criteria and Grading Seminar: 20% (grade determined by class & professor: 50/50) Practice-based Research Project: 30% (grade determined by the student & professor 50/50) Process-and-Practice Public Blog: 20% (featuring your methodology & documentation of the Research Project) Open House Week Presentation: 30% (grade determined equally by the student, class & professor; Nov 14-18th in the FINA Gallery) Required Readings Being a course with students working across many disciplines, there is no textbook for this course. Readings will be posted on WebCT Vista, will be placed on reserve in the library, and/or will be otherwise assigned. Further Readings In the past, the two textbooks below have been used for this course. There is a full bibliography at the end of this course outline with other great books listed. Leavy, Patricia. Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research Practice. New York: The Guilford Press, 2009. Print Sullivan, Graeme. Art Practice As Research: Inquiry in Visual Arts. 2nd ed. California: Sage Publications, 2009. Print.

Course Schedule Much of the course will be determined by student interests and the conversations that build once we are together. The goal of the course is to create a think-tank or hive mind, to share and broaden what you already know. We will determine much of the course activities in the first weeks, based on your getting-to-know-us forms and class interests. Sept 7, Welcome; course outlines; meet n greet; Pinecones w/ obstructions Sept 14, Read John Deweys Art As Experience chapters 1 and 2: The Live Creature and The Live Creature and Etherial Things; Pinecones presentations. Sept 21, Swap presentations; readings forthcoming. Sept 28, Experiential mind trip road trip? Oct 5, Seminar 1 & 2 Oct 12, Seminar 3 & 4 Oct 19, Seminar 5 & 6 Oct 26, Seminar 7 & 8 Nov 2, Seminar 9 & 10 Nov 9, Experiential mind trip road trip? Nov 14 - 18, Grad Student Open House Week in Fina Gallery Nov 23, Open House Decompression Chamber; Experiential mind trip road trip? Nov 30, Open Class Academic Integrity The academic enterprise is founded on honesty, civility, and integrity. As members of this enterprise, all students are expected to know, understand, and follow the codes of conduct regarding academic integrity. At the most basic level, this means submitting only original work done by you and acknowledging all sources of information or ideas and attributing them to others as required. This also means you should not cheat, copy, or mislead others about what is your work. Violations of academic integrity (i.e., misconduct) lead to the breakdown of the academic enterprise, and therefore serious consequences arise and harsh sanctions are imposed. For example, incidences of plagiarism or cheating may result in a mark of zero on the assignment or exam and more serious consequences may apply if the matter is referred to the Presidents Advisory Committee on Student Discipline. Careful records are kept in order to monitor and prevent recurrences. A more detailed description of academic integrity, including the Universitys policies and procedures, may be found in the Academic Calendar at http://okanagan.students.ubc.ca/calendar/index.cfm?tree=3,54,111,0.

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Safewalk at 250-807-8076. For more information, see: http://www.ubc.ca/okanagan/students/campuslife/safewalk.html Bibliography / Further Reading Bakhtin, Mikhail. The Dialogical Imagination: Four Essays. Austin: University Texas Press, 1981. Print Bolton, Gillie. Reflective Practice: Writing & Professional Development. 2nd ed. London: Sage Publications, 2005. Print Carter, Paul. Material Thinking: The Theory and Practice of Creative Research. Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press, 2004. Print de Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life (S. Rendall, Trans.). Berkely & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1984. Print Conquergood, Dwight. Interventions and Radical Research. The Drama Review. (2002): 145156. JSTOR Arts and Sciences III Collection. Web. Summer 2002. Denzin, N.K. Performance Ethnography, Critical Pedagogy and the Politics of Culture. Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications, 2003. Print Elkins, James. Artists with PhDs: On The New Doctoral Degree in Studio Art. Washington: New Academia Publishing, 2009. Print Goulish, Matthew. 39 Microlectures, in Proximity of Performance. New York: Routledge, 2000. Print. Kester, Grant H. Conversation Pieces: Community & Communication in Modern Art. Berkely & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004. Print Jones, Caroline, ed. Sensorium: Embodied Experience, Technology and Contemporary Art. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2006. Print Leavy, Patricia. Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research Practice. New York: The Guilford Press, 2009. Print London, Peter. No More Secondhand Art: Awakening the Artist Within. Boston: Shambhala,1989. Print McLean, Cheryl, ed. Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice: Inquiries for Hope and Change. Calgary: Detselig Temeron Press, 2010. Print Macleod, Katy and Holdridge, Lin, eds. Thinking Through Art: Reflections On Art As Research. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception (C. Smith, Trans.). London: Routledge & Paul, 1962. Print Moure, Erin and Smaro Kamboureli. My Beloved Wager: essays from a writing practice. Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2009. Print Orland, Ted. View from the Studio Door: How Artists Find Their Way in an Uncertain World. Santa Cruz, CA: Image Continuum Press, Inc. 2006. Riley, Shannon and Hunter, Lynette, eds. Mapping Landscapes for Performance as Research: Scholarly Acts and Creative Cartographies. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire England:Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2010. Print Schon, Donald A. The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York: Basic Books, 1984. Print Sullivan, Graeme. Art Practice As Research: Inquiry in Visual Arts. 2nd ed. California: Sage

