‘A/r/t/ography is an arts research methodology emphasizing living inquiry and reflective practice through examination of the in-between spaces of art-making/ researching/ teaching (a/r/t/)’ (Beare 2009). In this study the acts of art[A], research[R] and teaching[T] intermingle, intersect, and combine with reflective writing [graphy] to generate new insight through a personal practice that includes works made through collaboration, co-creation, and individual interpretation. 

 

Creating new ways of knowing through experiential education is valuable for the progress of the field. A/r/tography offers an opportunity to do this through a combination of knowing, making, and doing. It takes influence from Aristotle by adapting the 3 ways of interpreting experience that he described, theoria (knowing), praxis (doing), and poesis (making) (Sullivan, 2000; Irwin, 2004; Schultz, 2020). These three forms of thought are fundamental to textiles education as to develop as a textiles practitioner you need theoria (knowledge of technique, weaving, knitting, printing etc.) praxis (practice of the process, to improve, develop and create) and poesis (making with meaning).

 

A/r/tography is flexibile; there are no specific rules, steps or methods that are required to be followed (Schultz, 2020) and as practitioner-based research it does not all need to be all about one person (Irwin & Springgay, 2008) meaning the research can engage with communities of practice (Irwin, 2008, Holbrook et al., 2014) through teaching, workshops, and collaboration. Theorizing on these practices allows the organiser to become the author of these experiences and reflecting on them helps invigorate their teaching and learning encounters (Britzman, 2003). 

 

This a/r/tographic engagement is a series of what if’s? Followed by what now? Should I/we do this? And how do I/we resolve this? It is a process of thinking-doing-thinking-doing, an on-going perpetual inquiry.