Art-based research as a pedagogical approach to studying intersubjectivity in the creative arts therapies

Abstract

art-based research as a pedagogical approach to studying intersubjectivity in the creative arts therapies abstractAn art-based pedagogical research approach was used by a group of students and faculty who embarked upon a twelve-month process of artistic enquiry to explore the phenomenon of intersubjectivity as it emerged within a simulated creative arts therapies (CATs) context. The challenges we identified and faced soon became opportunities and phenomena central to representing our experience, as well as representing an emergent model for art-based research and CATs. Transition, transference, transcendence, transformation and translation are the phenomena we identified that described the dynamic and dialectic experiences of intersubjective artistic enquiry. We conclude that this emerging art-based pedagogical research model is essential not only to systematic enquiry in the CATs, but also in all forms of human self-/other exploration and meaning-making.We started with nothing. We started in nothingness. We started with big questions and expectations within us and big spaces between us. Our internal and Nancy Gerber | Elizabeth Templeton | Gioia Chilton … 40 interpersonal spaces were mirrored by a room with no windows, a multicoloured linoleum floor, and six people essentially unknown to one another. The external starkness of the room was particularly stunning as it reflected our own interiority. The environmental emptiness cleared away all distraction and we were faced with the stark reality of ourselves. Our silent questions and cautious anticipation seemed to whitewash our minds as if to annihilate our fears. All we had was ourselves, our histories, our hands, our feet, our bodies, our eyes and ears, movements, our pictures and our aspirations. How were we to learn about ourselves and others through creating artistic responses? There were some words on a syllabus that were supposed to tell us what to do and the instructors were making sounds about why we were here and how to proceed but we could not understand. Our anxiety made it difficult to swallow and digest the words and the sounds. We had no words except complaints about what was not there in the room -something was missing, what was missing? The room was like the blank page, the empty space, a creative desert. The anxieties, uncertainties and unfamiliarity momentarily froze our creative instincts. The inspiration had to come from within as stirred by the tensions from without. Questions sounded off in our minds like dissonant and rogue cymbals that drowned out the mumblings around us. How does this experience mimic our everyday lives -the dynamic interaction between internal and external -and how we understand ourselves defined by the environment and people around us. A wounded angel en pointe, a dance of peek-a-boo, a philosopher's house, a bound swan with her baby bird, and colourful squares emerged from the nothingness to tell our story of self and other. The first movement, the first sensation, the sound, and the first imprint on the paper began th...

Group Art Therapy, Aesthetic Experiences of Difference and Belonging

“…The participants' emphasis on the need to let go leading to feeling free in group art therapy may suggest feeling constricted in other areas of life. It could also refer to the experience of fully engaging with and enjoying the creative process in the form of transcendence (Gerber et al, 2012). "Pleasure and play" is theorised by Gabel & Robb (2017) to be a particular therapeutic factor in group art therapy, describing the sensory enjoyment of using and mastering art materials through play.…”

"Me and my students' smartphones in the classroom": A case study using arts-based methods

“…Η ανάγκη για χρήση πρακτικών της τέχνης ως μέσο αναζήτησης, αντίληψης και επικοινωνίας στο πλαίσιο μίας έρευνας, οδήγησε τους ερευνητές στη δημιουργία ενός νέου πεδίου, αυτού της «έρευνας βασισμένη στην τέχνη» (Leavy, 2017). Η μεθοδολογία αυτή βασίζεται σε μία επιστημολογία που αναγνωρίζει ότι η τέχνη είναι ικανή να επικοινωνήσει ιδιαίτερες όψεις ενός φαινομένου και να ευαισθητοποιήσει τους συμμετέχοντες (Leavy, 2015), ότι η χρήση της τέχνης είναι αναγκαία για την επίτευξη μίας καλύτερης προσωπικής αντίληψης και ενημερότητας, ότι μέσω της τέχνης χρησιμοποιούνται τεχνικές πέραν του προφορικού ή γραπτού λόγου, καθώς και ότι μέσα από την καλλιτεχνική έκφραση αξιοποιείται η αισθητηριακή, κιναισθητική και φαντασιακή νοημοσύνη του υποκειμένου (Gerber, 2012).…”

Arts-Based Research Approaches to Studying Mechanisms of Change in the Creative Arts Therapies

“…For the purposes of this paper transformation is defined as “…. a significant reconfiguration of perception and thought resulting in the lessening of psychic restraint and pain, allowing for the emergence of new psychological perspectives that contribute to living a more creative life” ( Gerber et al, 2012 , p. 45).…”

“…To implement our arts-based research study of the therapeutic and transformational phenomena in the creative arts therapies we developed a creative arts therapies laboratory in which a group of doctoral students and faculty simulated the creative arts therapies and studied the parallel individual and collective arts-based intersubjective processes. We created and used what we call an intrinsic arts-based research method ( Hagman, 2005 ; Levine, 2005 ; Gerber et al, 2012 ; Chilton et al, 2015 ; Gerber and Scotti, 2017 ). Within the intrinsic arts-based research approach, we used ourselves as participant/researchers to study arts-based relational phenomena as they emerge organically within the intersubjective context paralleling the creative arts therapies process.…”

“…For the purposes of this paper transformation is defined as “…. a significant reconfiguration of perception and thought resulting in the lessening of psychic restraint and pain, allowing for the emergence of new psychological perspectives that contribute to living a more creative life” ( Gerber et al, 2012 , p. 45). Through a deductive thematic analysis of written accounts of these simulated creative arts therapies experiences by participant/researchers in the laboratory we identified three primary dynamic and interactive broad constructs that together, with more specific modifying themes, might account for and describe change within the creative arts therapies.…”