Both readings for this week appealed to my senses in emotional and intellectual capacity. I have recently experienced this with a lot of the readings, when I feel that every article/chapter adds to my existing collage of theories, each representing a puzzle piece that has been missing. Having found this new puzzle piece, I feel an incredible joy for placing it in the right spot (if there is such a thing) of a larger mosaic entitled something like “My Theoretical Frameworks/My Epistemology/My World View.”
I am going to pause in this reflection on the idea of heuristics and how both of the readings used the concept of heuristics to explain the need for arts based research. “In a sense, arts based research is a heuristic through which we deepen and make more complex our understanding of some aspects of the world,” wrote Barone and Eisner (2012) as they argued that each arts based research project aims to create a form that is evocative and compelling to the viewers and invites us to contemplate an issue (issues) introduced by the research project (Barone and Eisner, 2012, p. 3). In the second piece, Eisner talked about the concept of generalizability as a heuristic, as he addressed both quantitative and qualitative research in education. “The generalizations derived from qualitative case studies are essentially heuristic devices intended to sharpen perception so that our patterns of seeking and seeing are more acute. We don’t use the generalizations drawn from the specific case to draw conclusions about other situations but, rather, we use them to search those situations more efficiently” (Eisner 2001, p. 141). I have been intrigued by the idea of using heuristics as a tool, or as Eisner puts it “a heuristic device”, in conducting research and creating opportunities for reflection and transformation, and it is interesting, although not surprising, to see that in arts based research the projects can be used as a heuristic to do the investigative and exploratory work.
My final thought is also based on the reading, where Barone and Eisner (2012) quoted Gombrich who said: “Painting is an activity and the artist will therefore tend to see what he paints rather than paint what he sees,” which makes me realize that as I create my collage of theories, I will inevitably see the puzzle pieces that fit into my epistemology. As I go on this journey of creating an art based research project, the process of creation will be based on seeing what I create, as I learn from my creation what it is that I am actually seeing.
