Sometimes, Indirect is more Direct: Aesthetic-apophatic phenomenological Inquiry

In this article, I present a six-step, multimodal approach to self-reflexivity responsive to hiddenness in research. This approach harnesses making and reflecting to live research questions indirectly and to connect with dimensions that are hard to capture in words. In research, we sometimes travel along hidden corners that are hard to access. I introduce the concept of “meandering,” highlighting indirect (= apophatic) approaches to inquiry where curving around the object of study is central. I choose my approach to be aesthetic–apophatic phenomenological inquiry. My self-reflexive inquiry titled “Living Off Landscapes” (Jullien, 1995) demonstrates my approach and is shared from the view that inner work manifests in public acts like our research. Using François Jullien’s concept “sceneries of living” heuristically, I live various questions and felt concerns related to my movements through European and North American higher education landscapes as a faculty member, educational program director, and artist–researcher. The process of aesthetic–apophatic inquiry guides researchers living their questions and concerns through six movements of alternating experiential and concept-led phases of reading, making, and reflection.