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Active Research: Messy Beginnings
I recently listened to Jonathan’s Messy Research lecture, and it really made me think about my own process. Up until now, I’ve probably seen my sketchbooks and notes as too messy to post on my new, shiny blog. What I loved about the lecture was the emphasis that the process of making art isn’t always clean or neat – it’s in the scribbles, the side notes in the margins, and the unorganised, real-life mess that is creativity.
Jonathan talked about Action Research and Active Network Theory, and suddenly the penny dropped for me. Research isn’t a separate, clinical analysis of my practice. It was liberating to realise that my work is the research. Maybe research can be messy – covered in graphite powder and fingerprints.
Sketchbooks as Thinking Spaces
It’s taken me until now to compile and publish the first of what I hope will be many digital sketchbooks. They show my thoughts while I’m making work. Without writing my ideas down, they drift off into the ether and the moment is lost.
Initially, the idea of a blog felt alien. I thought I’d bypass ‘formal’ writing altogether and just upload flipbooks of handwritten notes. But as I’ve started to understand the nuts and bolts of WordPress – its system of categorising and tagging posts – I’ve realised it’s actually another creative tool.
As someone who squirms at the idea of neatly sorted notes in labelled folders, I’m surprised by how much I need this containment. The structure is teaching me something about the recurring themes in my work – and about myself.
Accountability and Process
Accountability is becoming essential for me. I’m good at exploring ideas, but I often resist making final decisions or calling something complete. This blog feels like a new frontier.
In regularly posting the good, the bad, and the in-between, I’m creating a space to document the meandering path of making and thinking. After all, if I don’t hold myself accountable, what’s the point?
In the Messy Research lecture, Jonathan said that research isn’t done just for its own sake – it’s done to improve the world. That really landed with me. I’m here to improve, and I want to make the most of this course.
A Lens for Reflection
I’m beginning to see this blog as a lens – a way to view my making and thinking with a little distance. During our weekly group meeting, we discussed how stepping back from your work can help you reflect more clearly. I hope this space becomes that kind of place for me: an honest, contained distance from which to reflect deeply.
At the end of Jonathan’s lecture, I listened to a conversation between him and a student who said that process now feels more important to her than ever. She realised that research was already alive in her practice – she just hadn’t recognised it yet. I could really relate to that moment of recognition.
Making art is research. And for me, it’s finally hit home that the process itself – the smudges, scribbled notes, and fingerprints – is where the real learning happens.
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