Method and Methodology
• Rigour / rigor
'Method' might imply 'rigour'. And in turn,'rigor', 'mortis', so method might be 'madness'. Or: we might want to look for 'madness' in our 'method' to avoid the mortis...
• Etymology
The etymology of 'method' is as follows:
'- ORIGIN ME: via L. from Gk methodos "pursuit of knowledge", from meta- (expressing development) + hodos "way".' Concise Oxford English Dictionary
• Method and art
In the etymology of the term, there may be an explanation for the perceived resistance to method (to adapt Paul de Man) on the part of artists. If, that is, 'the art object does not embody a form of knowledge'. ('Systems Art' belies, this, however.)
In the context of art as research, this resistance owes much to the fact that research-method paradigms are imported - from other disciplines. Hence, research students learn about:
• Qualitative and Quantitative research methods (social sciences)
• Reflective Practice (Teaching; Nursing and Action Research - Sociology)
Or, like me, look to Philosophy and Cultural Theory for procedural support e.g. Post-structuralism.
The resistance - or bemusement - that this generates has, I think, less to do with the fact that these paradigms ill suit the perceived 'intuitive' and serendipitous ways in which an artist works. And more to do with the fact that few address the specificity of the aesthetic, or Aesthetics.
Contentiously, I would argue that the problem of method in art as research would be, in part addressed by a return to Aesthetics; for aesthetic theory e.g. Hegel's enables an analysis of the mechanics of art-making.
Note that Macleod and Holdridge write 'Theory is instrumental to the construction of an appropriate methodology'...
• A designer's understanding of 'method'
Mark Evans: Research method, or 'process'?
for Computer Aided Industrial Design: Rapid Prototyping
• Methodology
A system of methods. People tend to use this term instead of 'method'. Sounds more technical and therefore = 'value added' research.
PhD thesis:
The artist as a multifarious agent: an artist's theory of the origin of meaning
journal papers, book articles, edited books, editorial roles, and conference papers