The Relational Art Inquiry Tool: Supporting participants and researchers from non-Arts backgrounds to engage in and with a/r/tography

This article argues the potential for a/r/tographic inquiry within sport and exercise research contexts, and outlines how a Relational Art Inquiry Tool (RAIT) was developed to support non-Arts background participants to enact a/r/ tography. Prior to this investigation, a/r/t/ography methodology has been primarily used within social science and Arts contexts, with qualitative sport and exercise researchers yet to employ the approach. Due to the embodied ways of knowingand evocative potential integral to a/r/tographic research, this investigation sought to devise a set of guiding tools that could be used to support researchers and participants from non-Arts backgrounds to engage in and with a/r/tography. This was done as a way of assisting them to see and find ways to visually articulate complexity, uncertainty and potential ‘unseens’ occurring within storied accounts. Development of the RAIT tool is 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 within a sport and exercise research context, this article illustrates how the RAIT tool was developed and then trialed to cultivate transformative understandings and interpretation of swimming culture through a process of relational and creative becoming.