Art as Inquiry: A Book Review of Being with A/r/ tography

In this essay, the edited anthology, Being with A/r/tography (Springgay, Irwin, Leggo, & Gouzouasis, 2008) is reviewed in regard to its relevance to visual arts research. Art is presented as a method of inquiry as theory, dialogue, and a/r/tographic works are shared within a community of practicing arts-based researchers. This text offers insight into the possibilities of the arts as active and perceptive modes of inquiry. Key Words: Visual Arts, Qualitative Research, and Inquiry In the midst of planning and justifying an arts-based dissertation, I came upon Being with A/r/tography (Springgay, Irwin, Leggo, & Gouzouasis, 2008) in search of alternative research methodologies. This text opens a door into a community of practicing artist-researcher-teachers who embody inquiry within daily living, in turn stimulating readers to consider how they might contribute to the dialogue and seek to know through art. The editors choose to adopt the term "conceptual practices" (p. xxvii) to describe the possibilities, characteristics, and affordances of a/r/tography in order to escape traditional notions of methods. In this book review, I will approach the text as a framework for thinking about the possibilities of visual art as inquiry. I will begin by summarizing the theoretical foundations of a/r/tography and the conceptual practices shared among a/r/tographers. This will lead into a synopsis of examples of a/r/tographic inquiry and the challenges facing a/r/tographers. I will conclude with a discussion about the possibilities of a/r/tography within the field of qualitative research. What is A/r/tography? The term a/r/tography was created to signify the multiple roles played in artsbased research: artist-researcher-teacher. Practice-based underpinnings focus on how "theorizing through inquiry seeks understanding by way of an evolution of questions within the living-inquiry processes of the practitioner" (Irwin & Springgay, 2008, p. xxii). The practices of artists and educators are considered to be forms of research and the "intellectual, imaginative, and insightful work" they create is "grounded in ongoing forms of recursive and reflexive inquiry engaged in theorizing for understanding" (p. xxii). Irwin and Springgay (2008) emphasize a kind of understanding that is relational, embodied and active. A/r/tographic researchers draw upon personal experiences as they work through the arts to question, ponder and theorize new questions and possibilities. The art-making processes are seen as acts of research and are grounded in writing. This focus on the relationship between creating art and writing promotes new ways of understand the world through experience. Three ways of interpreting experience, theoria (knowing), praxis (doing), and poesis (making) are folded together in a/r/tography to create spaces in which meaning is "interrogated and ruptured" (p. xx). Irwin and Springgay (2008) also describe the role of communities of practice in a/r/tographic research. Inquiry is conceived of as social, although many may assume self-indulgence drives many artistic endeavors. All works are related to the works of others, and a/r/tographers recognize other works as they document their own work. This allows a community of practicing researchers to better understand bodies of literature within and across multiple fields. Through embodied art making and writing, a/r/tographers explore phenomena through concepts rather than specific methods. This means focusing on the processes of constructing new knowledge, rather than following the specific criteria of an established research methodology. Irwin and Springgay "interpret concepts to be flexible intersubjective locations through which close analysis renders new understandings and meanings" (p. xxviii). In keeping with these interpretations, Irwin and Springgay adopt the term "renderings" to describe six concepts that assist a/r/tographers as they share their work with others. …