From public document to engaging experiences: arts-based research and knowledge translation

Formal written organisational and institutional documents can serve as intriguing and informative research data. These documents, ranging from official reports, position papers and training manuals to meeting minutes and emails, offer unique contextual insights that researchers can analyse to identify patterns, trends and issues. Despite the potential, however, document-based research remains an underused research method (Grant, 2019; Dalglish et al, 2020). Our research explored how a unique set of public documents – public submissions (letters) to a royal commission – could provide a source for arts-based research and knowledge translation that might engage the public differently with aged care. This chapter describes the methodological way that we used public submissions to Australia’s 2019–21 Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety as data to create multiple arts-based research outputs, extending and amplifying the voices of those who had taken the time to write a submission. We detail two of the ways these submission documents have been used to answer the research question: How can we translate texts into engaging and accessible arts-based outputs that foster authentic engagement and transformative learning experiences?