2020 Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2(2) or semi-structured interviews, as I wanted to experience the artistic process of the organisation and events from a ‘natural’ setting. I felt that interviews could have manipulated my experience as an observant participant. I was engaged in informal discussions with the artists, participants and other members of Creative Court as a team member. Throughout the observation process, I was also a participant. This meant the observed were aware of my presence as a researcher as I participated in the process. This strategy was labelled as ‘candid participance’ in observational studies. 21 Being an intern and a researcher at the same time allowed me to ‘explore what people actually do, and not just what they say they do’. 22 As an intern of Creative Court, I had access to the events that Creative Court organised and participated in. This included the 2019 World Conference on Statelessness and Inclusion organised by the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (‘ISI’). Creative Court participated in that Conference with their partner organisation, Empathy and Risk. They participated through the presentation of their artworks, such as visual photography, video installation, audio installation, poetry, live performances, art experiments and discussion sessions. This conference was the focus of my observation and research; most of my observational data derived from this conference setting. As part of the Conference I attended a series of discussions and exhibits with artists. Observing and participating in those events and discussions helped me to understand how statelessness is currently framed and the concepts behind those frames. Besides the Conference, Creative Court was also working on a new artistic project to illustrate the connection and resilience of stateless people. As an active participant in this artistic research project, I have observed and analysed the types of knowledge and ideas that are being employed to conceptualise and represent statelessness. Data was recorded in a diary with written notes and observations, photos of the artworks and evening elaborations upon the observation data, all of which were analysed later. Insights from the anthropology of art were useful in understanding and examining the role of artistic approaches in the field of statelessness. For example, Alfred Gell’s concept of the ‘anthropology of art’ emphasised the importance of the social context of art production, circulation and reception, rather than the evaluation of particular works of art. 23 By observing Creative Court’s particular artistic approach, this research also goes beyond individual pieces of artwork, and instead concentrates on the ideas, frames and concepts that art-based approaches deliver upon statelessness. Similarly, Austin Harrington argued that the anthropology of art should show how aesthetic frames of perception enter into textual aspects of metaphor, analogy and vignette, into sensuous media of data analysis such as visual images and lifestory narratives; and into conceptions of theatrical qualities in social action. 24 Thus, the anthropology of art is not only concerned with the materiality of artworks, but also retains a focus on the knowledge art produces when people 21 22 23 24 Zina O’Leary, The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project (Sage Publishing 2009) 253. ibid 254. Alfred Gell, Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory (Oxford University Publishing 1998) 3. Austin Harrington, Art and Social Theory: Sociological Argument in Aesthetics (Wiley 2004) 6. 276