A/r/tography as Living Inquiry

Rita L. Irwins’ writings on A/r/tography 

In ‘A/r/tography as Living Inquiry’, Dr. Rita L. Irwin describes a/r/tography as a practice-based methodology involving artists, art teachers, & researchers & their engagement & responses to each other’s work. A/r/tography is a series of reactions between art, education, research, & writing and it performed as a living inquiry. A living inquiry is described as a “living practice, whereby the artist, art educator & researcher get caught up and they experience embodied encounters“… (pg. 903) and as experiential, engaging, “reflexive.. (…) ..responsive“(pg. 903). Irwin describes living lives of inquiry as living, “lives full of curiosity punctuated by questions searching for deeper understandings while interrogating assumptions”, (pg. 901). 

My understanding is that the process of a/r/tography is meant to be non-hierarchical, rhizomatic, and inclusive… so why do I find the writing about a/r/tography to be somewhat exclusive, elitist, and pretentious? While I do find that the ideas presented are at times quite beautiful and poetic… could they be presented in a way that is more inclusive and easier to understand so that artists can relate to the ideas and feel excited to be a part of the process? What are the key examples of a/r/tographic work? Perhaps if they were presented within the writings it would be easier to relate to what the author intended. Was a/r/tography coined by Rita L. Irwin or did she get the original idea elsewhere? Who were her key influences as artists and writers?

~ Paintings with Lexi Lasczik Cutcher & Rita L. Irwin (2016)

Source: http://ritairwin.com/images/RLIrwin%20Gallery/content/ritalexi1_large.html