Collage Technique

In art, a collage is a collection or combination of artwork. In research, the generation of a collage is used as an enabling or projective technique to facilitate the discussion of, and therefore the understanding of, a research topic. Collage construction has also been used as a teaching technique in order to teach the organizational culture topic to business students.

When the technique is used in research, participants would typically be asked to think about a topic prior to an interview or focus group discussion and to collect images or objects that express their feelings and attitudes toward the topic of discussion. Participants bring these images to the research exercise and use them to form a collage that is then discussed. Research participants come to the research with considered opinions because they have been thinking about the topic beforehand in their collection of visual stimuli. This facilitates discussion.

Alternatively, research participants can be given a set of magazines and newspapers when they arrive at the research exercise and then be asked to look through them to choose images or articles that correspond with how they view or understand a topic. Research participants could also be shown previously made collages and asked to what extent the images still represented their understanding of the topic under research.

The advantage of the collage technique is that it stimulates the nonrational areas of the brains of research participants because it entails the use of [Page 327]visual and often emotionally meaningful imagery. The technique is thought to access a deeper and broader understanding than rational questions alone would generate.

Furthermore, the use of exciting visual imagery can be different and enjoyable for research participants, and so can stimulate more animated and insightful discussion than might otherwise occur. For example, if an educational institution wanted to discern how its alumni viewed it, then previous students of the institution could be asked to attend a research session and to bring any pictures they found in magazines or newspapers that exemplify how they feel about the institution. For some establishments, the images collected may be of warmth (open fires), friendliness (smiling people), and enjoyment. For other institutions, the images presented may be of coldness (fridges, icebergs), avariciousness (open, empty wallets), and indifference. The researcher would use the images as a stimulus to generating discussion about the institution concerned and what the images collected meant to the research participants.