Quality Criteria in Visual A/r/tography Photo Essays: European Perspectives After Daumier's Graphic Ideas Author(s): Marín-Viadel Ricardo and Roldán Joaquín Source: Visual Arts Research, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Winter 2012), pp. 13-25 Published by: University of Illinois Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/visuartsrese.38.2.0013 . Accessed: 28/07/2013 18:06 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
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Visual Arts Research
Quality Criteria in Visual Ricardo Marín-Viadel Joaquín Roldán A/r/tography Photo Essays: European University of Granada (Spain) Perspectives After Daumier’s Graphic Ideas
Figure 1. Visual abstract. Ricardo Marín-Viadel looking at the expert’s eyes, by J. Roldán, 2011. Digital photography with an indirect visual quotation from Daumier (1855).
A research photo essay in visual a/r/tography is a coherent, systematic, and original group of visual images about education (or any other social science). This relatively recent research methodology essentially produces new visual images about educational questions. Like any other research methodology, visual a/r/tography assumes (a) certain basic epistemological positions, (b) distinctive methodological strategies, and (c) specific quality criteria. We suggest five different paths to identify assessment criteria, the most important of these residing in the development of a framework of correspondences between quality criteria usually applied to research reports based on words (sentences, paragraphs, verbal thinking) and those based on visual images (photos, photo essays, visual thinking). © 2012 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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Visual Arts Research Winter 2012
The use of visual arts-based research methodologies and specifically visual a/r/tography raises several epistemological, methodological, and evaluative problems. Perhaps one of the first things to be considered is the need to establish appropriate criteria about investigational quality for each one of the particular modalities in a/r/tography. These criteria must be widely accepted in academic contexts, especially those using (re)presentation languages rather than verbal language: drawings, photographs, videos, performances, installations, etc. (Barone & Eisner, 2011; Knowles & Cole, 2008; Irwin & Springgay, 2008; Irwin & de Cosson, 2004; Roldán & Marín-Viadel, 2012). Different types of educational research share quality criteria. However, the general quality criteria typically used in educational research may not be sufficient to assess the quality of aesthetic and artistic aspects in a/r/tography due to the relevance of the aesthetic and artistic aspects. Visual a/r/tography in particular integrates elements from educational research, arts-based research, visual research, and art practice as research; therefore, the assessment criteria need to integrate elements from all of these areas (Biggs & Karlsson, 2011; Cole, Knowles, & Promislow, 2008; Mitchell, 1994; Sullivan, 2010). How should all these criteria be integrated to fulfill the specific needs of visual a/r/tography? Is the development of new assessment criteria that is specifically adapted to this innovative research methodology necessary? Criteria to Identify Visual A/r/tography Visual a/r/tography topics are educational controversies and debates. Research reports in visual a/r/tography must demonstrate prominent artistic qualities, yet the thematic content of research does not need to be related with art activities (for example, violence in schools, teacher-training, curriculum, etc.). The two main purposes of visual a/r/tography are (a) to analyze current problems in education (and even to suggest solutions) in a visual way; and (b) to discover new issues about learning, school, and society through a series of visual images. The researchers working with visual a/r/tography wish to see (in a strict literal sense) what is happening now in education, and wish to imagine (in a strict etymological sense) what should happen. Therefore, it could be argued that a work of visual a/r/tography must fulfill three requirements. First, since it is educational research, it must constitute an innovative contribution to social knowledge on education. Second, given the fact that it is visually-based, the main contribution should be new visual images. Third, because it is art-based, these visual images must have an artistic quality equivalent to that required in professional activities in the fields of visual arts. In short, visual a/r/tography must be a group of coherent, systematic, professionalquality, and innovative visual images on education.
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Marín-Viadel and Roldán Quality Criteria in Visiual A/r/tography Photo Essays
Figure 2. Photo essay. Looking at the experts who are looking at the art, which in turn looks at their viewers. n.1, by authors, 2011. Organized with two digital photos. Left: Profile head of a girl and Seurat, by R. Marín-Viadel, 2008, with an indirect visual quotation from Seurat (1890–1891), and right: Student and art spectators, by J. Roldán, 2011, with an indirect visual quotation from Daumier (c. 1860–1870).
