Seeking theory-practice relations between humanities and fine-arts through practice of painting

Abstract

In recent years different art and design institutions around the world are increasingly looking at developing programs that are research intensive. Along with this trend, doctoral programs that are art and design practice based are becoming progressively common. There are several debates around the nature and significance of art and design practice as research (Sullivan 2005 Borgdorff, 2010, Eriksson 2010). Many have doubts about the exact nature of knowledge contribution made by these PhD theses. One distinct aspect common to all these programs is that these consider creation of art or design artefacts a part of the research process. This paper will discuss some theoretical view-points and philosophical speculations such as discourse on material of art, performance embodiment, cultural-scientific knowledge behind creation of artefact. The aim is to show that the process oriented and performative aspects of art-practice can come into a meaningful dialogue with traditional humanities. In the present article the author/artist has drawn from the writings of art-historian James Elkins (2000) and philosopher Merleau-Ponty (1964,1993,2008) to analyze her own work and devise a methodology of artistic research. The proposed methodology consists of two theoretical lens that are used to contextualize artist’s work: phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty 1964, 1993, 2008) and elements of auto-ethnography (Alvesson 2003). Thus, this paper develops a methodology that contextualizes artist’s intensely personal process of creation and critically evaluate this process. The result is a methodology of artistic research that can be a bridge between creative performance and critical research.