ENGL 430 B1: Bodies of Knowledge: Research-Creation Beyond Method

K. Martin

In “Against Method,” Erin Manning proposes that “[m]aking is a thinking in its own right, and conceptualization a practice in its own right." By engaging in making and other embodied practices, we can foster new processes that, while often beyond the measure of current systems of evaluation, may allow for new (or renewed) relations between the studier and the studied.

This seminar aims to create a space for students to engage in modes of inquiry involving significant practice components; under the umbrella of what is known in Canada as research-creation (and in line with the Faculty of Arts’ ‘Shifting Praxis in Artistic Research / Research-Creation’ [SPAR²C] signature area), we will centre making/doing, embodiment, and experience as key components in the process of coming to know--or to relate to--the texts and systems around us.

Using a range of embodied, experiential, and arts-based approaches, students will engage in both individual and collaborative research projects. Class time will be divided between discussion- and practice-based engagements with texts and with other actors in our environment, including textiles, food, non-human life, and kisiskâciwanisîpiy, the North Saskatchewan river.