Dialogical correspondence of socially-engaged participatory arts research project

Since socially engaged art projects aim for a transformative impact when tackling challenging societal issues, some of its most fruitful outcomes and impacts are experienced when perspectives and perceptions change. Such transformation can be felt both by those participating in the work and by the project partners, and this chapter aims to further understand such experiences of stakeholder engagement through the development of a critical theoretical model and its application within the context of design-led participatory research. The notions of correspondence and dialogue are introduced to help comprehend human interaction and delineate research relationships, respectively, and when combined, they are used to conceptually underpin a storytelling tool for narrative elicitation and as the critical lens through which the results of the storytelling are analysed. These results of using this dialogical correspondence model identify three main themes which appear when constructive research partnerships are developed: that new knowledge emerges from the interstices of collaboration and the network of networks present in partners’ life and work experience; that situational or operationally derived meaning (and the lack of common terms and a universal language) is often necessary to build strong connections and that uncertainty and ambiguity are a key condition for constructing interdependence, meaningful engagement and dialogical exchange. These three themes can help researchers and practitioners discern anticipated or unexpected relational challenges in socially engaged art projects.