‘In six weeks we write ourselves,
with interview, analysis and poetry,
story the silence.
It is like sand through a microscope.
Each lived experience,
a slither of cerith,
a paring of periwinkle.
No longer lost in beige drifts,
we hold piece by piece up to the light,
sift rainbows through fingers.
We are conchologists,
collecting cantles of discrimination,
a poetic inquiry
to splinter the softness of sands.’
This poem describes the development of an arts-based research (ABR) method, in which academics collaborate with poets to produce engaging, creative texts, underpinned by social scientific research and theory. The pilot study within which this ‘collaborative poetics’ method was developed was funded by the NCRM International Visitor Exchange Scheme and by the University of Brighton. This funding enabled me to spend two months working with the facilities and staff at the University of McGill’s Participatory Cultures Lab. Here, I consider both the method and pilot, arguing that collaborative ABR has much to offer researchers, participants and audiences.
ABR describes a spectrum of approaches that use the arts for data collection, analysis and/or dissemination. Much of the work in this area is transformative in some way, seeking to push the boundaries of social scientific knowledge and methods. Recent years have seen growing interest in such work. There is increasing awareness of the potential it has to highlight new narratives, voices and agendas, and to connect with new audiences. ABR also answers to the ‘impact’ agenda in higher education, offering both texts and ways of working which are accessible/meaningful to the vast majority of the population who reside outside of academia’s ivory towers.
There are many ways of conducting ABR. Approaches like (evocative) autoethnography, for example, use creative writing to elucidate researchers’ experiences, making links between these and broader social contexts/issues. This relies on the introspective, academic and artistic abilities of researchers to create persuasive, informative accounts. Other methods separate scholarly and artistic processes, recruiting artists to creatively render research outputs in visual art, film or other media. Approaches in which academics collaborate with artists remain under-developed. Yet, truly collaborative ABR is full of transformative and communicative potential, utilising the specialist skills and knowledge of artists (rather than relying on researchers to possess these), and providing an opportunity for dialogue between (and thus development) of these disciplines. In ‘collaborative poetics,’ collaboration is both with poets and with ‘participants’ whose stories are being researched/narrated. Collaborative research in this latter sense has a long tradition, aimed at dissolving power inequalities between researcher and researched, and at pursuing research which is meaningful, empowering and impactful for the communities within which it is embedded. Such collaboration also has the potential to enrich methods like autoethnography by broadening the lens from individual to multiple subjectivities (and inter-subjectivitities).
The ‘collaborative poetics’ pilot was carried out with a ‘research collective’ comprising myself and seven young spoken word poets. Over six intense weeks, we pooled our diverse expertise to explore and elucidate our lived experiences of discrimination. We honed our skills and knowledge in (critical and mainstream) psychological theories of discrimination, social scientific research methods, creative writing and spoken word performance. We analysed texts on discrimination, designed, conducted and analysed interviews with each other, wrote poetry individually and in groups, shared our experiences and emerging writing, and edited our work together. We also wrote and performed in a poetry show (‘The Struggle is Real’), and produced a chapbook (‘You Kind of Have to Listen to Me’).
Researching/writing creatively and collaboratively like this was a thought-provoking experience, which deepened and clarified our thinking. It made us want to stand up to discrimination more in the future, through our writing and our everyday interactions. It was also a surprisingly emotional experience for us and our audiences. ‘Collaborative poetics’ both exposed and empowered us. We demonstrated that collaborative ABR can have a very real impact on research(ed) communities, and on the disciplines involved. This work also challenges the status of academics as the sole creators of authoritative knowledge, however, interrogating established ideas and values around academic objectivity, distance and precision.
So, what does happen when a poet, a social scientist and a participant walk into a bar? Well, we found that they can silence that room or make it buzz with energetic debate, that they can use their combined voices, skills and knowledge to validate, empower and challenge, through stories which inform and entertain in equal measure. By working together, they can change the very nature of the mediums with which they work, and, in a myriad small ways (and some large), they can ultimately change the world.
Resources
1 ‘You Kind of Have to Listen to Me,’ poetry chapbook, available for £7 (plus postage and packaging) by emailing: h.f.johnson@brighton.ac.uk
2 Workshop on collaborative poetics, Thurs 13th April 13.30-17.00 at the University of Brighton (free): https://www.brighton.ac.uk/enterprise-and-partnerships/community-events/community-events-2017/poetic-autoethnographies-workshop-2.aspx
3 NCRMUK YouTube channel – “Poetic Autoethnographies” playlist
Further information
1 Helen Johnson: www.hgregory.co.uk
2 NCRM International Visitor Exchange Scheme: http://www.ncrm.ac.uk/research/IVES/
3 Participatory Cultures Lab:
https://participatorycultureslab.com/
4 The pilot study: https://www.mcgill.ca/ihdw/projects/poeticautoethnographies