Dialogical Balance: Working Through My A/r/tographical Self
Abstract:
Literary theorist Bakhtin believed that the self emerges within dialogue, further stating that dialogue can be external or internal – between two different people or between an earlier and later self (Bakhtin, 1981). This article explores the Bakhtinian concept of dialogue in relation to the practice of a/r/tography – arts-based educational research that incorporates the interconnecting identities of artist, researcher and teacher. A/r/tography is a practice of living inquiry that is inherently about self (Irwin, 2004) yet consists of dialogical relations between text and art, between different epistemological ways of being, and between different educational spaces. In this article, I position myself as both researcher and subject to reflect upon a personal a/r/tographical project of inquiry that explores the dialogical space of the teaching and learning experience, which ultimately results in a rhizomatic flow between curriculum theory and visual art. The project began with a quest to understand how meaningful knowledge becomes personalized through dialogue and conversation within the studio critique. Using the methodology of a/r/tography, an experimental video was created to capture ways of knowing that are not easily transformed into words. This article reflects upon the theoretical and artistic processes of the project, and the merging of multiple selves through dialogue.
