Define creative practice for my research include the term of Homo Ludic
My research project is a practice-based studio investigation into the adoption of âKidultâ play culture within creative art glass practice. Within supervisory and peer to peer situations, to date when I mention âcreative practiceâ in my written proposals, seminars or supervisory meetings, I have been asked what the meaning of creative practice is 'for my researchâ. Hence, I intend to identify and define âWhat creative practice is and how it is defined within my research'.
Creative practice seems to have been most widely used for the research in the field of Art and Design and it is easy to find creative practice-based research when looking for reference in that category. I would say this is because the practitioners in those fields commonly associated with the word 'creative' participate physically in the studio and lead the project, unlike desk-based text research. In general, language-based studies avoid verbal articulation and neglect the knowledge related to personal, practical experience, or tactic knowledge, however, those are available in creative practice and even considered a more significant part (Niedderer, 2007). As Linda Candy (2020), an English writer and researcher, points out, creative practitioners learn to be reflective through individual practice and activities, so they can reveal another avenue, beyond 'explaining' its outcomes by emerging within themselves out into the external world through reflecting their creative practice. As a glass artist and practice-based researcher, I practise most of my time in the studio by experimenting and making. My research records and reflects the actions and tacit knowledge realised in the studio in the practice/making process. Thus, I believe my research can be identified as 'creative practice'.
In turn, I am currently working on how can âPlayfulnessâ, the main theme of my reseach be defined as my own artistic expressive tool and how it can be linked and applied to my creative research? In addition, I am looking into how personal, social, cand culture commentary can be put into my creative practice?
Play is a voluntary activity or occupation executed within certain fixed limits of time and place, according to rules freely accepted but absolutely binding, having its aim in itself and accompanied by a feeling of tension, joy and the consciousness that it is "different" from "ordinary life".
My studio practice is also separate from my ordinary life, and it is a voluntary activity to achieve the purpose of my research for a certain period in a limited space, within a studio environment. All the actions carried out in the studio makes me mostly happy while I am making. Of course, not every moment can be happy, sometimes the work is repetitive and can be very painful and stressful if it does not work properly, however, I would say voluntary players can enjoy even the pain while playing, as a perspective of a practitioner and a fanatic of play. Not only that, crafts and arts are deeply positioned in the " primaeval soil of play" (Huizinga, 1949). This supports me to believe that my creative practice, which is related to the research in the art field I mentioned earlier in this article, is bonded with the concept of play.
In summary, my research project can be a be viewed as both a critical and literal form of play as a creative practice to achieve a series of goals (the aim of this research)by ultimately, adopting and adapting playfulness. Anecdotal and personal experiences, social commentary, tacit knowledge, and interactions with other practitioners (can be other players) captured during the research process, which can be used as a research resource equally as a form of storytelling; that is called autoethnography* which is the main methodology for this research project. Therefore, the type of creative 'Play' as stated by Huizinga allows my project to apply âplayfulness' to my creative practice as an expressive tool which is used to generate new perspectives on contemporary art glass.
Candy, L. (2020) The Creative Reflective PractitionerâŻ: Research Through Making and Practice. Abingdon, Oxon:Routledge.
Huiznga, J. (1949) Homo Ludens. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.
K. Niedderer and S. Roworth-Stokes (2007) The role and use of creative practice in research and its contribution to knowledge, Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/253200713_THE_ROLE_AND_USE_OF_CREATIVE_PRACTICE_IN_RESEARCH_AND_ITS_CONTRIBUTION_TO_KNOWLEDGE
(Accessed: 17 November 2021)
Autoethnography (2022) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoethnography#cite_note-2 (ACCESSED: 11 January 2022)
* Autoethnography âis a form of qualitative research in which an author uses self-reflection and writing to explore anecdotal and personal experience and connect this autobiographical story to wider cultural, political, and social meanings and understandings (Ellis and MarĂ©chal cited in Wikipedia, 2022)