Art-based research is a mode of formal qualitative inquiry that uses artistic processes in order to understand and articulate the subjectivity of human experience.
[6][7][8][9] Subsequently, the concept of art-based research was defined by Shaun McNiff, professor of Creative Arts Therapies at Lesley College, as 'the systematic use of the artistic process, the actual making of artistic expressions in all of the different forms of the arts, as a primary way of understanding and examining experience by both researchers and the people that they involve in their studies.
'[10] It was later additionally defined as 'research that uses the arts, in the broadest sense, to explore, understand, represent and even challenge human action and experience'.
This domain of arts-based knowledge translation has been developed by Mandy Archibald, assistant professor and interdisciplinary artist at the University of Manitoba and others.
[24] Today, art-based research is employed not only in arts education, but also in health care, management, the social and behavioral sciences, and the technology sector.