Research Inquiry:Define/confirm your research inquiry along with 3-5 sub-questions (categories).
What problem, issue, or phenomenon do you want to explore through the final project?
How can I use art making and writing processes to examine my identity as a Muslim Syrian American?
What will be the sub-questions (categories) you want to explore for or discuss about this inquiry?
1. What can I discover/discuss about my identity through research: history, methodology, and contemporary artitsts/writers?
2. How can I express my findings through poetry?
3. How can I espress this through an art piece that relates to/emerges from the poetry piece?
4. How has examining/experimenting with both creative methods influenced the way that I think/approach art making, and respond to the question of identity?
How will you integrate your art concentration with your secondary field knowledge in the final project?
I will integrate my English and Ethnic Studies minors with my art practice, writing and making an art piece to delve deeper into examining my identity, and the ways that it can be expressed through different mediums. I will begin by doing research involving identity: history, contemporary experiences and models of expression from other artists/writers, and by looking into different aspects of my Muslim Syrian American identity. I will then write a poem based on my findings. I want to create an art piece inspired by the poem that I write, to examine the way that different methods affect my approach to identity expression.
Complete one reading (by your free choice) that you read for this research inquiry. The reading has to be one that you did not read for this course or post on your blog so far and can be selected from our optional readings.Please summarize at least three points from the reading and explain how can they help you approach and/or understand your research inquiry, concept, or methodology. The citation must be clearly notated in your blog post.
1. “It can also be argued that the process of making art and interpreting art adds to our understanding as new ideas are presented that help us see in new ways” (page 97).
I want to see how I can “see in new ways” by approaching the same idea of identity and expressing it in different ways through different approaches. By using different methodologies and through reflective self-analysis, I hope to dig deep into an aspect of my identity and make and interpret art that ads to understanding, and I hope that this exercise will help me see/approach my inquiry in new ways.
2. “Rather, it affirms that artistic thinking and mak- ing are cognitive processes… Furthermore, this asserts that the visual artist is not only adept at expression and commu- nication but also plays a crucial role in cultural critique, historical inquiry, and educational development” (page 97).
I want to examine how do different art forms communicate an idea differently, and how they work together and apart through analysis of process and the final work that emerges. I hope that my examination will reveal a cultural critique on identity and what it means to be Muslim-Syrian-American.
3. “In the Framework of Visual Arts Research, art prac- tice is the core around which inquiry unfolds. Research draws on knowledge and experience and uses structures of inquiry designed to increase the human capacity to intervene, interpret, and act upon issues and ideas that reveal new understand- ings” (page 102).
I want to discover new understandings through different modes of making and expressing identity. My research should draw on knowledge and experience that results in pieces that intervene, interpret that act on ideas/approaches. Through this process, new understandings will emerge.
4. “First, within the visual arts, a self-reflexive practice describes an inquiry process that is directed by personal interest and creative insight, yet it is informed by discipline knowledge and research expertise. This requires a transparent understanding of the field, which means that an individual can see through existing data, texts, and contexts so as to be open to alternative conceptions and imaginative options” (page 110).
I want my final inquiry to involve research expertise to help support my discoveries through different processes of identity expression. I hope that through looking at different sources, I can push myself to think of alternative conceptions/options that lead to new modes of expression and perspectives on identity of Syrian-Muslim-American minorities.
Citation:
Sullivan, G. “Art Practice as Research” in Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in Visual Arts pp. 95-120. New York, SAGE 2010.