Senior BSSS

Interdisciplinary Art

Some interdisciplinary artists

Tips for Art Research

• Break down the question
  • What word in the question indicate the information you have to find?
  • What terminology is telling you what to do in the essay (e.g. describe, critically analyse)?
• Start broad – look at the artists and artworks your teacher has provided. Do any of these artists and their practice interest you?
• Understand the concepts and theories that are the focus of your research. In this case, interdisciplinary thinking in relation to the arts. By understanding the key thinking, characteristics, concepts and practices of interdisciplinary art you are building your vocabulary that helps you to find artists within the scope of interdisciplinary art and draw connections between their practice and the theory.
• Build your vocabulary
  • General art terminology
  • Terminology specific to interdisciplinary art
  • Terminology specific to the artistic practice of your chosen artists.       

                   By building this vocabulary you are also developing your bank of search terms.

• Use a combination of search terms when searching the internet and databases. The advanced search option can help you build your key words search.
• Resources – You must use reputable and reliable resources. Informit Explore and the National Library eResources are good for this as you do not need to check the reliability as this has been done for you. When searching for information on the internet, once you have found a resource and skimmed it to see if it is useful and before becoming invested in it, stop and check who wrote it. Is the author qualified to provide an informed comment on the topic they are writing about? Are they a gallery or museum, curator, art historian, art magazine, had other articles published in reputable art journals, magazines or books, associated with a creative faculty in a university, the artist who created the work you are researching or an artist that is respected in the community?
  • Check the start of the URL in Google results list. Is it a gallery, museum or magazine? If it is a magazine that you are not familiar with, look at their about us page and Google the magazine and review to see what others say about the publication.
• Make sure you can find secondary sources about the artists you choose to research. You need to find at least 3 relevant and quality resources of information for each artist you are researching for this assignment.
• Keep track of your references for articles, artworks, images, videos, etc. Use CiteMaker to do the hard work for you. As soon as you get a picture or start to write notes from a resource write the reference information in CiteMaker.
• Write notes in your own words including page number. If you are tempted to just copy and paste sections of from a digital resource then hand write notes in your art diary or use a Cornell note taking sheet and stick this into your art diary.

Interdisciplinary Art Websites

Databases

          Some Art publications found in Informit Exlpore include:

• Artlink
• Art Monthly Australiasia
• Art Monthly Australia
• ArtonView
• Art and Australia

Books

Print books