Blurring the Lines through Arts-Based Dialogues: A Question of Play?

This study is about blurring lines and boundaries, observing conversations and practices as well as thinking and being in our artistically inspired research, teaching and learning practices. Our agenda is to embrace the uncertain and murky spaces of making art in academic contexts. The study addresses the following research question: How might a collective playful and performative dialogue create a space to blur the boundaries between art, science and pedagogy? This contribution takes an arts-based approach to exploring the research question. The method is operationalised in the form of an arts-based dialogue played out through a live improvised performance at the intersec- tion of the research paradigms, arts and roles within which we are all positioned. The video article is a multi-camera production of an improvised artistic performance led by a voiceover that dra- maturgically ties the study together. The raw material consists of three 20-minute recordings of an improvised performance in which we participate in a multimodal dialogue. In addition, short por- trait interviews with each of the participants are presented during the video to further illuminate our different perspectives. The main findings of this study are fruitful insights at the intersection of performative, pedagogical, and research practices. We explore how this approach can contribute to developing new understandings of what arts-based dialogue, playful research, and the blurring of our lives as artists, students, teachers, and researchers can potentially achieve.