Working the Tensions: Conceptualizing Artful Inquiry through Embroidery in Qualitative Research (Poster 2)

• In Event: Artful Inquiry in Qualitative Research: Philosophies and Enactments

Abstract

Objectives/Purposes
Drawing from my feminist artful inquiry project, Not Just Surface: Embroidering Beyond, I conceptualize artful inquiry as/through embroidery. As I do, I assume that artful inquiry is one-and-many things; at the same time that we can discuss it as a mode of thought that stretches across a variety of specific iterations (e.g., artful inquiry as music-making, artful inquiry as pottery, artful inquiry as collage), the nature of each artful inquiry is intertwined with the specific materialities and processes involved in its doing/thinking/becoming. Accordingly, I do (not) seek to provide the answer to the question posed by Melissa Freeman (2024, see also 2017)—“If artful inquiry is a mode of thought, what sort of ‘movement’ does it set to work?”—but an answer. And, particularly, an answer that works with and against the various tensions – conceptual and literal – that enable and plague embroidery (e.g., craft vs art, surface versus depth).

Perspectives
This inquiry was originally sparked by a quote from Anni Albers (1965/2017): “Embroidery, on the other hand, is a working of just the surface….For this very reason, however, it is in danger of losing itself to decorativeness; for the discipline of constructing is a helpful corrective for the temptation to mere decoration” (p. 72). Working ‘with and against’ this critique, I work with various ‘threads’ of theory. I knot together feminist histories of embroidery that problematize the sexist and one-dimensional imaginations of embroidery (e.g., as ‘craft’ rather than ‘art’, as ‘feminine’ rather than ‘masculine,’ as ‘superficial’ rather than ‘deep’; such as Amos & Binley, 2020; Fowler, 2018; May, 2024); theory of geometric surfaces/dimensionality (e.g., Galton, 2007); definitions and conceptualizations of tension (e.g., Dunham, 1938; Chambay & Sherwood, 2015); and critics’ discussion of Albers’ own fiber arts work (e.g., Cirauqui, 2017). In the process, I articulate embroidery as a tensile artform (and thus, artful inquiry as embroidery as a tensile mode of inquiry). As, that is, a working of (im)possibility, (in)separability and (dis)connection through each other—one that, I argue, can help us navigate a number of methodological tensions.

Modes of Inquiry and Materials
This (largely conceptual) inquiry utilizes artful inquiry in the process of making sense of it. It draws from scholarship in/on geometry, physics, qualitative methodology, art critique, and art history. Furthermore, in addition to discussing (and showing images from) a particular feminist embroidery project, I draw from my experiences of embroidering more broadly.

Conclusions and Significance
Ultimately, I conceptualize artful inquiry (via/as embroidery) as a tensile practice–one that works ‘art’ and ‘research’ as (im)possible and (in)separable counter(parts). Thinking in this way enables us to purposefully work the many (dis)connective and (dis)aligning strands–e.g., the disciplines, methodologies, theories, practices and products–that (already-always) compose qualitative work.


[References omitted here due to word count (form lacks a separate field for references). See submission document.]

Author

• Carlson Coogler, Baylor University