Process Portfolio: Critical Investigation, Research and Reflection
What the domain tests
This domain tests critical investigation: research into artists, techniques, materials and cultural practices, and reflection on how that research informs your own process. The portfolio should show analysis, not biography, and should demonstrate that research changes decisions.
Core rules and concepts
- Research should be purposeful: identify a problem in your practice and investigate it.
- Cite sources, including artist interviews, technical guides, museum texts and critical writing.
- Analyse rather than summarise: explain how a technique produces meaning.
- Reflect on failure and revision, not only on success.
- Connect research to documented experiments in your own work.
Worked example
A student researching repair in ceramics investigates kintsugi, the Japanese practice of repairing broken ceramics with urushi lacquer and gold powder. Research shows that the repair is visible and often understood as acknowledging impermanence rather than hiding damage. The student tests two routes: epoxy with gold mica, and a safer synthetic lacquer substitute, noting ethical and practical issues around urushi allergy and authenticity. In the portfolio, they compare the visual effect of a thick gold seam against a thin one, then reflect that the thin seam better supports their intention about quiet resilience. The research is not a biography of a craft; it changes the student's material choice, scale of repair and exhibition label. This is critical investigation because the source informs a documented decision.
Traps that cost marks
- Copying artist biographies without analysing the work or process.
- Using unsourced images or quotations.
- Writing I liked it instead of evaluating why a process worked.
- Separating research from studio experiments.
- Treating cultural practices as decorative techniques without context.