Reflections on the 'North'

What is a ‘Northern’ Arts Based Research Methodology and is it useful to us as Artist Teachers who do not reside in the ‘North’?

A Northern’ Arts Based Research Methodology as outlined by Jokela (2008) when discussing his own artistic practice is concerned with “the relationship between the work that human being’s do and aesthetic experience” (p.9). It is developed in situ and is closely linked with the physical environment and the culture of the local people as well as the ways in which these interact together. This methodology uses traditional methods and materials to create artwork that grows from a collaborative understanding of the local culture. It fuses “traditional work amid the landscape rather than an external aesthetic approval of it. In this way [the] art stimulates, transmits and brings an awareness of the culture’s own way of looking at the landscape and experiencing it” (Jokela, 2008, p. 21). This way of working could be applied in many different localities and as such is not simply confined to the relative concept of ‘north’.

Although I do not agree with all of the fundamental principles underpinning what Jokela describes as “the new paradigm of art and the environment” (p. 9) and his dismissal of Kantian aesthetics, I think there a number of important principles within this paradigm that have relevance for the Artist Teacher.

In particular Jokela emphasises the importance of discovery and inquiry as the fundamental basis for arts practice. He describes trying to “discover the landscape from within, using all the senses that enable [him] to experience it” (p. 11). This discovery based methodology, where the process and the end are not known at the beginning and the materials and methods have not yet been explored, is very much in line with the Artist Teacher and A/r/tography principles of ‘living inquiry’ as research (Irwin and Springgay, 2008, p. xxix). This allows the research to evolve and lead itself rather than be directed by predefined aims or hypotheses, what Irwin and Springgay (2008) describe as an exegesis rather than a thesis (p. xxix).

Irwin, R. and Springgay, S., 2008. A/r/tography as Practice-Based Research. In: Springgay, S., Irwin, R., Leggo, C.,  and Gouzouasis, P. eds. 2008. Being with A/r/tography. Rotterdam: Sense. (pp. xix-xxxiii).

Jokela, T., 2008. A Wandering Landscape: Reflections on the Relationship between Art and the Northern Environment. In: Coutts, G., and Jokela, T. eds., 2008. Art, Community and Environment. Bristol: Intellect. Ch 1.