Practice as research in South Africa

Veronica Baxter

pp. 163-174

in: Robin Nelson (ed), Practice as research in the arts, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

Abstract

In Chapter 1 of this volume, Robin Nelson quotes David Pears, relating Practice as Research to the act of riding a bicycle, in that we are striving to make conscious that which we know unconsciously. So the act of practice (riding the bicycle) is placed under scrutiny (the research) in order to find out which muscles are employed when, what the balancing entails, how propulsion forward is directly related to balance and probably also the important aspects of using the brakes and knowing how quickly you can get your feet to the ground. In the research, unconscious knowledge is brought to consciousness. In the process there is a serious risk that thinking about isolating muscle-memory and dissecting embodied knowledge may result in a fall, but the research cannot be conducted in any other way. In order to research riding a bicycle, we must actually ride.

Cited authors

Pears David

Nelson Robin