Participatory Visual Methods in Research
In recent years there has been a significant rise within the social sciences of interest in visual research methods as well as participatory and collaborative practices. This builds on a long history of visual anthropology, and other methodologies, such as participatory action research which are gaining a stronger foot hold within contemporary researchers.
Although many projects that bring together collaborative art practices with collaborative documentary or ethnographic agendas sit outside of an explicit goal of research, increasingly research agendas are seeding new collaborative visual projects in the name of knowledge creation. The projects are generating visual and creative material as data, as well as research products which integrate these forms.
Last month in Leeds (UK) the 1st International Visual Methods Conference was held – with an unexpectedly large registration of over 250 people. I wasn’t there, though I would have liked to be (would love to hear from anyone who was… leave a comment…). The conference materials spell out some of the ways that participatory practices and creative and visual practices are being taken up in research contexts. Below are a couple of excerpts from the conference brochure outlining some conference themes – which reflect how contemporary research has an increasing interest in subject-generated knowledge and analysis, as well as recognising the potential of creative methods to make valuable the processes of research as much as the research outcomes….
Participatory Methods
The notion of participant generated data implies that those who have agreed to become involved in a study produce some or even all of the data. This shift towards more collaborative and participative modes of research, informed primarily by the critiques of hierarchical and expert driven systems of inquiry, is gaining momentum around the globe. A wide array of visual methods are used in participatory visual research including ‘Photovoice’, photo-elicitation’, ‘graphic-elicitation’, ‘mindmapping’, concept mapping’.
Arts-based and Creative Methods
Contemporary empirical researchers in the social sciences are increasingly adopting a flexible approach to methodology as researchers strive to answer more complex questions about society. New and imaginative visual methods are emerging in response. Some creative methods have a close affinity with photo and graphic elicitation but extend the participatory principle by emphasizing respondents’ ownership and agency through the act of creation. With creative methods, the process, activity and practice, is important as a way of enabling participants and researchers to communicate important emotions and experiences.
The whole conference program can be found by clicking here, and its worth a read to see the diversity of interests, projects and methods regarding the visual and participatory in research at the moment.
[...] on from thoughts about the 1st International Visual Methods Conference, here are some reflections on participatory visual [...]