[-empyre-] Research in Practice, week two, January 14-20

[Cecile Chevalier]

Hello & Bonsoir...

"Am I so changed by the research process or by the creation one ? How is it for others artists-academics ?"
I don't see the two being separated - that is if you mean 'research process' as the writing/reading/evaluating data - my research feeds my practice with new objective perspectives... I would make art work -> exhibit as a 'Beta_Space' -> read/write -> rework the art work > exhibit as a 'Beta_Space' -> read/write -> final exhibition. Both creative and research processes completes me as an artist, and allows for my practice to grow. Before starting my PhD, my methods in my art practice were similar - just not as in depth, thorough and I was not as aware of them.  

I think this is also bring us back to Maria's question "How do we set up methodologies for practice-based research students[& practitioner]?" How has your methods changed from being an artist away from the academia to a 'creative research practitioner' or vise-versa?


"How do other invited persons see the relation between art practice teaching and research ? How do other artists (that don't have a phd) teach?"
Although I have not yet completed my PhD, I have been teaching practice on BA courses (y1,2,3) since 2005 or 06 (Moving image, fine art, visual research, digital media and photography).  My roles were labeled differently depending of the university I was working in (Sessional/Part-Time-Lecturer or Associate Tutor) but effectively I was/am doing the same job. It seems, from my perspective, that lecturer not only need to have their usual expertise, their also need to be flexible in what they can teach - I was fortunate that my practice evolved from related medium, so that my research (inc. methods, readings and works) could lead me to contribute to various teaching courses. 
As I say I started teaching before my PhD at the University of Brighton - initially through a teacher training course  - then through applying for a lecturing position that I didn't get but instead they offered me another lecturer position which was perfect, since then I have not stop teaching but never on full-time basis. Today, it seems that having a PhD is a 'desirable' requirement for teaching in universities.

Cécile






________________________________________
From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au [empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] on behalf of aslemeur at free.fr [aslemeur at free.fr]
Sent: 16 January 2013 17:28
To: empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Research in Practice, week two, January 14-20

Hi everyone,

Sorry for not writing english very well. If I want to take part in
this discussion as I accepted to, I have to write faster than I
usually would.
And sorry to give my thougths as a kind of bloc...

For the current discussion : In France, before the dissertation (PhD)
defense, you receive 2 reports that tell if you may defense (or not)
and present qualities of weaknesses of the dissertation. So you may
prepare your defense partly on that.
Of course, the quality of the discussion depends on the fields
closeness of the Committee to yours. The assistence may assist to the
defense but can not ask questions. They usually sit behing the defender.

To restart with initial general points :
I wanted to do a Phd in arts without knowing what it was. I was just
starting my own art practice in a way. Delightfully. Passionately. As
something I was longing for.
At this time I had no desire to look for a job, and the student status
was perfect form me (I was 23 years old). During my PhD (8 years long,
I needed to get older !) I did not get much supervision (what is
alright) probably 3 meetings with my director at the end... I
alternated practice periods and writing periods.
But in a way, I write all the time but the research way of writing
requires more concentration and synthetic efforts. I must add that I
have been writing and reading a lot since childhood. Artists that are
attracted by/with doing a phd must not fear spending much time with
books.

I was happy to get a position at the university. It is a real luxury.
I never believed I would get one.
It is a wonderful way to avoid having a boss, to get a regular salary
without too much stress, while teaching is a very interesting job,
allowing you to go on with self education (training). And 8 teaching
hours a week, 6 months a year is a good deal.
Of course you have then to organise the week or the month (or the
year) in order to do teaching, creation and research - each of them 3
could take the whole week to be well lead. Which is not possible. One
at least must be sacrificed.

I chose to focus on research-creation of course and not teaching. I
spend as little as possible (generally one day a week) to prepare my
courses (I teach art practice, which is a different type of
methodology and discourse from theoretical teaching). The work I do
(creation/interaction of 3D image in programming language) is time
eater (for the non programmer I am). Moreover university does not have
material nor space (some money but you have to apply for, to have
'contacts' with the team leader etc.) for the research. So I worked a
lot on my own ideas-project outside the university. 12 years.

This choice has a negative consequence : I don't make an academic
career. I only know some of my colleagues and I still don't get any
master course even now that I have been making efforts of integration
(the second negative point for this tentative of 'career' is that I
made my phd in another parisian university, not in the one I teach.
France is known for its chapel gangs isn't it ?)

Besides not having a master course (which is not that tragic, and I am
sure I will get one before retirement !!) , the negative point to be
an artist at the university in France is that nobody believes here
that accademics in art may be artists. Nobody believes that university
can 'educate' artists. Art universities have a very bad fame. I was
even advised a few times not to mention my university position in my
curriculum to get a better recognition from the (french) art milieu...
Of course abroad it is quite different. The word 'Sorbonne' may open doors.

What I like in doing research : by research I mean writing, publishing
articles, doing talks... on my own practice. I write in order to
deeply understand what I do, to become aware of sub/unconscious
concepts or links (and what is programming in art). And I am always
surprised to see how deep I can go.
I tend to see creation (the long unlinear process of it) as the first
step (even outside ?) of the research process. Of course I reflect all
the time on my own desires/ideas of creation, but the very analytical
and synthetical effort comes after the creation - when I take time for
it. It requires time too.
Sure it produces another work afterwards because of the whole circle
of feeling/thinking.

About being or not being an academic.
I am not sure what this word means. Is it a bit pejorative in english
too ? I am not so much concerned by putting me in a definition or
under a word.
The main difference I see between me (and other 'practicians'
teachers) with my 'theroretician' colleagues is that the time they
spend in books, I spend it in seeing exhibitions (and creating). They
read much more than me and not the same books (I 'only' read
Dostoïevski or reread Beckett). It induces that we don't have the same
references, not even the same way of speaking. It is thus very
difficult to exchange views. Besides, speaking about philosophers,
doing quotations... is socially very impressive, seductive... no ?

I must confess that I have almost stopped reading since I finished my
PhD. I guess I was fairly tired of having worked that much so long
without creating images, and I wanted to go back to practice. The
project I then undertook was megalomaniac. I have just finished it
after 12 years. From time to time (summer time) I try to read articles
but I don't find any nourishment anymore in them. Am I so changed by
the research process or by the creation one ? How is it for others
artists-academics ?

May I finish this long text with a question :
How do other invited persons see the relation between art practice
teaching and research ? How do other artists (that don't have a phd)
teach  ?

Many thanks for this discussion !!

Anne-Sarah
http://aslemeur.free.fr
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