"The Context for living and working is not going to become less complex just because you would prefer simplicity.
Yes, you have to learn to deal with it and thrive in the understanding."
Y. Dubel
what is Art Based research?
Definitions:
1.
“What is arts-based research” As soon as we ask this question, we have stepped outside the realm of research itself. The question,“What is it?”, is fundamentally a philosophical question, as Socrates showed...
“Art-based research” may be a contradiction in terms, but, as Jacques Derrida might say,“Vive la differance!” This kind of research takes place in the liminal space of the imagination in which contradictions can co-exist. The poet John Keats once said that an artist needs the “negative capabilit” of being able to live with uncertainty and contradiction without irritably searching for reasons. In trying to understand the essence of art-based research, let us use our negative capability of being open not only to scientific cognition but also to artistic imagination. The result may not only produce a new vision of research but a new conception of our lives as well.
* A revised version of "Researching Imagination : Imagining Research," originally published in POIESIS: A Journal of the Arts and Communication, Volume 2, 2000.
Stephen K. Levine, Ph.D., D.S.Sc., REAT, is Professor of Social Science at York University (Toronto), Co-Director of ISIS-Canada, and Dean of the Doctoral Program in Expressive Arts: Therapy, Education, Consulting at the European Graduate School (Switzerland). He is the author of Poiesis: The Language of Psychology and the Speech of the Arts and other works, and the Editor of the journal, POIESIS: A Journal of the Arts and Communication.
2.
"Art-based research can be defined as the systematic use of the artistic process, the actual making of artistic expressions in all of the differentforms of the arts, as a primary way of understanding and examining experience by both researchers and the people that they involve in theirstudies...
Artistic inquiry, whether it is within the context of research or an individual person’s creative expression, typically starts with the realization that you cannot define the final outcome when you are plannng to do the work. As contrasted to scientific methods, you generally know little about the end of an artistic experiment when you are at the beginning."
Source: Handbook of the arts in qualitative research: perspectives, methodologies, examples, and issues Shaun McNiff "Art Based Research" pg. 29 ; Editors, J. Gary Knowles, Ardra L. Cole Edition illustrated, Publisher: SAGE, 2008
Exploring Art Based methodologies for application to advance/refine work developing new models for change management adapted for communities rather than internal organizational process. Advancing Public Research and community change management infrastructure with Art:Work that is both private and public.
Background
When I started my questions were confined by the silos I had to operate within while doing community development. If you asked what I did I would have told you I developed community based programs for crime, domestic violence, child/elder abuse intervention/prevention, inclusive economic development as a poverty reduction solution, social responsibility programs, CRM Strategy and social entrepreneurship as mental health intervention/prevention strategy.
Because the idea of doing this as part of an art series seemed too challenging for people to understand, so I tried to reduce the collaborative components to expressive therapy and public benefits to corporate social responsibility.
It didn't work out so great, but I learned a lot.
Stifled creatively and disappointed by the politics of community work -seeing more clearly the role it all played in the bigger scheme of things became increasingly hard to see and not act more directly.
That's when I began to seriously explore the value of the work to enrich private-public partnership, as well as organizational-community-individual development. One day in a dialogue with Humanity:Ronald Wopereis (co-founder) the question "what can i do?" emerged.
You see, one aspect of community development that I loved was program and strategy development. It became clear that managing projects others regarded as complicated was easy for me because it was natural for me to keep an eye on the Big Picture of things.
That’s what I do naturally as a Source:Artist. It was quite natural for me to identify where private and public needs converged and to develop sustainability programs around them. The breakthrough came when I decided to see my consulting projects as performance art. It change the kind of projects I was willing to take on. Leveraging resources between organizations and partners became creative collaboration to meet project specific needs. By learning about the needs and criteria for success for all stakeholders, I had the chance to test new ideas about how the work could be done more efficiently and get better results.
Minimizing the risks of trying something new
Now although you may not have heard of an Arts Based approach before, it is based on work in Art Based research. This kind of research has been used in community development for years, it just is not widely known or discussed outside artist researcher circles...which tend to be primarily academic and relatively closed groups. Likewise, the other areas of national aid and interdisciplinary research that has been referenced previously in this blog has emerged under similar conditions.
The problem is that most people are only aware of cutting edge insights after they have trickled down into policies that they either help or hinder them. And reading the numerous papers being released by various organizations is a bit much for most of you as you are already drowning in information that you may struggle to assimilate into anything meaningful.
These are a couple of the challenges my Art Based approach helps to address - you learn more about this in the Free Course. Since businesses are the key to economic and planetary recovery, it is no small thing for them to be brought more fully into circles of deep innovation. I want to make sure that small and mid-sized businesses are not left out.
