On Research

On Research – 08/10/09

For our first seminar, we discussed research in the world of art and design. This type of research is very different from what I have done so far, which has been mainly business or media oriented research, but mainly literature based research. The research that I would have to start would require not only literature based research but also a large amount of experimentation and artwork. It was explained to us that we would have to explore in a very hands-on approach the subjects we would research. Therefore I would have to create designs and artwork relevant to what I am researching and what I have read in my literary research.

This type of research is very new to me, but is very logical. Researching art through art allows for a more personal research method. Solely literature based research will only allow you to discover other people’s point of view, it is just a compilation of people’s experimentation, but being allowed to do your own experimentation with art allows for first hand experiences to  be had and for us to have an experience of what “works” and what does not work.

Regarding my research on the impact of computerisation on web-comics, I will be able to attempt to make my own web-comics based on literature research but also on my own attempts to explore this fairly new medium of comic book publishing which has brought forth a new kind of comic book design and artwork. This research pushes me to try my own designs and to publish them in order to get feedback, or even just to be able to observe the way my comic book designs would be in a finished published form.

This research method will be applied in three different ways to the three different types of artwork that will be produced for my research. Simple black and white stickmen comics will me created by hand and then digitalised and published through the internet allowing research on the democratisation of web-comics as well as the new stickman comics that have appeared almost exclusively on the internet. This research method is also the only one possible to be able to research the impact of democratised, purely analogue, comics. In other words, there is no other way to gage the impact of my theory about the democratisation and universal access to spray-painted comics. This has never been researched which disables the possibility of literature based research. Trying new methods of design and new medium of publication is something that has to be researched first hand. Allowing us to do so is essential to the good function of our research. I have truly embraced the opportunity to apply this artistic method of research to my work. For the third part of my research, literature based research could have been applied, but it would have had very limited results. Only so much can be learnt by looking at the work of others, and by reading what others have written about the subject. Being able to explore and gage for ourselves the impact of our research opens a new dimension to the research possibilities.