ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the complex relationship among the research question, materials and ethics in creative practice research methodologies to argue that a reflexive approach enables the development of a situated and relational ethics. A reflexive approach to the question centralises the researcher as the subject and object of study and thus requires an examination of one’s own positionality. This reflexivity should occur throughout the research stages and not only in writing up the research. The process of gaining ethics approval can be viewed as a way in which to better articulate research to an audience beyond one’s discipline and perhaps more importantly, a way in which to shape the entire research project so that its very subject becomes an object of ethical research. Creative practice researchers might attend to the very matter of the chosen art form, as well as their positionality, and how this might influence the research at all stages.
