ASSESSING YOUR ARTS BASED RESEARCH:

Thoughts for the Post-Production Stage

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Questions? Terri.senft@nyu.edu

In the third chapter of your arts-based research project process documents, you must

first be able to evaluate the degree to which your project was incisive, concise, complex

and generative for others. To do this, please answer the following questions with as

much detail as possible.

QUESTIONS RE INCISIVENESS

According to Barone & Eisner, creative research needs to be concise. For them, a piece

of concise research almost curatorial in the way it creates a kind of intelligent

discrimination about the questions the researcher would raise in the minds of the

audience about the social phenomena being researched. (150). Last Fall, we practiced

concision at the proposal writing stage, by explicitly articulating three themes we wanted

to explore in our work. It is now to time to practice concision at the methodological level

by asking: do you believe the creative methods you propose help your audience focus

on your themes?

a. If Yes, how?

b. If no, what could be refined?

QUESTIONS RE. INCISIVENESS

 1. Incisiveness is another important feature of creativity as research. For to Barone

and Eisner, a researchers incisiveness is what allows an audience or reader to

cut to the core of an issue. (2014:1).

a. Do you feel as though your creative methods can be used to cut

to the core of your research questions clearly and decisively?

b. If so, can you explain more, by way of example or observation?

c. What do you think of the possibility the creative form/method

will overshadow the research itself?

d. How might you build in some safeguards upstream to help with

that (e.g. pre-screenings for argument clarity, etc.)

QUESTIONS ABOUT COMPLEXITY

1. Barone & Eisner maintain that creatvity as research is less about providing definitive

answers, and more about the researchers desire to complicate, expand on, or bring new

perspective to the phenomena at hand. (2014:14).

a. In what way could your creative method help expand on or complicate

the phenomena at hand (i.e. your topic and/or your research

question), especially if you had the attention of your desired target

audience?

b. In what way could your creative method bring new perspective to the

phenomenon at hand, especially if you had the attention of your

desired target audience?

QUESTIONS ABOUT GENERATIVITY

1. A third element of creative research is that it be generative in some way; that it

the enables one to see or act upon phenomena even though it represents a kind
 of case study with an n of only 1. (Barone & Eisner152). The concept of

generativity is especially important to consider in creative nonfiction, poetry, film,

and theatrical works.

A. How do you think your methods might help audiences relate their own

experiences with people or places you explore in your work?

B. How do you feel that your methods might be generative to your

audience, allowing them to reshape their conception of some aspect

of the world that they may not have considered before in this way?