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Articles

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2023): Revista Estud(i)os de Dança 1

Returns between artistic creation and scientific research: A methodology of transmutation between artistic experience and academic writing

DOI
https://doi.org/10.53072/RED202301/00201

Abstract

Starting from the example of a Practice-Based Research process developed within the scope of a doctoral research in dance, this article makes a reflection that focuses on the nature and added value of knowledge generated by artistic practice in contrast to the nature of the mode of knowledge traditionally associated with academic production. 

Based on several authors from the field of Embodied Cognition studies, on the analysis of Gilbert Ryle’s (2009) concepts of know-how and know-what and on Daniel Stern’s (1985) theory of language and intersubjectivity, we approach knowledge developed by artistic practice as an embodied expertise in which meaning is generated through somatic and sensorimotor perceptions, whereas academic knowledge is characterized essentially as a mode of theoretical knowledge where meaning is conceived and formulated through the structure of verbal language. Thus, it can be deduced that, in a Practice-Based Research process, characterized by the interaction between artistic practice and academic theoretical research, it is essential to develop methodologies that are able to reflect these differences and simultaneously integrate them. Furthermore, considering that the structure of the verbal language influences the way we think, we also propose that within such methodologies it is necessary to challenge how we use verbal language. Based on these considerations, this article points out a methodological proposal for transferring modes of knowledge between investigative practice in the field of artistic creation and theoretical production in the field of academic research. 

It is also argued that, differently from the traditional tendency of academic knowledge, embodied knowledge is predisposed to an ethical attitude conveying dynamic, adaptive qualities. Rather than aspiring to grasp the world as something static and definitive or to control the environment as something extrinsic, embodied knowledge experiences the challenge of navigating within the environment and incorporating it.

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