Hello Duilio,

If i understand the intention correctly there are two distinct aspects. You want to access the artists' experience of the creative process using phenomenology, which places emphasis on their own understanding. And then, interpret this experience from the standpoint one of the theoretical frameworks of cognitive science, involving a move towards the more conceptual and theoretical language which may go beyond (or even counter to) the artists' own understanding. One approach that does both is Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) developed by Smith and colleagues. IPA integrates the phenomenological focus on specific experience as meaningful to participants (idiographic) with the process of theoretical interpretation enabling certain level of generalization (nomothetic). Its ontological and epistemological underpinnings are broad enough to accommodate most theoretical positions rooted in the interpretive paradigm. And, coming from the field of psychology, it is very well operationalised (at least this is what i understood form your term 'structured') - comes with detailed and understandable description of the steps of analytical process while still leaving quite a lot of wiggle-room. Although its main source of data are interviews, the videos you described essential appear as unstructured interviews with a single question, so i think it could work too. Reference below:

Smith, J. A., Flowers, P., & Larkin, M. (2009). Interpretative phenomenological analysis: theory, method and research. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Hello Martin,

And many thanks for your help. Yes, your understanding of my aims is quite accurate, and I meant with the term "structured" something close to your "operationalized". I was already aware of the Interpretive Phenomenological Approach, even though I did not know it in detail, but at this point, following your advise, I am gonna have to go through that more in depth. I only hope that the IPA can be really applied to the video data source I have in mind. Here is a possible example of these video tutorials by Illustrator Cynthia Sheppard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI3pH_Vd54w

Dear Duilio,

I'm not sure it can be helpful for you, but your question made me think to this paper:

Mollo, V., & Falzon, P. (2004). Auto- and allo-confrontation as tools for reflective activities. Applied Ergonomics, 35(6), 531‑540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2004.06.003

It presents "a methodology of assistance to reflective activity, based on confronting participants with the video recording of their own activity or that of others".

Could be interesting for you. Good luck with your research,

Jerry

Hello Duilio,

First of all, i am not an expert on the IPA, just a student that spent a good bit of time with it. Moreover, my use of it too it a bit beyond its original intention. So don't take the following as a word of authority on the subject.

one of the nice things about IPA is that going over it in depth is not that time demanding being a relatively new approach, you can crack through the main conceptual work in a space of 15 or so articles and one book. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the process itself which is very time-intensive (you have been warned).

About the videos, i don't see why it could not be applied as long as the artists discuss their own experience in relation to the issues of interest of your project (think of it as an open interview with a single question) One of the issues that i can see as potentially problematic is that you may not have enough material to analyze. IPA assumes working with large amount of data from every participant that discusses the experience in as much detail as possible. At the same time, the video you list is a part of the channel, so you might be able to gather enough between multiple videos. Not sure how consent works in the case of youtube videos, but if your going to be asking them for one, maybe you can ask them for an interview too.

Also, the video (and it is an interesting one) serves more than one purpose, it's a tutorial, reflection on the creative process, learning experience etc. and the phenomenological analysis can focus on any of those, the trick will be to focus it on the issues of interest and filter out the rest. While being upfront about it as a researcher. This will ultimately weaken your claims to generalization, but it will also make the research more honest, which is another plus of IPA

@Jerry,

Thanks for your help. Will definitely take a look to that paper. Actually I was thinking also to the possibility of adopting a mixed strategy where artists are interviewed about their own videos. Maybe the methodology adopted in the paper you suggested can be of help.

@Martin,

First of all, many thanks for your very helpful comments.

"At the same time, the video you list is a part of the channel, so you might be able to gather enough between multiple videos".

I am quite sure that you can find sufficient online material from many artists, precisely because they usually open their free channels to promote their "pay-per-view" material. Within the latter, they often offer hours of tutorials where they discuss the making of their paintings.

"Not sure how consent works in the case of youtube videos, but if your going to be asking them for one, maybe you can ask them for an interview too."

Sure, see above my reply to Jerry.

Best, Dui