Sticking pieces together – representing messiness in consumer research through the use of collage

This paper presents collage-making as an art-based research method that can be engaged throughout the research process in order to enhance a reflexive consumer research practice. We argue that such an approach is specifically useful for researching contested spaces, as collage can help navigate the ‘messiness’ of such research. To illustrate how collage can support a critically engaged academic practice, we present an on-going collaboration between the authors that explores consumer culture in a conflict setting. We show that when taken on as a comprehensive, reflexive approach to consumer research, collage-making facilitates an exploration of research contexts in a more affective, interactive, contextualised, and embodied manner. In this way, collage allows to communicate research contexts as they are lived and experienced, rather than through the lens of pre-existing structures of research.