The obvious way of reporting artistic research is by sharing the process and/or sharing the resulting artworks. Often you must, and sometimes you also want to, write about the research and the works as well. Many artists shun away from this “about” and try to find ways of writing next to or alongside the work, describing the context or other people’s work or ideas related to the topic of the research. This is understandable and can be useful; writing about one’s artworks can be tricky. I have never felt the urge to discuss the final artworks of a project in terms of meaning or interpretation, although I find it important to stick as closely to the work as possible while writing. So how do I do that? By speaking of the choices, decisions, strategies, and problems in making the work, for example. The choice of approach or style nevertheless remains a problem, for example, should I use the first-person mode in writing or not? In the beginning of the preface of a recently published book Performing and Thinking with Trees I felt the need to explain myself:
Biography
Annette Arlander, DA, is an artist, researcher and a pedagogue, one of the pioneers of Finnish performance art and a trailblazer of artistic research. Former professor at University of the Arts Helsinki and Stockholm University of the Arts. At present she is visiting researcher at Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki and a member of the editorial board of JAR. Her research interests include artistic research, performance-as-research and the environment, especially trees. Her artwork moves between the traditions of performance art, video art and environmental art. See https://annettearlander.com
Annette Arlander. “How should I write about my work? Notes on publishing artistic research.” Journal for Artistic Research, 29/12/2022 (jar-online.net: https://doi.org/10.22501/jarnet.0059)
More from Annette Arlander
Artistic research project 'Performing with plants'
The book 'Performing and Thinking with Trees'