Creative research in action: Webinar review
On November 11th Dr Ella Harris and Kheron Gilpin from Progress today hosted an interactive Webinar on Creative Research in Action. They were delighted to be joined by a special guest collaborator, artist Hannah Mumby. The three joined forces to show researchers from a plethora of contexts (academia, market research, the charity sector, the education sector, the housing sector and much more) how creative methods can enrich their work.
The session covered creative research approaches ranging from the use of fun and play within facilitation, through to experimental arts based approaches to creating and sharing knowledge.
“Your energy is infectious, underpinned by genuine experience and research”
“I left feeling really inspired and already thinking of new ideas to bring to future research”
Practising what he preaches, Kheron developed a punchy and engaging format, enabling a high energy, jam-packed, interactive hour of concepts and tools for creative research. Attendees commented “your energy is infectious” and said that they left “feeling really inspired”
The team also used fun digital flourishes, enabled by Canva and other technological tools (see video!) to inject play and humour into the space.
Attendee participation was a priority and the session was complete with a web-friendly ice breaker, an interactive creative activity and plenty of opportunities for audience members to share their thoughts. One attendee commented that it was “refreshing to be involved and not just spoken to : - )”
“It was refreshing to be involved and not just spoken to : - )”
“thank you for holding the space so beautifully and adding great authors to my reading list.”
Dr Ella Harris was the events’ conceptual compere and introduced participants to theories around creative research. She explained creative methods as the practice of mobilising creative media to enable particular modes of attention to the world. For example, sketching prompts attention to the curvature of lines, to light and shadow and to texture, while film making necessitates a focus on rhythm, movement and pacing. In addition, Ella explored how creativity in research can mean adopting an explorative and playful approach that embraces the messiness of research. Pulling together ideas from a range of theorists (Frederic Jameson, Miranda Fricker, John Law, bell hooks) she situated the event in a lineage of thinking on what it means to make knowledge together. This included highlighting the importance of ‘epistemic justice’ in research (Fricker, 2007), the need to embrace ‘mess’ (John Law, 2004) and the power of story to generate understanding (bell hooks, 2010).
Kheron Gilpin, engagement specialist, led on the format of the event, sharing and demonstrating tools and techniques for creating an inviting, inclusive and stimulating environment. Kheron defended the power of the ice breaker from those who have given it a bad name, explored how the set up of a space can transform research and argued that enthusiasm and energy from the facilitator are crucial. He showed how these elements can establish an environment where participants can express themselves freely. Kheron also considered how creative research can boost the professional development of participants and emphasised the importance of acknowledging their contributions.
Collaborator Hannah Mumby drew on her practice as an artist to bring attendees insights into the power of art to unsettle, discomfort and surprise, to open up new questions and to enable power sharing. She explored how principles of play, creativity and problem-solving can provide a space for the open-ended testing of ideas and generation of new perspectives and networks. Hannah also ran a fantastic interactive activity, demonstrating the power of metaphor to generate and share insights into our experience, in a way that can resonate for others.
Each of the hosts shared examples and ideas from their individual work to answer three questions on how creativity can make research more inclusive, insightful and impactful.
They described the utility of methods such as card decks, board games, web documentaries and illustration. They also talked about the importance of involving participants in decision making, including in the planning of methods, the creation of outputs and in ongoing dialogue and networks.
Never ones to think they have all the answers, the team called on audience members (at random!) to answer these questions too, encouraging a mood of collective exploration.
“Amazing - will be thinking and mulling for days/weeks/months!”
It was amazing to see how much enthusiasm and energy attendees brought to the session, reiterated in the phenomenal feedback.
“This was a masterclass in so many ways”
Those who stayed back for the ‘after party’ discussed the power of community and connection, identifying the webinar as a fantastic opportunity to build a network for sharing good practice, exploring new ways of thinking and collaborating on projects.
The event was also a fantastic warm up for the upcoming mini course on Creative Research in Action, launching in the coming months. Subscribe to our mailing list below to stay updated about this opportunity.
If you’d like to see the recording of this event, send us an email at info@progresstoday.co.uk and we’ll be happy to share it with you!
