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Research and Thematic Investigation
Quick questions on The research workbook explained: H2 Art
7short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is sources plus analysis, not images alone?Show answer
The defining quality of a strong workbook is that sources are always paired with thinking. Collecting attractive images is not research; analysing them is. For each source you include, the workbook should say why you chose it, what specifically it shows (its formal qualities, its meaning, its method), and how it relates to your inquiry and your own making. Images with no analysis are a mood board; images with analysis are evidence within an investigation.
What is recording developing thinking?Show answer
A workbook is not a static collection but a record of thought in motion. It should show ideas evolving: questions raised, possibilities tried, dead ends recognised, directions changed. Reading through it, an examiner should be able to follow how your thinking developed from early, tentative responses toward a clearer understanding that informs the studio work. This visible development is exactly what is valued, because it evidences a genuine investigation rather than a conclusion arrived at without work.
What is linking research to studio work?Show answer
The workbook is where research and making meet. Sources prompt experiments; experiments raise questions that send you back to research; analysis of an artist's method suggests something to try in your own work. A strong workbook keeps this traffic visible, showing how the research feeds the practice and the practice tests the research. This is what makes the thematic investigation genuinely thematic: the looking and the making develop the same inquiry together, rather than running on separate tracks.
What is no visible development?Show answer
A static collection shows no investigation; record ideas evolving, including dead ends and changes of direction.
What is q1?Show answer
What is the purpose of the research workbook? [3 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
What distinguishes a strong workbook from a decorative scrapbook? [3 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
Why should the workbook keep research and studio work connected? [3 marks]
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