Focus on Research| How to Begin Researching a Topic PART TWO

In Part One of this post I outlined the ideal sequence for locating sources for a university  research paper, emphasizing the importance of accessing peer-reviewed and verifiable sources of scholarly information ahead of the typical Internet search that so many students erroneously begin with. I want to stress here again that Wikipedia is very useful for a general overview or "taste" of a subject area ahead of scholarly research, but should be used with caution and never replace a solid search effort.

In this post I will discuss more specifically how to identify and focus research on a topic, providing some useful tools to refine and pinpoint your efforts while researching library databases.

Dada is the subject of research and the topic I choose will narrow the research focus

IDENTIFYING A TOPIC

A good topic will fit within the boundaries of the subject and not be too general or too specific. First, make sure to read over the assignment instructions very carefully and highlight the specific areas that your final paper must cover. Note any restrictions or parameters for the paper (for example: topic must be related to Twentieth Century, cannot include artists already discussed in class, must utilize readings discussed in class etc...). Also, make sure to locate the main point/reason that the professor is assigning the paper.  This is a critical step when formulating a topic question that will eventually lead to your thesis or core argument in the paper. With art and film history and most visual culture and performing arts research papers, you will almost always need to consider the relationship between individual producers/artists and their body of work (art objects, films, performances, images etc...). Here it is useful to start thinking about which individual producers/works might interest you.

Using the Dada research example I started with in Part A, you could approach a topic in the following ways once you have a general overview of the subject area you are interested in (more variations exist of course, but make sure to think about how you might proceed as you begin formulating your topic):

1. comparing/contrasting different artists/producers  (i.e. the work of one Dada artist compared to the work of another);
2. consider one body of work on its own (i.e. studying the development of Marcel Duchamp's art over time);
3. consider a larger category of producers/works through their distinguishing features/theories (i.e. studying the readymades/theory of art of Marcel Duchamp as they relate to the category of readymades/theory of art of other artists);
4. consider a common theme/theory/shared concern that is reflected in one area of study (i.e. looking at the theme of the "everyday" as it emerges in the Dada movement)

WRITING A TOPIC QUESTION

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain (1917)

You could pick one work of art (such as Duchamp's Fountain (1917) and think about how it has influenced other related works. The next step in the process is creating a topic question (or questions if you want to test a few ideas) that pose a relevant and important question that can be answered in your paper. At the beginning of the research process, this question will also help guide your efforts towards the right sources and begin to focus your approach. Also, this key step will prevent you from writing a merely descriptive paper that has no clear argument.  In other words, the answer to your topic question will help create your argument/thesis when you begin the writing process.

Sample topic questions based on my Dada example noted above could include:

1. What are the similarities and differences between Marcel Duchamp and Tristan Tzara as Dada practitioners? (here I would likely pick 1-2 works of each to compare and contrast)
2. How did the work of Marcel Duchamp transform from his earlier years living in France to his later works created in the United States? (here I would chose 3-4 works to discuss)
3. How does Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917) influence the work of other artist’s producing readymades in the twentieth century? (here I would pick 3-4 artists and an example of their readymades to compare and contrast)
4. How does the theme of the "everyday" emerge in relationship to the work of Dada artists? (here I would pick 3-4 artists and an example of their art to compare and contrast)

TESTING YOUR TOPIC IN A SEARCH

Once you have your topic question(s) formulated, you can test your topic through library catalogue and journal database searches at the library. Make sure to extract key words for your search. In my example, “Dada”, “Marcel Duchamp” , and “readymade” are obvious first picks.

You could simply begin by entering each of these terms separately into a database to generate materials (remember to use quotations around phrases or names).  If however you are finding too much information and too many sources, narrow your topic by using Boolean Operators such as AND, OR and NOT to fine-tune search results in library catalogues and databases (some special databases also let you refine the search through checking boxes—make sure to look for these functions on your chosen database)

For example:

The Boolean Operator AND narrows a search often producing fewer but more relevant results.

• If I wanted to find information about Dada artworks as they relate to Marcel Duchamp: Dada AND “Marcel Duchamp”

The Boolean Operator OR broadens a search – results contain either term or both terms.

• If I wanted to find research the Dada movement as it related to more artists: “Marcel Duchamp” OR “Tristan Tzara”  

The Boolean Operator NOT narrows a search – results can contain one term, not the other.

