Bolt, Barbara. “The Magic is in the Handling” in Practice as Research Approaches to Creative Arts Enquiry, edited by Estelle Barrett and Barbara Bolt, 27-34. New York and London: I.B.Taurus & Co, 2007.

The drive of Barbara Bolt’s ‘The Magic us in the handling’ is towards the application of Practice-led research in an academic setting, her background being that of senior lecturer in Visual Media at the University of Melbourne (now the School of Communication and Culture) and a practicing visual artist.

Bolt begins “The Magic is in the handling” with an unpicking of the creative process at work in David Hockney’s creative inquiry into the use of optical devices in portrait paintings, as an example of practice led research. From here, Bolt extrapolates on material exploration as a feature distinguishing practice led research from contemporary empirical evidence based research methods.

Bolt highlights the importance of unpredictable, intuitive elements in Practice-led research, arguing that new ideas in art can only come out of the material process and therefore cannot be planned for at the outset of the research process. Bolt elaborates on this concept, pointing out that there is need for a continuous feedback loop generated by having both a material research process and an exegeses in order for the practice to become useful as research material, and that the material process of art on it’s own cannot constitute research.

 As well as using examples from Hockney’s process Bolt discusses examples from her own art practice that serve to illuminate her argument and ground our understanding of the concepts. Bolt’s argument is well presented, entertaining and convincing.

Zoë Evershed.

A Link to Barbara Bolt's website