Identifying and isolating data drawn from an artistic process is a fundamental challenge for artistic researchers. Furthermore, analysing this data and excavating the knowledge derived from the process is crucial if the artwork is to represent new knowledge and be ultimately described as research.

In his workshop “Untangling Knowledge”, Dr. John Johnston, UNESCO Chair of Issues Based Arts Education and Conflict Prevention at ArtEZ University of the Arts, began by presenting the concepts and purpose of his research, and offer participants the opportunity to engage in a process of analysis and investigation. Working in small groups te participants explored and untangled an artistic project, presented by IMAE student Xiaobing Lin, noticing the ‘imagined ‘ issues and methods embedded in the process of production.

Each group was presented with image’s and some basic information about the project, to establish a basis for their analysis. This is an exercise of un-entanglement, working from the product of an socially engaged arts practice to decouple the process from the product to recover the multiple relationships, issues and imaginaries involved in the entanglement arts led research.