• If I was not interested in Marcel Duchamp for my topic and was getting too many hits on Dada related to Duchamp:  Dada NOT “Marcel Duchamp”

Truncating a search term allows you to search for a range of word endings within one search.

• If I was interested in all variations of the word “Dada” in a search, typing a * after the word Dada (Dada*) will pick up all variations such as “Dadaism” or “Dadaist”

Finally, Phrase (or proximity) searching combines two or more common words together to form a specific and unique search term. Phrase searching allows you to combine words so that your search only produces results where the words are next to each other in the order you have specified.

• The phrase search “Marcel Duchamp readymade” for example, if you are looking for information on that particular category of Duchamp’s work, will produce more relevant results than a search using the same search terms such as: “Marcel Duchamp” AND readymade.

Rethinking Salvador Dali's Engagement with Pop Culture

Screen shot from Dali's appearance on the 1950's game show "What's My Line?"

A Dali concept drawing from 1945 for the Disney cartoon  Destino

Somehow I have never quite understood how the cult of celebrity surrounding Salvador Dali has been able to persist (pardon the pun) for so long. But then again, I have come to Dali via an art historical discourse that has largely been critical of the artist’s blatant commercialism, ambiguous political affiliations, and a sensationalist visual vocabulary that appeals through its facile figurative idioms—imagery that is both misogynistic and in later years perceived as plainly conservative and even strangely traditional. Dali’s work and legacy has also seriously displaced the legacy of the Surrealism art movement's founder Andre Breton, who contemptuously nicknamed Dali  “Avida Dollars” (greedy for dollars) after a falling out between the former friends in 1939. As a result, Dali’s career has been divided by many art historians into what is understood as his productive and avant-garde period (1929-1938), and his neo-traditional and “anti-modern” commercial period (post-1940). 

Screen shot from Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945)

In recent weeks however, Dali has popped up on my radar through discussions with students concerning Dali’s critiques of high modernism and his engagement with the world of popular American filmmaking, television, and advertising following the Second World War. For example, one of my students brought to my attention the short animated cartoon Destino that was a collaborative project initiated between Dali and Walt Disney in 1945. The cartoon project is both fascinating for its look and feel and suggests how experimental Disney actually was during a period of Hollywood film history that saw the avant-garde influence of Europeans popping up in unexpected ways (as in the genre of American film noir). In the same year of the Disney collaboration, Dali also worked with Alfred Hitchcock on the classic psychological thriller Spellbound, which features a long dream sequence that the artist was asked to direct and design. Dali’s final version ran twenty minutes in length and, like the Destino treatment, revels in surrealist imagery and motifs that were far removed from the typical look and feel of a Hollywood film. In the end, Hitchcock was forced to cut the sequence down substantially for fear that audiences would find that part of the film too disturbing, and like the Disney cartoon project which lay dormant for 58 years (until Disney Studios France completed the project and released the work in 2003), there was something still radical, provocative, and potentially threatening about Dali’s inroads into what many art historians routinely dismiss as American popular culture.

Take also for example Dali’s frequent appearances on television in the 1950-60’s (particularly on the popular American game shows, “What’s My Line” and “I’ve Got a Secret.”) Watching Dali "perform" on TV reveals something both subversive and fabulously unrehearsed in that Andy Warhol kind of way. I cannot put my finger on it exactly, but I am starting to think about Dali differently. As Charles Stuckey suggests in a recent and astute reassessment of Dali’s legacy within art historical discourse (see further readings below), we need to rethink Dali’s “self-spoofing” antics and keen sense of “multifaceted truths” co-existing in the world of elite and popular culture. Perhaps Dali was closer to a post-modern sensibility than anyone cares to admit (even if his later paintings were still so terrible).

Here are a series of clips including Dali's dream sequence in Spellbound (juxtaposed to his famous surrealist film Un Chien Andalou (1929) co-produced with Luis Bunuel) and his appearances on "What's My Line?" and "I've Got a Secret." To see a clip from Destino (embedding has been disabled, so I cannot feature it below), click here (and thanks Stephen for the original link!).

Further Reading:

Lubar, Robert S. "Salvador Dali: Modernism's Counter-Muse." Romance Quarterly 46.4 (1999): 230.

Strauss, Marc. "The Painted Jester: Notes on the Visual Arts in Hitchcock's Films." Journal of Popular Film & Television 35.2 (2007): 52-56.

Stuckey, Charles. "The Persistence of Dali." Art in America 93.3 (2005): 113. 

