Narrative Spaces : on identity work and placeness through artsbased narrative practices

Abstract

This article-based dissertation proposes a rethinking of artistic processes, of and with communities of place and practice by focusing on the narrative identities of all of the involved parties, including the artist-researcher herself. The researcher hypothesises that narrative-based artistic practices impact on the identity work of individuals and communities through bringing forward the unique relationship and interplay between stories, identities and places. This is enabled through the creation of ethical spaces for dialogue, empathy and participation.

This research answers the following question: How can arts-based narrative practices impact on the identity work carried out by individuals, communities and places? In doing so, this work looks at both academic thought and practice related to the following key themes: identities, narratives, community, place and space, and artistic practice. Building on this theoretical knowledge, the research analyses three case studies carried out by the researcher with six global communities of place and practice.

The first such case study, Have you heard?, engages with a community and the stories of shop owners and employees of a migrant background in the urban space of Edinburgh, UK. It works within a complex context where identities and narratives of belonging, otherness, nostalgia, and multiculturalism fluctuate in a timespace of “here” and “there”. The second case study, Shop around the corner, was implemented in North and South Main Street of Cork, Ireland, the historical cornerstone of the city. The street is currently left out of the latest city planning endeavours, resulting in the neglect of the multi-generational family owned businesses of the neighbourhood. The local shop owners’ stories served as inspiration and data for this second fieldwork. As with the first case study, this project aimed to create a framework for placing a collective narrative of sitespecific memory within specific urban spaces through different methods of storytelling and artistic expression. The third, a two-year long case study Margin to margin, was carried out with a larger group of participants—two communities in South Australia, one in Finland and one in Russia—and aimed to explore the relationship between artistic practices, identity processes and the empowerment of predominantly female makers living and working “on the edges”. This brought forward a deeper understanding of the researcher’s own practice and her “self” as a part of narrative-based artistic collaborations.

Methodologically, this research bases itself on the intersection of two overarching approaches: arts-based research and reflexive research. Both approaches are emerging and rapidly developing and have to actively stand their ground in the scope of more mainstream methodologies, through personal, subjective and practice-based ways of knowing. Both accommodate well the key themes this research is occupied with: identities, narrative, community, place/space and artistic practice. The data collection methods of ethnographic observation, narrative inquiry and documentation tie the two overarching approaches together, while narrative analysis is resorted to as the key analytical tool for the collected data.

The research concludes with the outline of three main findings: 1) a framework for reflexive arts-based research with communities; 2) a theoretical viewpoint on narrative identities of individuals and places; and 3) an approach to the ethics of representation. The avenues for further research are outlined in the end of the study.