My research question has evolved through this process, but the inquiry has stayed the same. See: APPENDIX A - The Research Proposal. From the beginning I knew I wanted to do work in a durational format and use autobiographical and psychological orientation of contextualist methodology. I wanted to work from my own person and communicate a very personal emotional experience – as is often done in performance art where an idea or a feeling is communicated over a story (Performance Art Resources, 2024). In hindsight, I was trying to play by the book, thinking what I should have done to do performance art rather than theatre; the idea of devoting oneself to this strenuous task that unfolds over time, the idea of rituals and overcoming a big mental challenge, for example a fear.

As the process developed and I learned more about the artform, and myself as the maker of it, I began challenging what it was that made me want to do this piece and what the meaning of it was to me personally as opposed to just doing the ‘right thing’. My paradigm expanded from qualitative to performative (Bolt, 2008). Bolt introduces Haseman’s definition of performative research as: “[…] interpretative methods and outcomes arising out of creative arts, which are drawn from the working methods and practices of artists and practitioners.” (2007). This thought freed me to consider my work and research as opposed to the more scientific methods and move towards: “[…] does things in the world [,] repetition with difference [and] 'truth' as force and effect”, rather than: ” […] describes/models the world [,] repetition of the same [and] truth as correspondence” (Bolt, 2008).

When I allowed that to happen, a new methodology and way of working emerged. I came to call it Dreaming as a Creative Method. This was an inwards inquiry as the research requested: I would work in a meditative state and imagine, visualize, and dream in the framework I had set out for myself without an expected outcome. I began from the following questions. How could I communicate how I feel? How can I express/show/tell/put into words what this means to me – when the words do not exist in the vocabulary? What form or devices can I use to communicate it?

After struggling to ram this research – its form and subject matter – into a coherent research question, I have come to a conclusion that this project researched the convention of performance art alongside theatre, and the method of creating a performance piece with this knowledge, in this framework. From this was born the title:

“Performative inquiry: a process of dreaming in creating a durational performance piece KODISTA (Of Home, Homing).”.