Creative Practices for Visual Artists

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Chapter 4

Research and Embodied Knowledge

Artists invest in ways of understanding their subject matter to a degree not widely known by those outside the field, and often not well understood by developing artists. A successful artist, just like a successful chef, surgeon, or politician, knows his or her field in expansive and thorough ways. Much of this kind of knowing, however, is different from that found in most of academia, science, and business, which are typically based within an analytical framework that seeks to maintain an objective distance between the observer and what is being studied. Artists are much more interested in making personal connections to the subject of their interest. This way of understanding, called embodied cognition ...