Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies

Published in the UK by: University of Central Lancashire, Preston. SSTO Publications: School of Sport, Tourism and The Outdoors, in association with the Centre for Research Informed Teaching

Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies Volume 5, Issue 1, December 2011 Doing and representing qualitative research: a human perspective (Part 1: visual) a

Beki Price (Cardiff Metropolitan University)

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Sally Varrall (Cardiff Metropolitan University)

ISSN: 1754-2375 ISBN: 978-0-9566270-3-2 JQRSS Article No: 6/16-5-1-2011-PG[25]-052 To cite this article: Price, B. and Varrall, S. (2011) Doing and representing qualitative research: a human perspective (Part 1: visual). Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies, 5, 1, 59-86.

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Copyright © Clive Palmer and the individual authors Notice: The discussions, statements of fact and opinions contained in the articles of The Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies are those of the respective authors and cited contributors and are set out in good faith for the general guidance of student supported research and the promotion of pedagogical discussion in teaching and learning contexts. No liability can be accepted by the Editor, Editorial Board, Advisory Board, the reviewers or the authors/submitters for loss or expense incurred as a result of relying upon particular statements made or circumstances outlined in this journal.

Online Research Profiles: academia.edu: https://uclan.academia.edu/ClivePalmer ResearchGate: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Clive_Palmer British Conference of Undergraduate Research http://bcur.org/journals/

Price, B. and Varrall, S. (2011) Doing and representing qualitative research: a human perspective (Part 1: visual). Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies, 5, 1, 59-86

Doing and representing qualitative research: a human perspective (Part 1: visual) Beki Price and Sally Varrall (Cardiff Metropolitan University) Abstract This paper reveals how Beki showcased and performed her data about episodes in her life with a richness, feeling and impact that text alone may struggle to impart. Therefore central to her thesis and the telling of her story is the visual representation of ‘Beki’s story’. One idea behind this paper is that if the data is strong enough it may stand up on its own – without the immediate props of text. The visual, having prominence in this research context, sets the scene for the textual account that follows in part 2. This is an invitation to read Beki’s story through images…

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Conclusion This conclusion started life as the abstract for this paper but in its textual form was becoming too dominant over the visual. It has therefore been sent back to be the conclusion, or might even have been relegated further to an appendix - supporting the data. It is included for context should that be needed… The focus of this paper is about representing autoethnographic data through primarily visual and artistic means. From this stance there is an immediate interplay between art and research which, when the artist and researcher are one, alludes to the human perspective in this particular form of qualitative research. Beki’s autoethnography was revealed through a series of artistic installations and choreographed performances; readings and dance, to an audience who wandered freely around a gallery space. That is, Beki showcased and performed her data about episodes in her life with a richness, feeling and impact that text alone may struggle to impart. Therefore central to her thesis and the telling of her story is the visual representation of ‘Beki’s story’. With the prominence of visual data in mind, a healthy state of affairs in qualitative research may be when the data leads and directs the research. Consequently, this photographic sequence may capture something of the primacy and importance of the visual data for this research. Because of this, it may be illogical to consign these images to a supporting appendix in a textual 81


account as they do not support it, they lead it. Also, remembering that there are as many possibilities for abstraction in visual forms of art as there may be in text, this paper may help to challenge what counts as being a faithful representation and interpretation of data in research. Such a challenge may be at the heart of this visual paper which values the story within the data rather than the status of text to report it.

