Drawing and painting as inquiry
In my research I use drawing and painting (both digital and hands on) as modes of inquiry. For me these methodological approaches become acts of embodied and ethical attentiveness and reflexivity in research. A tuning into the more-than-human relations and mobilities of perception-expression, which I as a researchers-artist continuously engage in as part of research creation.
Images from my Doctoral thesis
Renlund (2025). Unsettling Aesthetics in Environmental Education Research and Practice with Children
Rhizomatic Patchworks
As part of my arts-based scholarship I have developed the methodological approach of Rhizomatic Patchworks, which draws on the philosophical concept of rhizome (Deleuze and Guattari’s, 1987) and welcomes the endless, unpredictable and nonlinear connections of research creation. From a methodological perspective this allows for unconventional, curious and unruly practices. The process involves threading together stories, theories, ideas, concepts and images into elaborate visual-textual patchworks.
Images from academic publication
Renlund, J., Kumpulainen, K., Byman, J., & Wong, C. C. (2023). Rhizomatic Patchworks: A post-qualitative inquiry into child-environment-researcher aesthetic encounters. Digital Culture & Education, 14(5), 107-126. URL: https://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/volume-14-5
Visual-Sonic Montaging
In my research I have experimented with combining charcoal drawing and ink painting with video and sound creation. These processes developed into the methodological approach of Visual-Sonic Montaging. This approach works as a sensuous practice to tap into the more-than-human affective and embodied dimensions of empirical materials and creates a process of multiplying data, in which the affective and performative capacities of empirical materials becomes palpable.
Montages from academic publication
Renlund, J., Kumpulainen, K., Byman, J., Wong, C. C., & Sintonen, S. (2024). Aesthetic flux: inquiring into the sensuous dynamics of children, matter and environments with a more-than-human lens. Environmental Education Research, 30(7), 1076–1092. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2024.2350675