[-empyre-] empyre Digest, Vol 98, Issue 12
Sue Hawksley
sue at articulateanimal.org.uk
Sat Jan 19 00:39:41 EST 2013
Hi
re: Anne-Sarah's point "for me this alternated periods are not easy to
cross because I need energy to refocus/change the mind from one to
another. even from teaching to creating"
This resonates for me. In the general fast-paced flurry of daily
emails, teaching, meetings and pressing deadlines, I find it difficult
to create the 'empty spaces' which facilitate the transition between
the rhythms and identities of the interlinked but distinct aspects of
my practice (artistic, research, teaching, writing, admin etc.). The
teacher-role seem to require being one-who-knows. The practitioner/
researcher requires being one-who-does-not-(yet)-know. The
administrator role wants time-travellers who get everything done by
yesterday. The creator/writer role wants patience - long stretches of
space and time for ideas and understanding to germinate and evolve.
As a dance artist I sometimes work with new media, for example within
digitally-mediated interactive immersive performance environments.
These are often emergent, fluid, unstable, and stretch the performer's
attention in complex ways. The experience of time and space may be
augmented and changed in ways unachievable for biologically embodied-
minded persons. The notion of 'presence' is extended when one is
telematically linked across the planet, or bringing about the
existence of virtual avatar-beings, while 'projecting' in the
theatrical sense to a real audience, and maybe being video-projected
in the visual-image sense, and yet remaining attentive to the lived-
experience of the moving body and those of co-performers. An aspect of
my research involves exploring solutions to help performers cope with
such complex interactivity.
This seems very relevant not just within specialist performance
situations but also in everyday life. So some of the particular
challenges and variety of demands faced working as an artist within an
academic setting could be perceived as useful tools rather than
hindrances - to my practice & research at least.
However - these grand claims for developing skills of interactivity
feel a bit hollow right now. I notice with irony that I'm finding it
difficult to complete this thought, having spent most of this week
filling in forms to meet a specific deadline I now can't transition to
a different mode of writing.... Hmmm.
best, Sue
On 18 Jan 2013, at 01:00, <empyre-request at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au> <empyre-request at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: Research in Practice, week two, January 14-20
> (aslemeur at free.fr)
> 2. Re: Research in Practice, week two, January 14-20 (Donna
> Leishman)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2013 19:34:40 +0100
> From: aslemeur at free.fr
> To: empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Research in Practice, week two, January 14-20
> Message-ID: <20130117193440.1zauge3z2oskk00c at imp4.free.fr>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; DelSp="Yes";
> format="flowed"
>
> Hi
>
> I was probably not clear enough. I wanted to know if other
> academic-artists would have stopped reading (or any other practice)
> after completing their phd and having returned to a deep-intense
> practice (creation + exhibition). And if yes, how they would analyse
> their change.
>
> Writing an article on a piece and deepening the same art piece are
> inevitably linked, but exist in sepatated moments. I can't focus on
> producting a piece and finish an article (or even a book !) at the
> same time. (Or can you ? great !!)
> for me this alternated periods are not easy to cross because I need
> energy to refocus/change the mind from one to another. even from
> teaching to creating.
> (but probably programming language is anyway a big jump for the mind).
>
> About changing methodologies (or methods) thanks to/after the process
> of writing/reading/analysing (doing phd) etc.
> I wonder how a Penone or any other great artist (without phd) teaches
> 'art practice' to art students. I have not had this experience as a
> student. Any comment ? For me, to teach art research is easier than to
> teach art practice.
>
> Regards,
>
> aslm
> Cecile Chevalier <C.Chevalier at sussex.ac.uk> a ??crit??:
>
>> 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.
>>
>> C?cile
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> 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
>> Dosto?evski 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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>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2013 20:04:13 +0000
> From: Donna Leishman <D.Leishman at dundee.ac.uk>
> To: soft_skinned_space <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Research in Practice, week two, January 14-20
> Message-ID:
> <8810ADF445E1344883CE6145288A9ADB149ECC8B at AMXPRD0410MB352.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com
> >
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"
>
> Hi Cecile
>
> ?I wanted to know if other academic-artists would have stopped
> reading (or any other practice) after completing their phd and
> having returned to a deep-intense practice (creation + exhibition).
> And if yes, how they would analyse their change.?
>
> I did an 80% practical thesis (80% time spent on creative practice ?
> note the written text was still up at 50,000 words all counted). So
> the PhD didn?t halt deep practice. However I can?t say academia and
> the pressures for easily digested new knowledge in the form of words
> rather than image hasn?t eroded the frequency of deep practice.
>
>
> ?About changing methodologies (or methods) thanks to/after the
> process of writing/reading/analysing (doing phd) etc. I wonder how
> a Penone or any other great artist (without phd) teaches 'art
> practice' to art students. I have not had this experience as a
> student. Any comment ? For me, to teach art research is easier than
> to teach art practice.?
>
> This is an interesting question, I?ve taught in two art schools ?
> Glasgow a small specialist artschool and Duncan of Jordanstone as
> part of Dundee University ? and have spent more time teaching in
> studio than teaching ?research students? that said I approach
> training both undergraduates and postgraduates how to research, how
> to innovate, how to reflect and how to critique divined straight
> down from my PhD experience - I don't edit this. This hasn?t always
> been easy on the undergraduate student, but even as a seasoned
> academic I maintain excellence is always hard fought. This resonates
> with Talan's description that research isn't some foreign experience
> to artist process.
>
> Best wishes,
> Donna
>
> The University of Dundee is a registered Scottish Charity, No:
> SC015096
>
>
>
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> End of empyre Digest, Vol 98, Issue 12
> **************************************
Sue Hawksley
sue at articulateanimal.org.uk
http://www.articulateanimal.org.uk
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