Seven Epistemological and Methodological Statements on Visual A/r/tography Visual a/r/tography assumes three basic epistemological positions around one main idea: visual images are (re)presentations of human knowledge and, under certain conditions, can be appropriated for educational research. The first epistemological position is the suggestion that visual images are not natural phenomena but, inevitably, cultural (arti)facts. The abundance and intimate familiarity with many different types of visual images today can lead to the illusion that the act of looking is like breathing, but the simple recognition of a visual image and, of course, its understanding, interpretation, and transformation are always a cultural phenomenon, not a reflex action (Hamilton, 2006). The second claim is that visual images, whether they are graphics, photographs, sculptures, or constructions, are (re)presentations of human knowledge. Many of the controversies about the interest and the validity of photography in research arise from the (false) belief that a photograph is a technological product made by a machine; however, any photograph, of whatever kind, is a cultural object made by a person (with his or her skills and imperfections and desires) in a social context. Any visual image, regardless of its technological sophistication, is always a (re)presentation of human knowledge in the same way any verbal expression is, no matter what its degree of syntactic or semantic sophistication. The third claim is that visual images (drawings, paintings, photo-essays, videos, performances) can satisfy equivalent requirements to those of written texts for research purposes. The argumentative and demonstrative possibilities of the verbal documents and the visual documents are equated in many professional
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Marín-Viadel and Roldán Quality Criteria in Visiual A/r/tography Photo Essays
Figure 3. Photo essay. Looking at the experts who are looking at the art, which in turn looks at their viewers. n.2, by authors, 2011. Organized with two digital photos. Left: Appreciating Ingres at Louvre, by R. Marín-Viadel, 2010, with an indirect visual quotation from Ingres (1806), and right: Teacher’s profile, by J. Roldán, 2011.
visual research (Cahnmann-Taylor & Siegesmund, 2008); and arts-informed research (Cole, Knowles, Glenn, & Luciani, 2007). In visual a/r/tography, specific criteria could include the following: (a) The research combines visual images and writing; (b) contiguity, living inquiry, metaphor/metonymy, openings, reverberation and excess are used as methodological concepts; (c) explicit dialectical arrangements between artist, researcher, and teacher identities including personal and social dimensions; (d) use of the practices of artists, researchers, and educators to create, interpret, and portray understandings; and (e) the research report explores new formats or structures to represent knowledge (Sinner, Leggo, Irwin, Gouzouasis, & Grauer, 2006; Springgay, Irwin, & Kind, 2005; Springgay, Irwin, Leggo, & Gouzouasis, 2008). The fourth strategy is to be open to the use of a wide variety of principles and assessment criteria because final reports of visual a/r/tography could be or-
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Marín-Viadel and Roldán Quality Criteria in Visiual A/r/tography Photo Essays
Figure 4. Photo essay. Looking at the experts who are looking at the art, which in turn looks at their viewers. n.3, by authors, 2011. Organized with two digital photos. Left: Appreciating Baroque at Fine Arts Museum of Seville, by R. Marín-Viadel, 2008, with an indirect visual quotation from Murillo (1665–1675); and right: Teacher’s black profile, by J. Roldán, 2011, with an indirect visual quotation from Daumier (1855).
