Week beginning: 07th February 2023
Introduction to Research Methods / What do we mean by Practice?
This week I was introduced to research methods and their importance. Research methods refers to the tools that one uses to do research. Methods are specific techniques and tools for exploring, gathering and analysing information, for example observation, drawing, concept mapping, photography, video, audio, case study, visual diary, models, interviews, surveys and so on. These can either be qualitative or quantitative or mixed. Quantitative methods examine numerical data and often requires the use of statistical tools to analyse data collected. This allows for the measurement of variables and relationships between them can then be established. This type of data can be represented using graphs and tables. Qualitative data is non-numerical and focuses on establishing patterns. Mixed methods are composed of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Mixed methods allow for explanation of unexpected results.
In the initial stages of research you formulate your question, plan your journey, map the terrain and then locate your position in it before you set off on your journey of discovery.
Types of Research in Art and Design
· Research INTO Art and Design
· Research THROUGH Art and Design
· Research FOR Art and Design
Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein
‘Seeing that’ vs ‘Seeing as’
Wittgenstein discussed figures that can be seen and understood in two different ways. Often one can see something in a straightforward way — seeing that it is a rabbit, perhaps. But, at other times, one notices a particular aspect — seeing it as something.
An example Wittgenstein uses is the ‘duck-rabbit’ an ambiguous image that can be seen as either a duck or a rabbit. When one looks at the duck-rabbit and sees a rabbit, one is not interpreting the picture as a rabbit, but rather reporting what one sees. One just sees the picture as a rabbit.
But what occurs when one sees it first as a duck, then as a rabbit? As the gnomic remarks in the Investigations indicate, Wittgenstein isn't sure. However, he is sure that it could not be the case that the external world stays the same while an 'internal' cognitive change takes place.
Paradigms Of Enquiry & Terminology
· Ontology is the nature of reality ‘the knowable’.
· Epistemology is the nature of the relationship between the inquirer and the knowable.
· Methodology – how should the enquirer go about finding out knowledge.
Research Methodology
Methodology is the study of ‘the system of methods and principles used in a particular discipline’.
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