Art-Based Research in the Context of a Global Pandemic

Living through the Covid-19 global pandemic has changed the way that we experience our lives, the way that we relate to one-another, and the way that we engage with the world. Focusing contextually on the initial lockdowns of the pandemic in 2020, this book proposes that art-based research has a central, illuminative role to play in our understanding of unfolding crises. The changes brought on by the global event may not be readily accessible or expressible through traditional academic research. Art-based research offers the opportunity to explore, document, and reflect on the emerging and often ineffable qualities of transformed lives by drawing on emotional, bodily, and interactive aspects of experience. Such an approach allows for meaning-making that makes room for reflexive, interpersonal, and dialogical engagement. The contributions aim to capture and explore lived experiences of the pandemic, as well as begin a discussion about how meaning-making is changing through and beyond the pandemic. This book further explores how the nature and practice of art-based research in itself has been challenged and transformed. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art education, art psychotherapy, consumer research, visual studies, cultural studies, and sociology.

Usva Seregina is a visual artist and a researcher of consumer culture. Their work focuses on exploring topics of consumerism, consumer agency, and gender performance, as well as developing art-based research methods. Astrid Van den Bossche is a Lecturer at the Department of Digital Humanities at King's College London. Her work takes literary, historical, and computational approaches to understanding promotional cultures.

Introduction Usva Seregina and Astrid Van den Bossche PART 1: CONNECTION 1. Wandering with Wonder: From Social Practices to Artistic Practices and Back Luciana Walther and Carlos Eduardo Félix da Costa 2. Drawing the Group: A Visual Exploration of a Therapeutic Space Online Helen Omand 3. Collaging Covid Holidays: Using Collage as a Communal Method for Reflection and Research Usva Seregina and Aurélie Broeckerhoff 4. Performing Forgiveness in the Age of Covid-19: Creating a Hybrid Space for Dialogue and Peacebuilding Rana Aytug, Tom Gorman, Elly Harrowell and Victoria Thoms PART 2: CHANGE 5. Living Aesthetics in a (Post)Pandemic World Laurie A. Meamber 6. Encounters of Nothingness: Dilemmas of the Uncanny Self Stephen O'Sullivan 7. Hollowed Out: Creative Coding and the Pandemic Urban Imaginary Astrid Van den Bossche 8. "Can You Hear Me Now?" Listening and Living in Disruptive (Post)Pandemic Soundworlds Matthias Bode PART 3: CONFRONTATION 9. Poetic Reflection (PR): Voices in Pandemic Period Hilary Downey 10. Faces of Self-Isolation Usva Seregina 11. Everyone's a Photographer: Reflections on Photography as Creative Expression through Lockdown Ekant Veer 12. "Public School Teachers, You All Completely Disgust Me!": How My Fake Trump Fought the Revolt of the Elites in Pandemic-Era Ann Arbor Rebekah Modrak Afterword Astrid Van den Bossche and Usva Seregina