Rhetorical Response: The Art of Research Seminar

Future Reflections Research Group is presently reworking a submission we made to The Art of Research Seminar (2007) publication. Below are a few aspects of our co-authorial/editorial process. These are my reflections. Katz and Katrine  may well have similar/different/additional impressions. 

This submission braids together three different texts:

Text One - The original text written for and read (in parts) at the Art of Research Seminar, Helsinki (October, 2007)

Text Two - Our reflections on the conference

Text Three - An attempt to (among other things) situate FR's work in the broader context of art research.  

As you may know, we're interested in voices, specifically the way they reify different positions. We're writing this publication as a chorus of three voices. To evolve these voices, we've developed character sketches, a technique we used before to generate other papers. 

Text One: The voice of an "particular" academic. "He" is no frills, all business. He may be a little eccentric, in both his ideas and phrasing, though it would be a mistake to call him "colourful." His style is at least dehydrated if not dry.  And yet, he fancies himself a bit of a hero, a hero with a purpose who's marching towards some important goal. A bit like Don Quiote sans the windmills or Sancho Panza. This text is written in the first-person singular position: I 

Text Two: This voice is more uncertain and reflective. Indeed, it almost models reflection in way that references current trends in pedagogical research. The tone of this text is more accessible than Text One. It's expressed from the position of first-personal plural: We

Text Three: This is the voice of the institution...but a kinder, gentler version, if such a thing is possible. It uses an impersonal and passive voice: One 

Text Four: This is (the current) voice of Future Reflections. It occupies specific sites in the submission: the introduction, the conclusion and the footnotes. This text is very much emergent.   

I am in the process of developing a "reverse outline" that attempts to identify some of the foci explored in our paper.