Visual Matrix Evaluation Workshop: Lesions in the Landscape
Friday 18 September 2015, 09.30 – 12.40
The Box / FREE (booking required via FACT website)
See the new exhibition at FACT and take part in an exciting new visual evaluation workshop!
Lesions in the Landscape examines the impact of amnesia, a condition in which the capacity to retrieve and form memory is lost and the past rendered inaccessible. A major new work by artist Shona Illingworth, it is informed by a collaboration with neuropsychologists and Claire, a woman living with amnesia.
The visual matrix is a technique initially developed at the University of Central Lancashire that we are adapting for the evaluation of art-science collaboration under a Linkage Project funded by the Australian Research Council and run by UNSW Australia. This method of evaluation is designed to assess how a broad range of ‘experts’ from art, science and everyday life engage with exhibitions. It does not presuppose knowledge of either art or science and aims to capture responses in ‘everyday language’.
How it works: Participants are invited to view the exhibition at a specified time and then to attend the visual matrix evaluation in The Box on the ground floor of FACT. Over the course of 50 minutes, participants in the matrix will engage in a process of generating associations related to the aesthetic experience of the exhibition. You will be seated throughout, engage with other participants and be encouraged to provide verbal associations of your exhibition experience, if and when you are comfortable speaking.
No direct questions will be addressed to you and you are not obliged to speak at any point. The matrix discussion will be audio recorded. Following this there will be a short break and a second session lasting no more than an hour where participants will be asked to consider these associations in a discussion. Post evaluation analysis of the recordings will be conducted, and de-identified (anonymised) excerpts will be used for further research, publication and source material of future art-science/Amnesia exhibitions. We envisage producing conference and journal articles that detail the methodological innovation, evaluate the method and demonstrate its potential through presenting the analysis and findings of the test matrix in which you participated.
If you are interested in participating please contact roger.mckinley@fact.co.uk for more information.
Research Team: Professor Lynn Froggett and Dr. Julian Manley, Psychosocial Research Unit, University of Central Lancashire Professor Jill Bennett, UNSW Australia Dr Elizabeth Muller, UNSW Australia Briefing for Participants in Visual Matrix Workshops.
The Visual Matrix is a new research method developed specifically to enable people to respond to art objects, processes and events in a group setting. It has also been used to stimulate imaginative and emotional responses to research topics in the fields of health, social care and citizenship. Because it is led by imagery and visualization it offers ways of understanding experience that do not rely solely on people explaining reactions in words. This is NOT a focus group or conventional group discussion or debate. The method prompts personal associations stimulated by an art experience but the data produced by the matrix is the outcome of the combined responses of the group as a whole, as they accumulate. It makes space for responses rooted in personal memory and feeling, but these are delivered in a context where they are shared with others.
Visual matrix methodology has been tested and validated in the course of research funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and has been used in research in the UK, Australia and Scandinavia. Participants have almost invariably reported that the experience is enjoyable, thought-provoking and rewarding and leads to the co-production of new knowledge Participants in the matrix (between 6 or 35 with approximately one facilitator for every 10 people) assemble in a space where they can work without interruption. No previous knowledge or experience of the method is required. Ethics Approval No: HC15513