ART AS RESEARCH

The production of theater against political violence as an action research process

Art as research, though not new to artist and designers, is relatively new for pure social science researchers. How is art research? And no, I don’t mean the art of research.

Art successfully bridges social, cultural and political voices. Art employs processes to engage and connect the  liminal spaces of reflection and dialogue. Art produces the artist, audience and the “product”.  The process of creating art, creates the participants. So what has been created creates us back. Thus, we are in a recursive loop of creation-creating and being created. In such a space the dichotomy between the process and product collapses, just like the distinction between I and other rather it becomes an “us”. Spoken differently,  the artist and other’s voice blurs  and instead a performative space is created where we are all actors and spec-actors (Boal, 1994). This is a process of action and inquiry. In this project we will show how this process is an action research project.

This research project will explore the process of creating theater, as an action research, which is also a psychosocial resource for people impacted by political violence. The production of theater is the result of bridging three community participants: 1. academic seminar participants at ITSP, 2. theater ensemble of ITSP, and 3. Liberian community members living in Staten Island, NY. The researcher is interested in learning how such a project takes shape among the three communities. Further the researcher will explore how participation in the production affects the participants’ learning of psychosocial (wellness) responses to trauma, personally and professionally.

Research Question

1. How is the production of theater against political violence an action research project?
2. What are participant members learning about the use of performance process to facilitate discussion about trauma within an academic and community context?
3. How does the use of performance (theater) serve as a psychosocial resource for the community members from refugee community, academia, and theater?

Methodology

The production of the theater and the learning was archived as part of the seminar and community dialogue in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. These archived materials consists of audio-video material of theater production and performance, interviews and conversations of and among the Liberian community members, theater artist and seminar participants. The seminar and theater artist also shared their reflections and midterm reflections as part of the Seminar’s learning design. The seminar participants filled in an application for admission to the ITSP Seminar. All of these archived materials will be accessed with permission from the participants of the three communities.

The archived material will serve as secondary source data for content and narrative analysis. Based on the first level of analysis, participants will be contacted at 4 months and 8 months post the seminar for follow-up interviews, as per the attached interview schedule. The interviews will be conducted using face-to face and virtual mediums. The researcher will also be a participant-observer in the production of the theater.

What will you learn?

1. The process of research
2. A new form of cutting-edge research practice
3. How to use a qualitative analysis software
4. How theater is a form of research and psycho-social resource
5. About trauma treatment practices in the context of political violence
6. How a public space is created as a resource and process to address political violence

What will you be doing?

Based on your interests, availability, skills and research project needs, you can be involved with any of the following aspects of the project:

1. Reviewing literature
2. Coding research data
3. Facilitate in planning and implementation of data collection
4. Creating a visual research report: Image design, writing, editing and creating a web site etc.
5. Searching for grants
6. Grant writing
7. Writing, editing parts of grant reports

Contact: Saliha Bava at sbava@mercy.edu