Abstract

Research is often thought of as a process of discovery/uncovering of truth, with map-making as an obvious model for knowledge production. In reference to Michel de Certeau’s concept of Tactics and the practice of hacking this paper argues that how something is used determines its meaning, and that meanings are actively composed by those who create new practices. It suggests that the map is not well-placed to either describe or even acknowledge these multiple meanings, and that the attempt at objective distance hides the researcher’s relationship to the world, presuming a single authoritative account. In this paper I will give an overview of the meaning-making practices that formed my art practice, and introduce ‘gonzo research’ as a way of presenting art-generated knowledge without falling back on the epistemological model of the map.