Signals and Signs

Abstract

My PhD explored the lives of seven women in professional golf and prior to this, like the women in my research, I had earned my living in the supposedly cutthroat world of professional sport. During my viva, I was asked why I thought I was competent to use poetry to present one participant’s story, given that I was a “golfer/academic,” not “a poet.” It is a question I continue to ponder given that I utilize a variety of arts-informed practices to understand, present, and perform research. In this performance piece my aim was to explore song writing, and in particular, some of the steps along my own journey to writing songs. One aim was to demystify the process as others have done with poetry and thereby make this type of journey and the creative process more visible. A further aim is that by sharing the performance and reflections with a wider audience it will contribute to the ongoing dialogue with arts-informed and performative researchers regarding the way these genres may offer valuable or even unique ways of understanding the social world.