Bibliographic references Collier, J. (1967) Visual anthropology: photography as a research method. Holt, Rinehart and Watson, New York. Fang, W. I. and Elwein, M. C. (1990) Photography and ethics in evaluation. Evaluation Review, 14, 1, 100-107. Frith, H. and Harcourt, D. (2007) Using photography to capture women’s experiences of chemotherapy: Reflecting on the method. Qualitative Health Research, 17, 10, 1340-1350. Harper, D. (2002) Talking about pictures: a case for photo elicitation. Visual Studies, 17, 1, 13-26. Harper, D. (2008) Framing photographic ethnography, a case study. Ethnography, 4, 2, 241266. Krane, V. (2009) A narrative journey: trends and challenges in presenting life experiences. The Routledge Keynote Presentation, 3rd International Conference for Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, 10th-12th June. Roehampton University, London. Palmer, C. and Hughes, C. (2011) Upward skydiving – a journey through data. Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies, 5, 1, 97-124. Phoenix, C. (2010) Seeing the world of physical culture: the potential of visual methods for qualitative research in sport and exercise. Qualitative Research in Sport and Exercise, 2, 2, 93-108. Pink, S. (Ed.) (2004) Doing visual ethnography; images media and representation in research. Sage Publications, London. Prosser, J. (1998) (Ed.) Image based research, a sourcebook for qualitative researchers. Falmer Press, Bristol, PA, USA. Rookwood, J. and Palmer, C. (2009). A photo-ethnography, a picture-story-board of experiences at an NGO football project in Liberia (part 1). Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies. 3, 1, 161-186. Rookwood, J. and Palmer, C. (2009). A photo-ethnography, a picture-story-board of experiences at an NGO football project in Liberia (part 2). Journal of Qualitative Research in Sports Studies. 3, 1, 187-210. Wang, C.C. (2001) Photovoice ethics. Health Education and Behaviour, 28, 5, 560-572. Wicks, R. (1989) Photography as representational art. British Journal of Aesthetics, 29,1,1-9.

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JQRSS Acknowledgement Footnote 1.

Authors reflective comment: With thanks to Sally Varrall for her support through the development of the creative mediums and her continued support in my research and to Noel Dacey for his time and contribution to the photographic elements of the project. Also to Clive Palmer for his editorial support for this paper.

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Author profile: Rebecca graduated with a 2:1 BA Honours Dance degree from Cardiff Metropolitan University before continuing her studies at the same university to undertake the Masters of Research in Applied Qualitative Research Methods in Sports Exercise. On completion of her MRes studies, she hopes to continue her explorations into qualitative research practice, especially within the sphere of the use of creative mediums as a means of disseminating research.

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Dear reader, if this article has stimulated your thoughts and you wish to find out more about this topic the authors can be contacted on: Rebecca Price: [email protected] and Sally Varrall: [email protected].

Editor’s note: At the time of reviewing this article, the reviewer was unaware of the text-based article from Beki Price and David Gilbourne which follows. This was a deliberate editorial strategy in order to elicit an unbiased response to this personal account imparted through image based data. 1st Reviewer’s comments: This is an unusual but intriguing article which has taken several passes to gain a clear overview for me. As an autoethnographer I was able to appreciate Beki’s story from a number of perspectives, one being that personal revelations made through images may also count as research data. A first impression is that a lot of effort has been made in this work to send a message. The images are strong and emotive and I sense that it is heavy with emotion; with a sense of loss or pain, or hurt. Although the exact details of the message are unclear to me, it is clear that Beki is passionately engaged in the telling and expressing of some personal experiences to others. She has used some artistic mediums to reveal such episodes and from Beki’s demeanour in the photographs she seems to be engaged in moments of deep reflection – images of loss, pain, anguish. That is, she is obviously, not ‘just’ showing her friends around a gallery collection of her art (as an artist might do) – she seems to be performing her data as part of the viewing. I can relate to the human message in this paper, in its non-verbal form; I don’t need text to understand this. In fact the pictures allow me to read into what is portrayed more easily something of my own life narratives. Some of the pictures have more 83