Publications, 2009. Print Knowles, Gary J. and Cole, Ardra L, eds. Handbook of the Arts in Qualitative Research: Perspectives, Methodologies, Examples, and Issues. Sage Publications, 2007. Print Documents of Contemporary Art series Beech, Dave, ed. Beauty: Documents of Contemporary Art. Cambridge/London: MIT Press/Whitechapel, 2009. Print Bishop, Claire, ed. Participation: Documents of Contemporary Art. Cambridge/London: MIT Press/ Whitechapel Gallery. 2006. Print Campany, David, ed. The Cinematic: Documents of Contemporary Art. Cambridge/London: MIT Press/Whitechapel, 2007. Print Coles, Alex, ed. Design and Art: Documents of Contemporary Art. Cambridge/London: MIT Press/ Whitechapel, 2007. Print Doherty, Claire, ed. Situation: Documents of Contemporary Art. Cambridge/London: MIT Press/ Whitechapel, 2009. Print Evans, David, ed. Appropriation: Documents of Contemporary Art. Cambridge/London: MIT Press/ Whitechapel, 2009. Print Higgie, Jennifer, ed. The Artists Joke: Documents of Contemporary Art. Cambridge/London: MIT Press/Whitechapel, 2007. Print Iversen, Margaret, ed. Chance: Documents of Contemporary Art. Cambridge/London: MIT Press/ Whitechapel, 2010. Print Johnstone, Stephen, ed. The Everyday: Documents of Contemporary Art. Cambridge/London: MIT Press/Whitechapel. 2008. Print Merewether, Charles, ed. The Archive: Documents of Contemporary Art. Cambridge/London: MIT Press/Whitechapel, 2006. Print Noble, Richard, ed. Utopias: Documents of Contemporary Art. Cambridge/London: MIT Press/ Whitechapel, 2009. Print Williams, Gilda, ed. The Gothic: Documents of Contemporary Art. Cambridge/London: MIT Press/ Whitechapel, 2007. Print Participation / Social Practices Eco, Umberto. The Poetics of the Open Work. Participation: Documents of Contemporary Art. Ed. Bishop, Claire. Cambridge/London: MIT Press / Whitechapel Gallery, 2006. 20-40. Print Barthes, Roland. Death of the Author. Participation: Documents of Contemporary Art. Ed. Bishop, Claire. Cambridge/London: MIT Press / Whitechapel Gallery, 2006. 41-45. Print Bishop, Claire. Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics. October. (2004): 51-80. Academic Search Complete. Web. Fall 2004. Bourriaud, Nicolas. Relational Aesthetics. Participation: Documents of Contemporary Art. Ed. Bishop, Claire. Cambridge/London: MIT Press / Whitechapel Gallery, 2006. 160-171. Print Bourriaud, Nicolas. Relational Aesthetics. Dijon: Les Presse Du Rel, 1998. Print Goldenberg, David, and Patricia Reed. What is Participatory Practice? Fillip 8 3.2 (Fall 2008): 4-5. Print. Purves, Ted. What We Want Is Free: Generosity And Exchange in Recent Art, New York: State University of New York Press, 2004. Print

Site-Specificity Kwon, Miwon. One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2002. Print Suderburg, Erika, ed. Space, Site, Intervention: Situating Installation Art. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2000. Print Lacy, Suzanne. Mapping the Terrain: New Genre Public Art. Seattle: Bay Press, 1995. Print Lippard, Lucy R. The Lure of the Local: Sense of Place in a Multicentered Society. New York: The New Press, 1997. Print The Archive Enwezor, Okwui. Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art. New York / Gttingen: International Center for Photography / Steidl Publishers, 2008. Print Foster, Hal. An Archival Impulse. October. (2004): 3-22. Academic Search Complete. Web. Fall 2004. Godfrey, Mark. The Artist As Historian. October. (2007): 140-172. Academic Search Complete. Web. Spring 2007. Schaffner, Ingrid, and Winzen, Matthias, eds. Deep Storage: Collecting, Storing, and Archiving in Art. Munich: Prestel Verlag, 1998. Print Websites Literature Searches: Google Scholar - Provides a search of scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including theses, books, abstracts and articles (Leavy) http://scholar.google.ca UBC VPN - excellent for print and electronic journals, academic articles, etc. Center For Research & Development http://artsresearch.brighton.ac.uk/links/practice-led *See Method Meets Art (Leavy) for several website recommendations