The Artistic Process and Arts-Based Research: A Phenomenological Account of the Practice

Arts-based research (ABR) leverages art practice for performing inquiry. An important component of art practice is the inner life of the artist. However, in the literature, this inner life, what the author terms process, is not much discussed although method finds voice there. This distinction grounds the phenomenology presented. The phenomenology is an Husserlian-van Manen mixed account of the artistic process that, the author claims, provides a basis for performing ABR. The phenomenology is cast as a nested set of ways of awareness characterized by feeling of various sorts (Husserlian) and is accompanied by narrative renderings of the process (van Manen).