immediate resonance for me whereas text seems to prescribe; this notion of readerengagement is an inherent challenge of the paper and is a positive one I think. From a research perspective, the autoethnographic process may be something that can be replicated however it is clear from this paper that the products may be unique. That is, different media or processes can be used by others and I think I can ‘see’ what the researcher is trying to do; to tell her story in a way that other’s might relate to. With my economics head on there seems be a new challenge implicit of presentation of this article between the producer and the consumer, that is, that there may be a greater effort required from the consumer to reach some new level of understanding. To the ‘consumer’ of research writing, text may instruct the reader how to process what is presented, which may in some instances, pander to preferences of mass media i.e. made easy to consume. Consequently a default mode to accept a storyline simply because it appears in text may challenged by this visual article. A further example of effort-indicated-engagement is from a small sequence of pictures where there is an essay pinned at floor level. This forces the reader to make an effort to read in a position that they would not normally adopt in a public gallery; laying down. The reader has to make an effort to take a different perspective, may be they have to suspend their own perspectives? Suspend their degrees of comfort to appreciate the tale being told? Either way, the reader in the pictures appears to demonstrate a willingness to engage with something new to gain some mutual understanding. In sum this paper seems to demand cognitive engagement where the viewer may have to recalibrate their means or mechanism of consumption to understand the new intellectual offering. Thus, the article adds to the rich corpus of knowledge that autoethnography embodies and creates a new and interesting perspective for comprehending qualitative research. 2nd Reviewer’s comments Beki's Story: Every picture tells a story - or so the saying goes. A sequence of pictures may therefore tell a fuller story if the viewer has the ability and the inclination to access the data presented by the sequential action. The interpretation of a picture tends to depend upon (1) the level of interest shown by the viewer as to the meanings of the visual stimulus presented for their contemplation and (2) their intellectual ability to read the significance of the multi-media nonverbal communication cues like; the costume, the set, the lighting, any entrances into or exits from a stage space, and any performance action shown to them.

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Clearly the above point becomes only of significance to those members of the audience (and/or society) that share a particular cultural background and heritage. A viewer from an alien culture may not be able to access the significance of what is being presented at all. If a person from, say, an Amazonian jungle tribe were to be present to view a picture, or a performance, they would not be able to understand the significance or the meaning of what they see. Non-verbal communication performances are essentially culturally bound and are within a tradition of the form of Theatre belonging to that tradition. Beki's Story has to be read, interpreted and understood within that context. Equally the work stands within an honourable academic tradition of the artist choreographer, as the maker of the work, participating in the performance and presentation of that work to the world. That dual role of maker and performer being assisted here by a good photographer in order to create the sequence of images utilised to tell the story in the form presented (an article). The set is designed as a natural, neutral, white blank space. A raised red sofa stands alone in another area of the space. Two black and white images are painted on white boards. One of love and tenderness, contrasted with a fallen figure which has an extended reaching arm and an exaggerated outsized hand ‘of doom’ (perhaps?). One cleverly designed image places the dancer in a despairing posture ‘under’ the hand to tell of a disturbed being. The captured still photographs of the dancer telling her story utilise quite stylised and clichéd postures and gestures, at a mimetic level of abstraction, to present and convey emotional states of mind. These are easily understood but artistically naive in conception. The form of the work follows an aggregation type of composition. Like threading beads unto a string, one image follows another in a designed sequential order as a means of telling the story. There is no evidence of the use of repetition or of variation as means of elaboration of composition (this may be a limitation of the article as presented given that the pictures are literally snapshots of moments in time, I was not present at the performance to qualify this judgement). Rather a simplistic form of composition seems to be the preferred choice of the choreographer. The one reference to written text, the spiral poem, as a circular pathway is presented as a treadmill of a troubled mind in chaos and has incessant spelled as insesent. Surely a ‘typo’ error?

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To whom is Beki telling her story? Her audience become participants at various stages of the story-telling and most particularly at the climactic end when they occupy her ‘safe house’ sofa, and look outwards at the world; whilst she, as storyteller and dancer, looks into the set as if she is contemplating her own mental and emotional state. Perhaps recognising things "as we were and as we are". The work and performance has an Aristotelian sense of unity of time, place, and action. The story begins, has a middle, and ends. No particular style of dance is discernable from the pictures, perhaps intentionally. Rather it uses cultural mimetic action to present emotional content. However the work has a clarity of performance it can be ‘read’ in a sense, this may be an outcome of some very good photography. An interesting paper which may challenge a reader, positively, and contribute to an ongoing debate about what counts as data.

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