Project 2: Focusing on the Research Area. Refine your ideas for research.

At this point, I can summarize my learning about Theoretical and Conceptual frameworks to refine my research. The “Garden” theme has been well represented in visual arts worldwide for centuries; this topic is vast and versatile. One option is to research it in a particular culture, do a cross-cultural study, or research it in a specific historical period or art movement/genre.

I also understand now that I am not interested in researching the phenomena of gardens in visual arts from socio-economic, contemporary interpretations or from an environmental art point of view.

At this point, I have already decided what kind of research I will do. I plan to do a contextual study, not an essay.

Below, I put all directions/options for my contextual study which are interesting for me to explore before I narrow it down to a very specific one:

• Cultural and Symbolic Significance of Gardens in ancient Japanese and Indian visual art;
• Iconography and Symbolism in Garden representation in visual art of ancient Japan and India;
• Plant and Flower Symbolism in ancient Japanese and Indian visual art traditions;
• Spatial representation of Garden in ancient Japanese and Indian visual art;

Below I place the paintings I am interested to cover in my research.

George E.Hein Constructivist Learning Theory,

Exercise 6. Survey the current picture

https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/83909

https://lux.collections.yale.edu/view/object/1882fa52-5035-4939-beac-bc751cb89d58

https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/83909

https://lux.collections.yale.edu/view/object/1882fa52-5035-4939-beac-bc751cb89d58

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/53430

https://www.fujibi.or.jp/en/collection/artwork/03823/

https://www.fujibi.or.jp/en/collection/artwork/03760/

Exercise 7. Keyword search.

In my search, I will use the following keywords:

• Prominent ancient paintings with a “garden” theme in Japanese and Indian Art;
• Kano school paintings;
• Tales of Genji scrolls;
• “Plum Garden in Kameido”;
• “Night view of Sarusawa Pond”;
• Radha-Krishna theme paintings;
• Ragamala paintings;
• “Rasikaprya”, “Gita Govinda” paintings;
• Garden in World Visual Art Traditions;
• Flowers and Plants Symbolism in Asian Art;
• Spatial representation in ancient Japanese visual art traditions;
• Spatial representation in ancient Indian visual art traditions;

The above is not a full list of my keyword searches since every search usually opens up a new search direction. In any case, all keyword searches will be based on the following types of investigation:

• Ethnographic research is “The study of the culture and social organization of a particular group or community…  Ethnography refers to both the data gathering of anthropology and the development of analysis of specific peoples, settings, or ways of life.” See Calhoun, C. J. (2002). Dictionary of the Social Sciences. New York: Oxford University Press
• Historical research is a “Historical method that refers to the use of primary historical data to answer a question. Because the nature of the data depends on the question being asked, data may include demographic records, such as birth and death certificates, newspaper articles, letters and diaries, government records, or even architectural drawings. See Tuchman: The Historical Method (2004)
• The Narrative Inquiry Research method is “. By focusing on narrative, we are able to investigate not just how stories are structured and the ways in which they work but also who produces them and by what means, the mechanisms by which they are consumed, and how they are silenced, contested, or accepted.”
• See Andrews et al. (2008) in Doing Narrative Research. Los Angeles Calif.: SAGE. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10546227
• A Case Study is “A research method that engages in the close, detailed examination of a single example or phenomenon.  …Case studies are often published by ethnographers, participant observers and historical researchers. The study of ‘classic’ cases plays a central role in  training in some fields, especially anthropology, law and psychoanalysis.”
  See Calhoun, C. J. (2002). Dictionary of the Social Sciences. New York: Oxford University Press

Exercise 8. Define your terms.

Here, we have to start building up our own glossary of terms. I will get back to this post later since I don’t have any terms yet.

Project 3. Gathering Data. Quantitative and qualitative data.

Since my research will be a contextual study, where I will examine the subject’s characteristics and different attributes, explore concepts, and describe the phenomena of the Garden, I will use non-numerical information—i.e., qualitative data. These will be the following:

• Textual data ( research, essays, documents/books and interviews done by scholars in the field);
• Visual data ( artoworks);
• Observational data ( ethnographic studies, case studies);