Intertwining Heuristic Inquiry and Arts-Based Research

BY: AUDREY MAXNER

This blog post provides a summary of the processes used in my capstone project, Recognizing My Wholeness Through Artmaking. Please see the entire project and implementation of the following processes there.

My summer residency capstone project combined heuristic inquiry with arts-based research to create a heuristic, arts-based self-study. In this blog post, I will briefly introduce and explain what heuristic inquiry and arts-based research are.

Heuristic Inquiry

Heuristic inquiry is a qualitative form of research created and formalized by Clark Moustakas in 1961. It brings together the subjective experiences of the researcher and of those with shared experiences in order to understand the nature of a phenomenon.

So, what does this mean? Simply put, heuristic inquiry is the study of living experience. This form of inquiry fundamentally recognizes that research is not objective or random; rather, it is guided by a researcher’s subjective experiences and interests.

The Phases of Heuristic Inquiry

A researcher engages with heuristic inquiry by following six phases: initial engagement, immersion, incubation, illumination, explication, and creative synthesis. These phases are cyclical in nature and allow the heuristic processes to be rooted in experiential time and process-oriented.

  • Initial Engagement: the first encounter with a researcher’s topic of interest and the formulation of a core research question. This topic is both personally significant to the researcher and potentially universally significant to others. As a note, initial engagement can occur at multiple points throughout the research process, as new questions are formulated and linger with the researcher.

  • Immersion: the researcher’s immersion into a core question which allows the researcher to embody and live the question fully. At this point, there is no attachment to a specified goal, finding, or outcome from the research.

  • Incubation: the researcher’s disengagement from the research question which allows the researcher to generate knowledge unconsciously in the “tacit dimension.” This allows realizations to emerge serendipitously and unexpectedly. As a note, the researcher moves back and forth between immersion and incubation until the researcher arrives upon illumination.

  • Illumination: the researcher’s arrival upon a new awareness, understanding, or discovery that was previously unrealized or unsynthesized.

  • Explication: the researcher’s exploration of the themes that have emerged individually and collectively. This then characterizes the universal themes of the study and prepares the researcher for creative synthesis of the themes.

  • Creative synthesis: the researcher brings the knowledge back to the individual self through a creative interpretation that accurately represents and depicts the experience of the inquiry.

Arts-Based Research

Arts-based research (ABR) is a creative movement broadening research towards a deeper understanding conveyed through aesthetic creation, representation, and interpretation.

So, what does this mean? Essentially, arts-based researchers record, analyze, interpret, and create data through various creative artistic mediums. This allows arts-based researchers to “address questions in holistic and engaged ways in which theory and practice are intertwined,” blending and blurring of boundaries between, for example, science and art.

Bringing Heuristic Inquiry and Arts-Based Research Together

Heuristic inquiry and arts-based research are both:

  • Process-focused and emergent

  • Self-reflective and exploratory

  • Humanistic, holistic, and participatory

  • Imaginative and creative

As a result, heuristic inquiry offers a way for approaching arts-based research, while arts-based research offers a methodology for completing heuristic inquiry. A heuristic, arts-based study allows a researcher to center the self and formulate emergent, creative answers through the evolution of the study.

To read more about my heuristic, arts-based self-study, see my blog post The Disabled Art of Play.