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

Thu Jan 17 23:19:19 EST 2013

In the Digital Culture and Communication program, where I teach, research
and teaching, as well and research and practice are rather tightly woven
together. First, all of the permanent faculty are involved in research and
practice to some degree. And, we are all interested in alternative output
from research -- be it augmented reality, digital performance,
critical-creative hypermedia, video-essays, what have you. This interest
essentially drives the program; in that, although we all publish
traditional academic essay, we are collectively driven toward seeking other
avenues for demonstrating research and this is built into the course and
exam structure of the program itself, which offers a BS in Digital Culture.

Digital Culture is a new area of study in Sweden, and we are, as far as I
know, the only program in Sweden designated to offer this degree. As such,
we have a lot of flexibility as to how we approach the education plan for
the program, and are seizing the opportunity to invent methods for
knowledge acquisition and demonstration. Many of our classes, rather than
having a traditional exam, are project driven. In my Digital Rhetoric
class, which is really more about the connection between semiotics and
digital media, students address various structuralist and
post-structuralist notions through media practices, presentations of the
work where they must discuss the critical/theoretical aspects of the work,
media studios in which technical training is addressed through the lens of
a critical issue, and group research that leads to a student-led roundtable
session.

On 16 January 2013 at 20:43 Cecile Chevalier <C.Chevalier at sussex.ac.uk>
wrote:

> 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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Talan Memmott, Caput Magnum
Full Digressor of Undefined Arts and Sciences
UnderAcademy College
http://underacademycollege.wordpress.com/
TWITTER: @underacademy
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