The practice based research I have done for my portfolio prototype has included trial and error of testing different microphones (for which type of microphone captures different kinds of sounds to my taste), and also exploring genre and boundaries of taste through playing, which has been interesting for me, and I feel is a constant task in music creation to find new sounds that you like, and to find out what lies outside of that field of what you like.
Because of the nature of my project being trying to find the furthest points in the region of my taste, it has involved research by way of exploring this region by playing, but also by examining my feelings towards music that I believe lies in these far out opposing regions of my taste, such as free jazz, and hardcore punk music (being on the side of intensity, in different places of the region, but in a relative side on the axis of intensity vs ambient minimalism).