Focus on Tech| Assignment Calculator: How to Finish a Paper On Time

A fantastic and useful online tool to calculate the time you need to complete a research assignment without the stress and headache of procrastination

In my post How to Begin Researching a Topic, Part One, I stressed the need to start early with any assignments you have. Looking back to my own experience, it is amazing how much time I spent procrastinating on research in my first and second years of university. I would find myself with bits of research completed here and there, a half thought out thesis statement, and piles of notes stuffed into books without a clear focus or direction. Finally somewhere in my third or fourth year, through trial and error I figured out the concept of scheduling the steps of research and writing to make what was often a painful process into something I felt I had some control over and would ultimately come to enjoy. Learning and mastering time management is a vital part of the university experience, but is often left to students to figure out for themselves. Fortunately we now have many web-based tools to help calculate and create personal calendars to complete assignments on time and with confidence.

In this example, I entered a deadline of November 30, 2010 (click on image to enlarge). The best of these in my opinion is the University of Minnesota's Assignment Calculator with the tag line, "You can beat the clock!"

Simply visit the site, enter the date you are given the assignment, the date the assignment is due, and then select the appropriate subject area of the research (in the screen shot above, I selected "Art and Art History." Press the "Calculate Assignment Schedule" and voila!, you are presented with a clear path and a reasonable timeline to finish the assignment. 

Note that with each step in the process, youare given an approximate date to keep you on track

For Masters and PhD students, the Dissertation Calculatorprovides some direction over the long haul 

With each step, you are provided with tasks to complete and linked to useful online tutorials about how to define your topic, how to begin the process of outlining, and when and how to start writing. Over the years, many universities have quietly adapted the Minnesota calculator and added other useful functions. I especially like the UCLA version of the Assignment Calculator since it addresses the concerns of ESL (English as a Second Language) students, brainstorming techniques, links to resources on citation styles and highlights modules on learning the difference between scholarly and popular sources of information. I suggest using both calculators to access and combine the weekly suggestions and tasks. You can also download a version of Assignment Calculator for your desktop and use it when you do not have access to the Internet.

P.S. For masters and doctoral students, I highly recommend the Dissertation Calculator -- it is one of the only online tools that actually walks PhD students through the mystical process!

Remember, start early, and avoid the pitfalls of late nights and even later papers and assignments. Your time is precious, don't waste it procrastinating. How many all-nighters did it take me in my first and second years to figure this out? Too many! Trust me on that one.

Focus on Research| How to Begin Researching a Topic PART ONE

The research essay season is in full swing and I thought it would be useful to begin a series of posts over the next several weeks covering the different steps in seeing an essay topic to the final written paper form. And if if there is only one piece of advice I can give you now, it is to START EARLY! Once you finish reading PART ONE, you can find PART TWO of this post here.

A scholarly book on Dada that you will only find at your university library

I want to begin with discussing the process of locating sources first even before identifying a specific topic (the subject of Part Two to be posted later in the week) since it is an area of research that has become increasingly more complicated, but also more dynamic, in the range of possible places to search and consult. Also, a good knowledge of searching sources can trigger ideas for your essay topics. Bottom line for students to understand when looking at sources for academic papers-- information must be critically assessed for its sources and tested for its rigour (i.e. how many people actually read and checked the information before it was published). Your professors will be looking for evidence that you did more than a Wikipedia search and a glance through your textbook to complete your research essays.

Ideally, you should conduct your search in this order:

A peer-reviewewd article from Performing Arts Journal  found using JSTOR database

BOOKS:

Your first line of research should begin with an actual trip to the library and a physical search equipped with a title or two that you located with a quick online library catalogue search. Why, when there is so much available on-line? Two major reasons. First, because scholarly books are among the very best and most rigorously peer-reviewed of all the resources you will consult for your papers and very few of them exist online in complete form. Ask any of your professors how long it takes to get a book published and distributed in the world of academia, and you will understand why academic sources are so highly privileged in the world of research.  Second, once you locate books of interest, you are able to look at related books on the shelf and quickly identify other good resources. This is where chance finds and good common sense prevail in research, and there is no virtual or attempted online equivalent to duplicate this very necessary step of the research process.

This issue of Artforum  contains a review of a Dada-related artist

JOURNAL ARTICLES:

After books, scholarly journal articles published in reputable peer-reviewed publications are your next line of research. These articles (mostly available in PDF and HTML full-text format) often represent individual dissertation chapters or long-established projects of academics, thus they are packed with fantastic sources and targeted critical discourse on the given topic. These are the articles that are most available through Academic Index searches through popular online database search engines such as Academic Search Premier, JSTOR, Project Muse, etc. Every academic library has their own system of organizing these databases and instructions and topic guides are often published on the library’s web pages (SFU students look here, KPU students look here). Also check out this "Is this journal scholarly" chart to assess your source.

