ABSTRACT
This short retrospective considers some of the important activities involved in negotiating practice in PhD research. By reflecting on my investigations into the embodied and somatic practices of moving in media-rich environments, I focus on my project Intimate Bodies and Technologies: A Concept for Live-Digital Dancing (Intimate Bodies) as a specific case in point (see Figure 5.8.1 as an example of the work). In my retrospective, I contemplate the often complex, changeable, and multi-layered processes of negotiating practice-based research, and discuss key topics such as methodology and knowledge as practice.
Specifically, I reflect on some of the practicalities of exploring practice via a studio-based investigation and highlight a number of key discoveries that were encountered during this process. While the subject of Intimate Bodies is particular to the areas of dance performance and digital media, the methods and strategies developed are also applicable across a range of practical subjects. For example, the interconnections between practice and theory, as they played out in the studio context, highlighted some key landmark activities that necessitated a changed approach. This helped to define the emerging thesis and ultimately enabled me to explore the production of knowledge via practice. As such, some of the discoveries made pose interesting questions for the practice-based researcher.
