The Principles of an Art-Based Research Design : Response Art and Art Therapy Research

In this chapter, I describe the principles of an art-based research design based on the growing literature and research practices in Britain and North America. I introduce the principles of art-based research through a research project that places art made by the art therapist in response to the clinical work, as the subject of inquiry. I use a current research process as a working example of art-based research methods in practice. The art-making processes described occur within a practitioner-research framework and an art-based paradigm. The art-based research described in this chapter derives from my art therapy practice and visual arts response to the clinical work. The research process gathers therapist‟s clinical artworks, extends the scope to include artworks from a cohort of art therapists, and methodically studies the resulting visual imagery.