Circus studies
Lucie Bonnet, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Litt&Arts, 38000 Grenoble, France
My name is Lucie Bonnet and I am currently in my first year of a PhD studies in Performing Arts at the University of Grenoble Alpes. I belong to an artistic field which is at the core of my research, that is circus studies. This contribution aims at illustrating the notion of ‘practice-led research.’
Through my experience as an amateur circus performer, I find myself at the heart of the same practices that I study, which results in a dual posture between research and practice. ‘Practice-led research’ is a framework that has allowed me to embrace this duality and to incorporate my own physical experience from circus into my theoretical analysis of this domain. There are two sides to this research method: firstly, the scientific fruitions are the result of creative work as a form of research; and secondly, the practical training and process of creation together lead to lines of questioning that make experimentation possible and, further, lead to theoretical writings. More precisely, my acrobatic practice has become a methodology, a resource, and a field of observation.
The term "practice-led-research" was first introduced to me as part of my doctoral studies, regarding my research approach, my methodology and the positionality I was trying to define. This notion allowed me to develop a non-neutral stance in the observation of circus creative processes. Indeed, by considering the creative practice as a source of inquiry, but also of knowledge, the positionality through which I join artistic teams has therefore been questioned and debated. The term ‘practice-led research’ holds a two-fold resonance, which has been made clear through my experiences with fieldwork. First, it makes it possible to consider my personal circus practice as a primary interpretive reading grid of the acrobatic acts whose content and significance I grasp in light of my own experience. Secondly it attests to the theoretical and reflexive burden emanating from the processes of artworks that are not only fields of investigation, but also scientific resources.
To conclude, the notion of ‘practice-led research’ incites a renewed interrogation into what is at the origin of my research production. It is a scientific behavioural guide that privileges the combination of research and artistic creation, as well as helping in legitimizing our own experiential and physical knowledge as tools of analysis and posturing.
Cite this item: Lucie Bonnet, “Practice-led Research”, translated by Caroline Schlenker, Performascope: Interdisciplinary Lexicon of Performance and Research-Creation, Grenoble: Université Grenoble Alpes, 2021, [online]:http://performascope.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/fr/detail/177875
