Isahbella Rai is a PhD candidate in Law in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS). Her PhD focuses on analysing freedom of artistic expression under the European Convention on Human Rights.
In the below post, Isahbella shares the work behind her researcher-led initiative, ArticuLab, which was awarded funding by the Researcher-led Initiatives (RLI) scheme.
The Vision behind ArticuLab
As a creative thinker with a deep passion for art, I’ve always been drawn to the intersection between art and the world around me. In academia, research communication often sticks to the tried-and-true formats like structured journal articles, reports, and formal presentations. While effective, these methods can sometimes curb creativity and limit engagement. Creativity embodies essential human qualities such as curiosity, inventiveness, and the drive for discovery ā traits that fuel both innovation and research. Recognising this, I founded ArticuLab, an initiative that explores creative practices for developing the critical thinking and communication skills of academic researchers.
ArticuLabās Hands-On Workshops
ArticuLab facilitated workshops centred on two primary activities: collaging and writing poetry. The Communication through Collaging workshop encouraged participants to think visually about their research. By responding to prompts that pushed us to explore visual language, we played with images, colours, and layouts to represent complex concepts.
We each created two collages. The first, using only black-and-white images, encouraged us to focus on the conceptual significance of our images instead of their aesthetics. The second, prompted us to explore how words and visual elements interact by incorporating colours, self-made sketches, and text.
The Working with Words and Poetry workshop took a different approach, guiding researchers to translate their academic work into poetic form. Poetry, with its emphasis on rhythm and brevity, allowed us to condense and convey our research in a powerful way. Our narratives not only captured the essence of our research; they infused academic topics with an emotive dimension that reveals the passion, curiosity, and personal engagement that drives academic research. This bridged the gap between researcher and reader.
ArticuLabās Creative Conference
ArticuLabās activities culminated in a conference that broke away from traditional academic presentations. The conference welcomed researchers to spotlight creative aspects of their work through creative formats, including pixel art and illustrations.
One standout presentation featured a researcher who was inspired by the use of art in her counselling therapy sessions, who created sketchbooks filled with drawings to document her research journey. Another researcher shared how she used the software Obsidian to manage her visual data, which vastly consists of captivating digital doodles depicting encounters and thoughts during her research journey.
The conference was more than just a showcase of how creativity is used in our research journey; it was an interactive platform for discussing creativity in academia more widely.
ArticuLabās Impact
ArticuLab succeeded in bringing together researchers from various disciplines, all united by a passion for creativity. This initiative fostered an environment ripe for interdisciplinary collaboration, demonstrating the benefits of arts-based pedagogy for enhancing critical thinking and promoting meaningful discourse. Each of us left with a renewed sense of creativity and enthusiasm for academic research.
It was incredibly rewarding to bring to life activities I had been searching for, and to see them embraced so warmly by my peers. I believe ArticuLab serves as a guiding light for integrating creativity into research communication and development. I am grateful to the Doctoral Collage for awarding me funding for ArticuLab, and I hope ArticuLab inspires more initiatives that explore the transformative power of creativity in academia.