Does Research Soothe You? Audiovisual Experimentation, Traumatic Memory, and the Question of the Senses

Abstract

This article examines how audiovisual artistic research can generate sensorial, inter-relational forms of impact when dealing with trauma and vulnerable bodies. Drawing on the film series what it felt like to dream fire I–III and the co-creative exhibition over/exposed, it proposes touch and breath – as theorised by Butler, Irigaray, Quinlivan and Marks – as conceptual and methodological lenses for understanding how bodies engage with research processes. Through phenomenological analysis, the article shows how artistic research practices can unsettle traditional separations between researcher and researched, instead foregrounding intertwined bodily relations that emerge during creation, collaboration and exhibition. While not therapeutic in intent, these practices can produce moments of soothing, connection and shared vulnerability, particularly in contexts of trauma and queerness. The article argues that such sensorial, affective encounters expand prevailing notions of impact and reciprocity in artistic research, highlighting how research processes themselves may provide a ground for collectivity and shared affects between participants, researchers and viewers alike.