Slow moving arts-based methods in sport

Owton, Helen (2016). Slow moving arts-based methods in sport. In: Psychology of Women's Section Annual Conference, 6-8 Jul 2016, Cumberland Lodge, Windsor.

Abstract

This paper considers the integration of arts-based representations via poetic narratives together with artistic representation on dancing embodiment and boxing so as to continue an engagement with debates regarding multiple forms/representations of data in the context of increasingly commodified Higher Education. Like poetry, visual images are unique and can evoke particular kinds of emotional and visceral responses meaning that alternative forms of data might resonate in different ways and stay with the consumer of the representation. Narrative poetry and artistic representations of dance and boxing are aimed at seeing how arts-based methods might unite as a narrative to offer new ways of “knowing” and “seeing” dance and boxing embodiment. Whilst the expansion of the visual arts into interdisciplinary methodological innovations is a relatively new approach, and debating how different arts-based methods interact, concerns are made about the future for more arts-based research in light of an ever-changing landscape of a neoliberal university culture which demands high productivity amidst a reductionist squeezed time frame movement. This is a response to the feminist call for ‘slow academies’ in attempt(s) to change time collectively the fast-paced culture to enable creative and arts-based methods to continue to develop.