Visual quotations must be cited like verbal quotations, meaning that the complete data is not in the figure captions, but rather in the reference section. Further, if we want to achieve an equivalent intellectual recognition between verbal and visual documents, then it might be appropriate to present books or papers (representing verbal ideas) alongside paintings, engravings, or videos (representing visual ideas) (Roldán & Marín-Viadel, 2009). All elements of a written text (words and paragraphs, including its peculiar punctuation, sections, and organization of chapters, etc.) contribute to its meaning and quality; in the same way all the formal, semantic, and other narrative qualities of visual images must be taken into account for evaluation: the quantity of images, the narrative emphasis (which will be crucial to establishing the quality of the visual argument), and any other features that may affect or alter the visual
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Figure 5. Photo essay. Looking at the experts who are looking at the art, which in turn looks at their viewers. n.4, by authors, 2011. Organized with three digital photos and, bottom center: a direct visual quotation from Daumier (c. 1860). Top: Student and photo projection, by J. Roldán, 2011, with an indirect visual quotation from Daumier (c. 1860–1870). Bottom, left: Appreciating the Fountain at d’Orsay Museum, by R. Marín-Viadel, 2008, with an indirect visual quotation from Ingres (1856); right: Appreciating the pastel portrait, by R. Marín-Viadel, 2008, with an indirect visual quotation from Blanche (1887).
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Figure 6. Photo essay. Looking at the experts who are looking at the art, which in turn looks at their viewers. n.5, by authors, 2011. Organized with two digital photos. Top, Appreciating women’s portraits at Louvre, by R. MarínViadel, 2008, with two indirect visual quotations from Vigée-Le Brun, left (1796) and right (1786); bottom: My students and photo projection, by J. Roldán, 2011, with an indirect visual quotation from Daumier (c. 1860–1870).
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Visual Arts Research Winter 2012 Mitchell, W. J. T. (1994). Picture theory. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Murillo, B. E. (1665–1675). St. Jerome penitent [Oil on canvas. 123 × 105 cm]. Seville, Spain: Fine Arts Museum. Pérez Villalta, G. (1975–1976). Group of people in an atrium or allegory of art and life or the present and future [Acrylic on canvas. 193 × 373 cm]. Madrid, Spain: National Art Museum Centre Queen Sofia. Roldán, J., & Marín-Viadel, R. (2009). Proyecciones, tatuajes y otras intervenciones en las obras del museo. Un fotoensayo a partir de T. Struth [Projections, tattoos, and other interventions in museum’s masterpieces. A photo essay after T. Struth]. Retrieved from http:// www.arteindividuoysociedad.es/articles/N21/ROLDAN_MARIN.pdf Roldán, J., & Marín-Viadel, R. (2012). Metodologías artísticas de investigación en educación [Artsbased research methodologies in education]. Archidona, Spain: Aljibe. Seurat, G. (1890–1891). Cirque [Oil on canvas. 185 × 152 cm]. Paris: d’Orsay Museum. Sinner, A., Leggo, C., Irwin, R. L., Gouzouasis, P., & Grauer, K. (2006). Arts-based educational research dissertations: Reviewing the practices of new scholars. Canadian Journal of Education, 29(4), 1223–1270. Springgay, S., Irwin, R. L., & Kind, S. W. (2005). A/r/tography as living inquiry through art and text. Qualitative Inquiry, 11(6), 897–912. Springgay, S., Irwin, R. L., Leggo, C., & Gouzouasis, P. (Eds.). (2008). Being with a/r/tography. Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Sense Publishers. Sullivan, G. (2010). Art practice as research: Inquiry in the visual arts. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Varto, J. (2009). Basics of artistic research. Ontological, epistemological and historical justifications. Helsinki, Finland: Aalto University, School of Art and Design. Vigée-Le Brun, E. (1786). Madame Vigée-Le Brun and her daughter, Jeanne-Lucie, called Julie (1780–1819) [Oil on canvas. 105 × 84 cm]. Paris: Louvre Museum. Vigée-Le Brun, E. (1796). The Countess Skavronskaia [Oil on canvas. 80 × 66 cm]. Paris: Louvre Museum.
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Figure 7. Photo essay. Looking at the experts who are looking at the art, which in turn looks at their viewers. n.6, by authors, 2011. Organized with two digital photos. Top: Teacher, students and photo projection, by J. Roldán, 2011, with an indirect visual quotation from Daumier (1862). Bottom: Appreciating the allegory in the Andalusian Centre of Contemporary Art, by R. Marín-Viadel, 2010, with an indirect visual quotation from Pérez Villalta (1975–1976).
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