Value
I suggest that What Cultural Fusion does is use art to make complexity or conflict manageable and solutions likely.
Here are some Results you can expect from taking the next step with me:
1. See more clearly how to be the change you want to see in the world 2. Clarify or Redefine how your larger personal vision supports your brand marketing and operations 3. Increase value of your brand by discovering dormant potential 4. Increase your awareness to create more value with social responsibility 5. Success that comes with growth including more free attention and time 6. Create a holistic flexible solution strategy for your business or organization 7. Increase opportunities to make innovation profitable and minimize the risks
I welcome the opportunity to explore how I can help you!
Apply to be a Sponsor:Partners
This role is defined intentionally in this specific collaboration context. It is being used to develop a new model of the Social Impact Bonds developed in the UK that I wrote about in my Community Change Management blog. However, from another perspective, one could simply call this the role a type of Client or Customer.
Especially interested in Sponsors from the ethical beauty and fashion industry, philanthrophic and legacy experts, personal development specialists (personal coaches, etc.) and product producers, as well as those involved in food services, hospitality, agriculture and sustainable building.
One of the biggest questions it will answer is how this is different from your typical art sponsorship, why Attention Quality is important if brand longevity matters to you. If you'd be interested there's a link at the end of this quote to join the group where I will share it first.
If you have any questions or interesting thoughts - I'd love to hear from you.
Here's a bit of what I was writing today:
"At the end of your life, who will remember your business brand?
When you pause to imagine a future where archeologists are searching through artifacts from the decade ahead, do they find anything about you or your brand?
What is the legacy that you are creating with the work to which most of your time and attention is devoted?
These are the kind of questions that inspired me as an artist, to do this work. But for many years as a community development and enterprise consultant I was unhappy with the way my passion, my values and my business goals had fallen out of alignment.
Like many of you I felt called to use my work to do more. Something that spurred me along to that one day – today, was that in modern art a good deal of attention goes into work demonizing brands perceived as evil. Award winning ad campaigns ring empty and are quickly forgotten, but millions are spent on them. The abundance and quantity of attention going to work that in too many cases failed to capture the substance, rather than just the stuff, of our lifetime was certainly shaping the cultural legacy of modern art.
This became the focus of my artist practice. I have combined that passion with my talent for strategic planning, innovation, and my understanding of both relationships and meaningfulness in marketing. After years of studying Charismatic Brands and brand longevity, an offer has emerged combining these multiple facets to create holistic campaigns to drive sustainable value."
We do the heavy lifting to help you align your marketing (event, media, and internet) to the BiGGER Vision of your life and brand. IF you care about the inner quality of your life, the impact of your work and your brand on the future of humanity and the planet, get in touch and tell us what you'd like to accomplish.
Some questions create ripples in the ocean of humanity. In some cases ripples grow into waves.
The art series is evolving from a series of collaborations around the globe with individuals who share our interest in this question "what can i do?"
That question is a pulse that is being amplified into a wave - conceptualized here as art movement that engages creators and audiences as collaborators.
"phenomena of social practice as an artistic medium through the Website art project Learning To Love You More (hereafter LTLYM), which was founded in 2002 by artists Harrell Fletcher (b.1967) and Miranda July (b.1974), and designed and managed by Yuri Ono. Fletcher and July have both explored social engagement in their own work prior to the start of LTLYM."
Forgiveness is meaningful to every individual, organization and community.
Why? Whatever has happened prior to this moment is done and nothing changes that, however how you feel about it can change.
When things go wrong, how do you want your customers to respond? Even after you do what you can to make it right - keeping them as a customer to increase customer loyalty depends upon their willingness and ability to forgive.
Your brand benefits from partnering with us to bring this event series to the communities you serve and want to reach.
Project:Forgive is a Global Call to pay attention to the impact of Forgiveness through art, collaboration, and every day kindness.
Project:Forgive is the conceptual underpinning of a collaborative and interactive art series events, that is much more. Artists and communities will gather to develop interactive artworks exploring the concept and experience of forgiveness. A innovative series of events take place within that context.
Cultural Fusion 101 beta
With so much attention and energy already going into highlighting the problems, denying the roots of problems, and pointing at who is to blame..that is the source of protest art. Paying Attention primarily to the Resistance.
But to find solutions there must be people who make a commitment to Pay Attention to the Source of Solutions.
I decided to look at where my attention has always been drawn - to solutions. A narrow focus of the problem can never lead to a real solution because your attention was on the problem not the solution - the result is variations of the problem and its consequences.
The Antiphon-
Rather than art that protest the times we live in this series and movement is about, among other things, appreciating where we are and who is here with us AS we collaborate to create a better world. But first we need to understand what "better world" means to the billions of people that make up this race called humanity.
