[-empyre-] Practice in Research - some questions

[lgm at theorbiolchem.org]

What are the conservative values? Is there such a thing as  
conservative value? What are talking about? Politics?

LGM

Quoting Phi Shu <phishu at gmail.com>:

> @Adrian Miles
>
> you state: "...many examiners can be unsympathetic to such experimentation
> as being academics have gone through honours themselves and internalised
> the conservative values of what counts as research in the academy..."
>
> Surely the "internalisation of conservative values" is something that
> should be resisted, especially in the context of creative practice (even
> when it is "research").
>
> If we are to ensure that "creative practitioners remain at the heart of art
> and design education and are facilitated through their institutional role,
> beyond drawing a salary, as practising artists and mentors of the next
> generation? (Biggs in Smith & Dean 2009:81) shouldn't we perhaps
> challenge said values?
>
> If the "internalisation of conservative values" results in utilitarianism,
> is this a good thing? And  in terms of any impact this might have on the
> arts more generally, is "art" perhaps becoming more conservative? And if it
> is, does it matter?
>
>
>
>
>
> ** **
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> *From:* empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au [mailto:
>> empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] *On Behalf Of *Adrian Miles
>> *Sent:* 21 January 2013 22:50
>> *To:* soft_skinned_space
>>
>> *Subject:* Re: [-empyre-] Practice in Research****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> ah, that is just sad, isn't it? At RMIT I've seen a successful Business
>> PhD that was a box containing objects (I remember a teddy bear only), and
>> loose sheets that was the exegesis. Concealed under a false bottom of the
>> box was a huge archive of notes, quotes, additional free form writing. this
>> was how the candidate got round the admonition to not go over the word
>> limit, etc. In the honours program I work in we embrace mess, but in terms
>> of creative research practices it is risky as the work has to be examined
>> (and many examiners can be unsympathetic to such experimentation as being
>> academics have gone through honours themselves and internalised the
>> conservative values of what counts as research in the academy), and in
>> honours a place in a PhD program (and a scholarship) rests on the outcome.
>> ****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> -- ****
>>
>> an appropriate closing****
>>
>> Adrian Miles****
>>
>> Program Director Bachelor of Media and Communication (Honours)****
>>
>> RMIT University - www.rmit.edu.au****
>>
>> http://vogmae.net.au/****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> On Tuesday, 22 January 2013 at 5:14 AM, Phi Shu wrote:****
>>
>> @Anne-Sarah****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> they justified the removal of that and other critical/questioning content
>> in terms of it not "adding to knowledge," it was an expression of
>> subjective experience, so was irrelevant to the concerns of the PhD thesis.
>> They were also, for the most part, less than enthused about ideas such as:
>> ****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> ...Danykin (2004:6) cites Marcus (1998) in suggesting the use of ?messy
>> texts? as a means of avoiding ?a suggestion of linearity and coherence
>> where these may not exist?. Such a text can ?engage with multiple meanings,
>> conveying the whole without invoking totality. [It can] resist the
>> dominance of the researcher, recognising that work is incomplete without
>> readers' responses...? ****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>>  ?...poststructuralism suggests two important ideas to qualitative
>> writers. First, it directs us to understand ourselves reflexivity as
>> persons writing from particular positions at specific times. Second, it
>> frees us from trying to write a single text in which everything is said at
>> once to everyone. Nurturing our own voices releases the censorious hold of
>> ?science writing? on our consciousness as well as the arrogance it fosters
>> in our psyche; writing is validated as a method of knowing.? Richardson
>> (2000:962)****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>>  ?...research within the creative arts suffers from an inferiority complex
>> in relation to other established academic areas of knowledge. That
>> inferiority complex is not the result of a less valuable knowledge or the
>> novelty of creative arts research but the result of a constant need to
>> justify that research/practice through aims, methods and outcomes that are
>> external to the creative arts.? Santos in Biggs (2009:79).****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> "The apprehension of musical content and structure is linked to the world
>> of experience outside the composition, not only to the wider context of
>> auditory experience but also to non-sounding experience. Approached from
>> the multiple perspectives of life outside music, the materials and
>> structure of a musical composition become the meeting-place of sounding and
>> non-sounding experience.? (Smalley 1996:83)****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> I tend to agree with Simon's last statement re:practice based
>> PhD candidates:   ****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> "It's debatable whether...critical enhancement would have happened if they
>> didn't do the PhD...If the candidate doesn't wish to work in such a
>> critical and contextualised manner then a PhD is probably not the right
>> solution for them."****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> But, for some, critical enhancement can be a bit of a curse.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> PS****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>>
>>
>>
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