Research in the creative arts for qualification purposes has developed since the late 1980’s to include creative practice as aspects of both methodology and outputs. The nature of the creative process, and what has been deemed as useful to artist/designer academics, has resulted in many research projects driven by a single researcher, addressing problems of practice from a subjective perspective, with the researcher and the researcher’s actions becoming both the object and subject of the research. This kind of research does not involve other participants and is therefore seemingly precluded from ethical discussion.

A.W. Sprin’s definition of landscape as a process of the “mutual shaping of people and places” implies that the inhabitants of any space are implicated in, but also susceptible to, the shaping of their surroundings. This paper examines such interactions by theorising landscape as embodied, individuated experience of place in relation to representations of landscape. The Vaal Metropolitan area is reflected on in terms of the researcher’s experience of place, where experience of place refers to the consideration of direct (multi-­‐sensory) perception, memories and prior knowledge as well as imaginings of place. This understanding of experience of place is based on a combination of theories of place from the writings of Edward Casey, J.B.

A Structured Reflection Framework To Implement Visual Research As Practise-Based Arts
Research Design Illustrated Within An Applied Photographic Educational Context

Although various South African universities engage with art practice research methodologies, the research designs employed have not been clearly articulated or interrogated as of yet, leaving some work to be done towards answering Loxley and Prosser’s (2005) call for a refinement of arts-based research methods.