One basic challenge to explore is the reality that conflict emerges from resisting the contrast between our various ideas about what a better world looks and feels like. One can focus on this resistance and then shift Attention to other meaningful experiences. This is a core part of our approach to Event Marketing as Performance....Community Development or Social Responsibility Programs are re-envisioned as Artistic Collaborations.
Quality Attention
There are plenty of people who guarantee that they can deliver eyeballs and momentary attention for your product, project or cause. That may be fine for some context.
But other contexts require something more. Deeper understanding, deeper experiences, deeper relationships to get the loyalty you want. At the heart of the matter - loyalty is a by-product of love. I don't refer merely to the sentimentalized construction of romantic love. I am talking about the love that leads one to serve others - the love that drives an artist to create art as a service, the love that makes you care about someone you don't really know, the love that a parent feels for their child-and a child for its parent. I mean Love in Action, as an engaged part of the creative experience.
The ArtWorks in this series operate multilaterally as Optimum Quality Attention solutions to deliver Enhanced Value
perception of that value will depend on the perspective of the individual making that determination. For some it may be dismissed as artsy social marketing, for others it is the missing piece in having their marketing in alignment with and support of a BiGGER Vision for your life, your business and/or your brand. But at the end of the day, you can rest assured that the folks doing the heavy lifting to deliver this solution are doing so with the good of all in mind.
I can tell you something I have learned and have had affirmed time and time again that informs this approach. Breath or life force is the primary capital in your life. Without your breath, what else matters? What is wealth and success if you can not take your next breath? What is a business or organization without the breath based commitment to creative expression via the individuals working for it? There is a relationship between Attention flow and breath as the biological river through which it flows....
Question points to the Need
Stumbled upon this YouTube video where this guy is putting his questions out to the world. Since it has a relationship to the solutions I am exploring through this art work I wanted to put it here - until I don't.
It is my hope for the world. My question has led me to see that peace is only possible in the world when we have it within ourselves. In my journey this started with making peace with my past because not doing so is what seems to create conflict or Attention:Resistance and this is the clearly marked path to War. An observation i want to communicate in "what-is-peace?" is the process, that can get uncomfortable and sticky - if not just downright gut wrenching, on the path to peace. The reward is found in moving through the awkwardness, not by denying it, but honoring its message...a request for Space and Attention.
The Passion(s):
Comfusion (galaxy emerging) - a Cultural_Fusion development workspace !
Cultural Fusion Art as Philosophy [an Art:Series and an Art:Movement] that has given birth to a number of solutions and methods for discovering solutions.
This approach defies the walls separating knowledge silos and industries.
More than brainstorming - Source Art that has emerged from Cultural Fusion gives you the experience and insights that come from uniting head and heart to work together. Using an A/r/tographic approach that engages Institutional Critique on occasion while paying attention to where questions lead.
ScienceDaily (Sep. 16, 2009) — Reading a book by Franz Kafka –– or watching a film by director David Lynch –– could make you smarter.
Cultural Fusion Mission:
To apply art based approaches to help clients and collaborators address the challenges, explore the ideas of interest to them and experience awareness that sees beyond known needs to discover potential.
Artist Statement: from Yvette (evolving)
Seeking to explore ,engage, and apply Cultural Fusion art based approaches to create community/public art that also act as multilateral solutions for new ideas, technology & models for addressing complex challenges. This includes integrating personal experience story narratives that contribute to the evolution of opportunities and artwork.
What if the opposite of war is creation?
What if [Compassion + Generosity of spirit]] = the other L word?
What if forgiveness heals?
This Art Based reseach explores/advances a new paradigm that eliminates or greatly reduces poverty (materially and spiritually) based on promoting value of diverse expressions in arts & oral tradition, innovation that empowers the best in individuals within communities/organizations/businesses, andRadical Inclusionas a norm. With the mission to create Art:Work that delivers solutions to automate global social responsibility.
Specific areas of interest include: Creating/Advancing technology for sustainable living, developing/researching system models as a means to Ending or decreasing Poverty. addressing issues related to homelessness & hunger, Ending Slavery/Human Trafficking, domestic violence.
As an inquiry into art with purpose the Art Based research seeks as a component of functionality the project aspires to result in the information technology and social system infrastructures that support easy glocal (globally local) deployment of new projects as part of this Art:Work first and foremost. As communities of practice become a more normalized concept the concept of community itself expands. People are now having to learn to manage global relationships in terms of geographical spaces giving way to a range of meet-up events uniting a few or many. The concept of region is being redefined and the impact of innovation will serve some regions over others.
Using Art as the base line, the spaces between the business market view and human/ecological services can be seen and experienced as a paradox.
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