ABSTRACT
This chapter presents ekphrastic poetry as a research method for interrogating non-representational geographies. It begins by presenting how ekphrasis is traditionally understood as a process of reinterpreting art. From there, the author considers how it might be possible to reimagine ekphrasis as a method of presenting (or re-presenting) geographical fieldwork findings where embodied, sensuous, affective, and material conditions and concerns are at the heart of the research. The chapter argues that this necessitates a very different approach to the conduct of fieldwork than what is prescribed by classical ethnographic research methods. These arguments are grounded in the author’s own geopoetics through which she explored the non-representational geographies of therapeutic art making. On that basis, the author then offers an ars poetica that considers the processes of creating ekphrastic research poetry. To achieve this, she outlines her own aesthetic and methodological choices. The chapter concludes with some brief thoughts about the value of research poetry.