INDUSTRY JOURNALS:

For research involving the arts, it is often important to consult trade and industry journals (i.e. Artforum, Art News, and Canadian Art) that publish up-to-date art related information, exhibition reviews, and artist interviews. These can often be located in database searches (such as the Art Index) that include these kinds of materials.

NEWSPAPER/MEDIA SOURCES:

important and widely read reviews of exhibitions/films/performances in newspapers and media sources (i.e. New York Times, CBC Arts, Globe and Mail, and the Guardian) are excellent sources of information and can also be found through appropriate newspaper/media databases.

GOOGLE SCHOLAR/BOOKS:

please see my previous blog entry concerning Google Scholar, and note that a search of Google Books is also a great step once the actual visit to the library has been made. The problem with Google Books lies with its unreliability/narrow scope and the simple fact that many pages of books are removed for copyright purposes. It is a wonderful resource however to check out tables of content and bibliographies, but should never be relied upon as a first stop in the search for scholarly books.

INTERNET SOURCES:

• Artist websites: if researching an individual artist/performer/filmmaker, see if they have their own website. These are often useful places to find gathered sources on their work, interviews, and links to projects. Do keep in mind however that any biographical information and/or discussion of the artist’s work by the artist must be weighed for its objectivity.
• Specialty websites and blogs: many good websites and blogs are organized around key topics and themes that may relate to your area of research. Once again, use these sites very carefully and look for links back to scholarly resources. You can also use the Google blog search to target your research.
• YouTube: videos and excerpts showing artistic works, documentaries, and interviews are increasingly available on YouTube. Look in the video’s description for any information regarding the date and original producer of the video, and keep in mind that many of the videos are edited and arranged outside the original context of the visual material presented.  
• Twitter: you can do a search for a key term, person, or individual performance/work in Twitter to assess the general conversation around the idea in the present moment (i.e. search "John Lennon" to see the recent discussion around what would have been his 70th birthday). Often, these searches lead you to useful information in the form of links to reputable on-line media sources.

A book of Duchamp's writings foundon Google Books (many pages "missing" though)

Scroll to the bottom of any Wikipedia page to look for the Notes, References, Further Readingsand External Links that point you to more scholarly sources

TIPS AND HINTS WHILE SEARCHING:

• Once you have a solid selection of books and journal articles, consult the bibliography of each and you can quickly find other potential sources of information for your topic to research and locate.  Also, if you are able to consult the table of contents of any journal that you find an individual article in, you will often find related articles, especially if the article is part of a thematic group of essays (i.e. a special issue on Andy Warhol or German Expressionism).
• If you find a book or journal article that is unavailable at your home institution, you can ask for an Interlibrary Loan and have the material located and delivered to your school. Check with your librarian about how to do this, or search for the term “Interlibrary Loan” through your home library website (SFU students look here and Kwantlen students look here).
•  If you live in a larger city or community, check the library websites of nearby universities/colleges/city libraries/art museums for resources. A trip to another library in town is often worth the extra effort.
• Visit www.amazon.com and check out books that are related to your topic. Once at the website, you can also preview many of the books’ table of contents and quickly assess whether the book is worth checking out and available at a local library.
• While Wikipedia should never be cited directly or appear in your bibliography, it can be used to identify good scholarly sources for further research. Simply scroll to the bottom of any Wikipedia entry and look for the Notes, References, Further Reading, and External Links to identify the source of the information given on the page, or to locate a more reliable source of information. 

Weekly Twitter Round Up

With the Vancouver International Film Festival bidding the city farewell and the cooler days of fall finally upon us, the midterm season descends. Here are a few great finds from the Twitterverse this past (short) week. Pause from study/research, take a break, and check out the following:

Map Of Social Networks Reveals Surprising Shifts (Especially You, Twitter)

Dana Claxton’s new interdisciplinary work is a cultural mashup 

From @NYMag to the Art21 Blog: Guest blogger Marissa Perel chats with @jerrysaltz on Work of Art and more

Why I Hate (Academic) Conferences

Why are so many film editors women?

This is for all you Mad Men fans... WOW

New breed of young socialites are now selling art