Reading Notes -Creative Explorations: New Approaches to Identities and Audiences

English Version

Gauntlett, D. (2007) Creative Explorations: New Approaches to Identities and Audiences. London: Routledge.

In this book, Gauntlett proposes a new approach to identity research. He argues that identity should not be studied solely through traditional tools such as surveys, interviews, or quantitative analysis, but rather through creative practices that can capture the complexity of people’s everyday cultural experiences. One of his central claims is that “making is a way of knowing.” According to Gauntlett, when people engage in activities such as drawing, collage, video-making, or crafting, they externalize their cultural identities and social experiences in ways that are often deeper and more authentic than verbal responses to a researcher’s questions.

A classic case presented in the book involves teenagers who were asked to create video diaries and collages to express their relationships with media. The findings revealed that participants, in the process of selecting and editing content, actively appropriated and reinterpreted cultural symbols such as music, television characters, or online imagery. This creative process highlighted how identity is constructed in practice, something that would be difficult to uncover through interviews alone.

This resonates strongly with my own project. In studying Chengdu’s cultural identity, I did not want participants merely to “answer questions,” but instead to express themselves through interactive formats such as card games and collage workshops. The competitive and persuasive aspects of the card game, for instance, encouraged participants to externalize and negotiate their perspectives on Chengdu culture. Similarly, collage and silhouette experiments exemplify Gauntlett’s idea of creative methods: when participants cut, combine, and rearrange visual elements, they are effectively constructing a narrative about Chengdu.

Thus, Gauntlett’s work not only supports my methodological choices but also helps me understand how creative interventions can reveal hidden meanings in cultural identity. His notion of “making as knowing” has become a cornerstone of my project’s research design.

Chinese version

Gauntlett 在这本书中提出了一种全新的研究思路，他认为身份的研究不能局限于问卷、访谈或量化分析等传统的研究工具，而是需要通过创造性的实践来捕捉人们在日常文化中的复杂经验。书中最核心的观点是“通过做来理解”（making is a way of knowing）。Gauntlett 强调，当人们在绘画、拼贴、录像、手工制作这些活动中投入时，他们能够在创造的过程中自然地外化自身的文化认同与社会经验，而这些信息往往比他们直接回答研究者的问题更加深刻、真实。

书中一个经典案例是他让青少年通过“自制视频日记”和“拼贴”来表现他们与媒体的关系。结果发现，青少年在拍摄和剪辑过程中，会主动挑选、组织和再现他们的文化符号，比如流行音乐、电视角色或网络图像，而这些创造性的选择揭示了他们的身份构建逻辑。相比之下，如果只是通过访谈，很可能只得到表面化的描述，而无法触及他们如何在实践中主动建构自我。

这一案例和理论对我的研究启发很大。在成都文化身份的研究中，我同样不希望参与者仅仅“回答问题”，而是希望他们通过卡牌游戏、拼贴工作坊等互动形式，把自己的理解和经验外化出来。卡牌游戏的竞争与说服环节，就像 Gauntlett 所说的“创造性外化”，参与者必须在出牌和辩论中不断修正和强化自己的观点，从而揭示文化身份的协商过程。而拼贴和廓形实验更是与 Gauntlett 的“创造性研究方法”高度契合：当参与者剪裁、组合符号时，他们实际上是在构建一个“关于成都的视觉化叙事”。

因此，Gauntlett 的研究不仅为我提供了方法上的理论支持，也让我理解到创造性的干预活动如何帮助研究者更好地发现文化意义。这种“通过做来理解”的思路是我整个研究框架的重要基础。