Abstract
This chapter draws on the analysis and (re)presentation of qualitative research undertaken on a UK government project known as Sure Start, an initiative based on the principle of bottom up community-based engagement dealing with social exclusion. The data from interviews, observation, and documentation, arise from ethnographic immersion by the author in a local working class community over a period of two years. Based on these data the chapter explores the (re)telling of the same research tale through the lens of bounded and unbounded (re)presentational forms and in so doing envisions some of the challenges and opportunities for multimedia performance as a methodological approach within the academy.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Performance Art: A theatrical live performance that utilises performer(s)/artist(s) as well as imagery, film, movement, music, poetry for creative expression.
New Ways of Seeking: The way in which the use of arts-based genres raise new research issues to be addressed and resolved.
Multivocal: The way in which multimedia (re)presentations are able to create texts which signify and convey multiple meanings and perspectives.
Intertextual: Text conceived not simply as a print-based written form but encompassing all genres of representation such as music, sound, dramatic performance and their interrelationship.
Monovocal: The way in which traditional print based texts have been constructed and presented from one singular and alleged authoritative perspective or voice.
Arts-Based Educational Research: An inquiry process which encompasses linguistic and non-linguistic art forms to engage with and increase understanding of education
Particularity and Dimension: The way in which arts-based genres enable the reader/viewer to obtain a sense of authenticity of the social world (re)presented.
Productive Ambiguity: The way in which arts-based genres enable research data to be presented in an evocative manner that propagates in the reader/viewer a discernment of multiple meanings and engagement with the complexity of the social world (re)presented.
Sense of Empathy: The way in which arts-based genres enable the reader/viewer to have access and understanding to the lives of others and the situations they face.
Multimedia: A multi-layering, inter-playing and inter-connecting set of audio-visual forms incorporating, music, sound, visual art, dramatic performance, dance and movement as a means of communication.