Collaborative Meaning-making in Arts-based Research: Data Interpretation with an Artist, a Physician, and an Art Historian

Authors

  • Kaisu Koski HKU University of the Arts Utrecht
  • Fenna Heyning Director Association of Tertiary Medical Teaching Hospitals, Utrecht
  • Robert Zwijnenberg Centre for the Arts in Society, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18432/R2MW28

Keywords:

arts-based research, collaborative meaning-making, anatomical drawing, female reproductive system, medical student, playful association, improvisation, humor, embarrassment

Abstract

This article discusses collaborative meaning-making in arts-based research. It introduces a project in which an artist-researcher invited a physician and an art historian to help to interpret medical students’ hand-made drawings of the female reproductive system and the conception process. The authors elaborated on different viewpoints and modes of talking during the data interpretation, and discussed how these were founded on, and disrupted, their professional roles in various ways. The article discusses how these different viewpoints about the students’ drawings complemented or conflicted with each other. It also discusses the use of associations and humor in these interpretations, and the experiences of emotional discomfort during the process.

Author Biographies

Kaisu Koski, HKU University of the Arts Utrecht

Kaisu Koski is a Finnish artist and researcher, based in the Netherlands. She graduated from the Faculty of Art and Design in the University of Lapland and the Amsterdam School of the Arts, studying media and performance art. In 2007 Kaisu earned her doctoral degree by defending her dissertation on interactive performances in the University of Lapland. Since 2010 Kaisu has been affiliated with the Research Centre Performative Processes in the HKU University of the Arts Utrecht. Kaisu’s art practice is intertwined with academic research, focusing on the dialogue between art and medicine, and the methodology of arts-based research. Between 2011-2013 she conducted a postdoctoral research project, exploring the various representations of the body in medical education. The Academy of Finland recently awarded Kaisu an Academy Research Fellow funding for 2015-2020 in the Centre for Practice as Research in Theatre in the University of Tampere. This project investigates and produces arts-based trigger videos for problem-based learning in medical curricula in Finland, Denmark and US.

Robert Zwijnenberg, Centre for the Arts in Society, Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University

Professor of art history

References

Ahern, Kathryn J. (1999). Ten tips for reflexive bracketing. Qualitative Health Research, 9(3), 407-411.

Allen, Joyce. (1998). Bearing the burden or baring the soul: Physicians’ self-disclosure and boundary management regarding medical mistakes. Health Communication, 10(2), 175-197.

Berger, Roni, & Malkinson, Ruth. (2000). “Therapeutizing” research: The positive impact of research on participants. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 70(2), 307-314.

Breuer, Franz. (2000). Qualitative methods in the study of biographies, interactions and everyday life contexts: The development of a research style. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 1(2), Art. 3.

Denzin, Norman K. (2001). The reflexive interview and a performative social science. Qualitative Research, 1(1), 23-46.

Frank, Arthur W. (2005). What is dialogical research, and why should we do it? Qualitative Health Research, 15(7), 964-974.

Goffman, Erving. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, New York: Doubleday.

Hunter, Anita; Lusardi, Paula; Zucker, Donna; Jacelon, Cynthia; & Chandler, Genevieve. (2002). Making meaning: The creative component in qualitative research. Qualitative Health Research, 12(3), 388-98.

Koski, Kaisu. (2013). As-if the patient were in the classroom: Video-based enquiry into the absent body in medical education. Journal of Applied Arts & Health 4(2), 207–222.

Koski, Kaisu. (2014). Mapping the female reproductive system: Arts-based Inquiry of Medical Students’ Anatomy Drawings. Studies in Material Thinking 10.

Martin, Emily. (1996) Medical metaphors of women’s bodies: Menstruation and menopause. In M. Emily (Ed.), The Woman in the Body. Boston: Beacon Press.

Montuori, Alfonso. (2003). The complexity of improvisation and the improvisation of complexity: Social science, art and creativity. Human Relations, 56(2): 237-255.

Nichols, Shaun, & Stich, Stephen P. (2003). Mindreading: An integrated account of pretense, self-awareness, and understanding other minds. Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press.

Paulus, Trena M.; Woodside, Marianne; & Ziegler, Mary F. (2010). “I tell you, it’s a journey, isn’t it?” Understanding collaborative meaning making in qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry. 16(10), 852-862.

Russell, Glenda M., & Bohan, Janis S. (1999). Hearing voices: The uses of research and the politics of change. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 23(2), 403-418.

Russell, Glenda M., & Kelly, Nancy H. (2002). Research as interacting dialogic processes: Implications for reflexivity. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 3:3.

Saldaña, Johnny. (1998). Ethical issues in an ethnographic performance text: The “dramatic impact” of “juicy stuff.” Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 3(2), 181-196.

Silver, M.; Sabini, J.; & Parrott, G. (1987). Embarrassment: A dramaturgic account. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 17(1), 47-61.

Sperber, Dan. (2000). Introduction. In D. Sperber (Ed.), Metarepresentations: A multidisciplinary perspective. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press.

The animation Not to scale at all can be viewed at: http://www.kaisukoski.com/about/not-to-scale-at-all

Cover art by Judy Schavrien The People Cry Out, iPad print, scalable You may find Schavrien's art and writing at www.jesart.net

Downloads

Published

2016-07-16

How to Cite

Koski, K., Heyning, F., & Zwijnenberg, R. (2016). Collaborative Meaning-making in Arts-based Research: Data Interpretation with an Artist, a Physician, and an Art Historian. Art/Research/International:/A/Transdisciplinary/Journal, 1(1), 234–257. https://doi.org/10.18432/R2MW28

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2016): Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal

Section

Art/Research In Action

License

Copyright (c) 2016 Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with Art/Research International agree to the following terms:

a. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication and the right to sublicense the Contribution, in the form in which it is published by the journal, to others under the terms and conditions of the of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) that allows others to download the work and share the work with others with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal, but they cannot change the work in any way or use any part of the work commercially.

b. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive public distribution and display of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

c. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

d. Authors wishing to include items (such as images or other media, or any creative works of others whether previously published or not) must contact the original copyright holder to obtain explicit permission to publish these items in Art/Research International. Writing permission should include: the title(s) of any copyrighted work, original place of publication if applicable, and an acknowledgement of having read Art/Research International's copyright notice. Authors are responsible for obtaining this permission and keeping it in their own records for later verification.