The Relational Art Inquiry Tool: Expanding the possibilities of and for a/r/tographic research

This presentation explores the potential, and associated challenges of and benefits for a/r/tographic inquiry in non-Arts, education or social science contexts with researchers and participants from non-Arts backgrounds. Due to the embodied ways of knowing and evocative potential integral to a/r/tographic research, the research underpinning this paper sought to devise a set of guiding tools that could be used to support researchers and participants from non-Arts backgrounds to interact powerfully with and enact a/r/tographic inquiry. Within this exploration, the paper unpacks and explains the development of the Relational Art Inquiry Tool (RAIT) and how this can be used to support non-Arts background researchers and participants to enact a/r/tography, to see and find ways to visually articulate complexity, uncertainty and the potential ‘unseens’ within storied accounts. Development of the RAIT was informed by a diverse range of theory and ideas underpinning a/r/tography methodology (Irwin, 2004), Gallas’ elements of inquiry (2011) and Hetland’s Studio Habits of Mind (2013). In embracing the potential for a/r/tography, a pilot exploration within a sport and exercise research context was conducted, as well as supporting a mixed-methods researcher to conduct a/r/tographic inquiry. This pecha kucha presentation shares how the RAIT tool was developed and then trialed to cultivate transformative understandings and interpretations through a process of relational and creative becoming.