Arts-based methods
Arts-based methods are powerful tools for uncovering important insights that re-imagine the possibility to create and circulate meaningful and important dialogue and discourse.
Arts-based methods
Marshall Campbell
Arts-based methods are research methods that rely on artistic expression or activities as a key part of the research process (Coemans et al., 2015). For research to be considered arts-based, art forms must be essential to the research process itself. This includes using art in the formulation of research questions, the generation and analysis of data, and the presentation of research results. Arts-based methods are most often employed as a data collection technique or a knowledge dissemination technique in qualitative research (Coemans et al., 2015).
There are a variety of artistic methods and ways of representation that can be used in research, including visual methods, narrative methods, and performative methods (Coemans et al., 2015). The diversity of artistic methods means that arts-based research is incredibly varied, which provides opportunities for research designs that include multiple forms of communication for participants. Arts-based methods have been shown to empower participants and facilitate better engagement with vulnerable populations (Merrill & Frigon, 2015; Carter & Ford, 2013). Furthermore, these methods have the ability to move beyond word-based data to other forms that may be equally compelling and effective. Arts-based methods can also be integrated alongside more traditional qualitative methods, such as interviews (Carter & Ford, 2013).
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(Photo credit to Wagener, 2020)
Arts-Based Practices in Women’s Prisons
Alison Parrell
Arts-based practises in carceral spaces will appear different depending on the incarcerated people's identities and needs (Dunbar Winsor & Sheppard, 2023; Frigon & Merrill, 2015). The implementation of arts-based methods in women`s prisons is often structured in ways for the women to regain a sense of control and self-worth due to the surveillance and dehumanizing nature of carceral spaces (Dunbar Winsor & Sheppard, 2023; Frigon & Merrill, 2015). Arts-based practices in prisons can often act to reduce isolation and solitary endeavours and provide socialization. Dance, for example, is unlike other rehabilitation or job-skill-based forms of training (Dunbar Winsor & Sheppard, 2023; Frigon & Merrill, 2015). Dance as an arts-based practice in carceral spaces gives women a sense of agency; the women who participated were able to choose whether or not to dance during the session (Dunbar Winsor & Sheppard, 2023). This form of activity in the carceral space gave the women a break from the daily motions and routines of the prison (Dunbar Winsor & Sheppard, 2023). Arts-based practices in carceral spaces can act as a space for the women to feel confident, as well as provide a space for women to feel beautiful and express themselves in sensual and free ways that are otherwise not permitted (Dunbar Winsor & Sheppard, 2023).
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(Photo credit to Franganillo, 2021)
Arts-Based Research Methods in Community Settings
Alison Parrell
Arts-based research methods involve different forms of arts playing a primary role in any or multiple steps of the research being conducted, whether it is in the form of performative methods (e.g., music, theatre, dance), narrative methods (e.g., novel writing, poetry), visual methods (e.g., painting, sculpture, textile art) (Coemans et al., 2015). These forms of art are used in the formulation of the research, such as determining the research question, as well as collecting and analyzing data and presenting the research results (Coemans et al., 2015). Arts-based research fills gaps that are found within traditional research, such as, qualitative and quantitative methods (Coemans et al., 2015). Unlike traditional research methods, arts-based methods have the potential to aid vulnerable people and address power relations (Coemans et al., 2015). Since arts-based methods allow for participants to play an active role in the research and act as co-researchers during the research process, this method has the capability to empower participants. In this method, they have more control, which increases the likelihood of accessing fundamental human emotions and feelings, such as power, fear loss, desire, hope, or suffering (Bryans et al., 2013; Coemans et al., 2015; Elliott et al., 2018). This, in turn, can facilitate community inclusion and foster critical reflection. It can also help people learn to shift from viewing private troubles as public issues and has the potential to mobilize community action and change (Coemans et al., 2015).
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(Photo credit to Jerry, 2020)
Imaginative/Performative Criminology
Emma Etheridge
Imaginative or performative criminology is an elevated and imaginative form of criminology, adapted through performance-based techniques that allow the framework to remain culturally relevant throughout social changes (Merrill & Frigon, 2015). It encourages a critical lens to challenge and engage with misconceptions. Specifically, it calls for a more nuanced approach to understanding incarcerated people’s agency and voice. Incarceration, especially for marginalized groups, means a loss of control of one’s body, emotions, and movements. Contrastingly, performance offers total ownership of oneself. This convergence of the artistic and carceral worlds allows new perceptions and connections surrounding the prison system to be made by performers and audience members. Prison populations are, by design of the carceral system, made invisible, so regardless of personal or social restraints, performative measures make them visible and empower them to take up space ( Merrill & Frigon, 2015). By centering those with lived experience, the discipline of criminology can be shaped and thus improved by those it aims to research. It is integral that an intersectional framework is applied to this work, as many of these individuals have also experienced intersecting oppressions prior to, or as a result of, their time incarcerated (Winsor Dunbar & Sheppard, 2023). Dominant narratives in mainstream culture often center men, both in prison and beyond. So, this elevation of cultural criminology elevates the experiences of women and other gender identities (Merrill & Frigon, 2015).
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(Photo credit to Rumee, 2020a)