Uncharted territory: Imagining a stronger relationship between the arts and action research

Abstract

Action researchers stress our need to know the world in many ways beyond the intellectual. Yet in the West such ‘more-than-intellectual’ knowing tends simultaneously to be dismissed as worthlessly ‘not-academic’ and reified as ‘Art’ (with a capital ‘A’). In this article, I explore ways in which a more comprehensive arts-informed inquiry might appear as a fundamental and normal way of making sense of being part of the world, rather than as a ‘nice to have’ added extra or decoration. First, I offer a detailed taxonomy for presentational knowing which goes beyond the (re)presentation of experience to explore how a stronger relationship between the arts and action research might look. Second, I show a way to respond to the world which is rooted in experiential and presentational knowing first, rather than predicated on ideas from the realm of propositional knowing. Third, I propose that as action researchers we consider ourselves to be Artists of the Invisible, working to create spaces which are potentially transformative for our selves, those we work with and the systems of which we are an intrinsic part. I include this framing as a route to a better quality, deeper, more satisfying, and influential action research.