Thinking through art: putting methods into perspective
A workshop with Christina MacRae
Monday 15th May 4-5pm
This session explores how perspective as a method for accurate drawing can also serve as a provocation to think about methods used in research. Dipping into art history I will look at the history of perspective and the story of the ‘discovery’ of perspective by Brunelleschi in Florence in the 15th Century, contextualising it in relation to renaissance and enlightenment ideals. This history explores ways that seeing and knowing have become deeply entangled. I will talk about how the ‘rules’ of perspective became systematised and the way that the science of optics became a dominant model for art. I will use this to reflect on qualitative research methods, taking up Patti Lather’s suggestion that we look at what frames our seeing, rather than looking harder or more closely. This incitement is to explore observation as a space of “constructed visibility”. Using artworks as provocations to connect with my own research, I will also invite participants to use these productively to think about research methods and their own research.
