Art and Design Research Methods: Section 1

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Section 2

Section 3

Outline of Section 1:
Preface.
What is 'research'?
What is a PhD?
What is methodology?
Some 'art history' methods
What is an Art-Practice-Led PhD?
Summary
References

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These sessions come with the 'health warning' that not only are methodologies and method some of the most difficult things for a new student to grasp, art methods are currently being forged and changed through a process of precedence. 'Method' will need to be returned to with your suoervisors, rather than this session giving all the answers.

Students should have attended the methodology sessions which are part of the generic training offered by the the Graduate Research Service: https://my.sunderland.ac.uk/display/acadev/Courses+for+postgraduate+research+students

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What is 'research'?

Common language usage of 'research' include: people in white coats, women with clipboards, researching family history, actors living as a street-person before a role, political focus groups, testing paint colours for decorating. Write down your own examples of common language usage.

Common artistic 'research' in particular includes: researching local history (for public art), testing materials, peer group reactions, public reactions, etc. Write down your own examples of common 'artistic research'.

Academic research differs from common use of the word in:
Having a formal and public end product (a report, a thesis, with rules and style for each.)
Quality control (ethics, standards, and external approval of some sort).
Institutional support (hardware and people).
Structure (duration, management etc.).
Write down your own examples of how academic research differs from common use of the word.

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What is a PhD?

• A training in how to do research.
  People in the arts often overestimate the status of the doctorate (once you get the gown and hat, you might 'know it all'!) In the sciences a PhD is recognised as quite a junior stage - where you start your research career and learn how to do it. Whilst PhDs are seldom 'taught', Universities vary widely in how good they are at research training. The question of 'status' is often confusing for arts researchers (student or 'know-it-all'?), especially as they often undertake doctorates when older.
  
  
• Breadth and depth.
  You are learning how to become an expert in your field. According to the UK Council for Graduate Education (1997, p.15) "The essence of Doctorateness" involves "mastery of the subject; mastery of analytical breadth (where methods, techniques, contexts and data are concerned) and mastery of depth (the contribution itself, judged to be competent and original and of high quality)."
  
  
• Producing 'original/new knowledge', and communicating that knowledge.
  
  'Original Knowledge' at the very least means that you shouldn't be copying (plagiarism) or duplicating it because you didn't know about other similar work (poor research). Phillips and Pugh (2000, p.63ff) give some reassuring definitions of originality. Beyond that, it is a thorny topic for art-practice in particular. Does original artwork equate to new knowledge? Doesn't every good postmodernist know that nothing is truly original? Is all new knowledge necessarily creative in all fields?
  How would you define new knowledge in your own field? (For further debate see Macleod, 1999b)
  
  ... communicating that knowledge. This is usually taken to mean communicating to one's peers. Personal epiphanies are not sufficient unless communicable. You must communicate clearly, unambiguously, and truthfully. In art this brings up raging debate concerning the format of the dissertation: If scientists use formulae understandable to other scientists, should artists communicate primarily in images to other artists? Currently most Universities demand that dissertations should meet a word-count stipulation. (See general bibliography for many articles on the relationship of making to writing.)

Sometimes it's helpful to define what a PhD isn't by saying how it differs from other academic qualifications:

'Professional Doctorates' such as medical or religious doctorates (Doctor of Divinity). There has been some debate as to whether a DA 'Doctor of Art' qualification (Elinor, 1996; Friedman, 2000) may be more suited to art practice.

M.Phil. (Master of Philosophy) are usually minimum two years instead of three years (full time), and do not have to present 'new knowledge'.

M.A.s (Master of Arts). Write down a list (in two columns) of MA characteristics compared to PhD characteristics. When you've done this, you can compare your list to our examples.

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What is methodology?

Methodology or Methods?

Methodology is a system of methods. Methodology is applied to a whole discipline of study and its values, for example, ethnography methodology concerns the study of bounded populations, everyday activities and includes the values or ethics that the the researcher does not deliberately manipulate the situation. Individual methods might include the collection and classification of artefacts, social observational methods, and interviews of various structures. Methodological values can change through time, and are often under hot debate.

Methods can be independent of subject (grommets, for instance). Grommets could be researched using several different methods, for example comparative (French vs. Japanese grommets), experimental (how to grommets react to being frozen?), historical (grommets in the 17th-20th centuries), etc.

Phillips and Pugh (2000, p.50) very simply divide kinds of research into Exploratory, Testing Out, and Problem Solving. Others take a more detailed approach: You should read through the Allison (1996) Chapter 2.

A rough summary of Allison's basic categorisation of research methods starts with:

Positivism (or quantitative method) a science/social science tradition inferring the generalisability of phenomena.

Phenomenalism (or qualitative, naturalistic, hermeneutic* methods) a tradition often allied to practical subjects such as education, which recognises the uniqueness of each phenomenon. *hermeneutic means interpretive or explanatory, especially of scriptural text.

He also goes on to describe (with a glossary) concepts such as primary/secondary sources, and standard procedures for research, with a brief reference to practical research.
Do the Allison Activity 2.9 (p.23) involving categorising thesis titles as descriptive, experimental, comparative etc.

Some vocabulary: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 1996

ontology
"The branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of being."
In research: What is ‘knowable'

epistemology
"The branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity."
In research: The relationship between researcher and researched

heuristic
"1.Of or relating to a usually speculative formulation serving as a guide in the investigation or solution of a problem: "The historian discovers the past by the judicious use of such a heuristic device as the 'ideal type'" (Karl J. Weintraub).
2.Of, relating to, or constituting an educational method in which learning takes place through discoveries that result from investigations made by the student.
3.Computer Science. Relating to or using a problem-solving technique in which the most appropriate solution of several found by alternative methods is selected at successive stages of a program for use in the next step of the program."

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Some 'art history' methods

Allison's overview is a general one. The tradition of art PhD research has historically concentrated on 'art history' approaches, which Carol McKay suggests include:

1. Historical: for example Kentish painters 1850-1900.

2. Philosophical (including aesthetics) : for example 'The Sublime' in Blake's colour printed work.

3. Theory/criticism: for example 'I am a camera': Positions of subjectivity in 1980's feminist performance art.

4. Sociological/administrative (quantitative/qualitative): for example Popular responses to Glasgow's 'City of Culture' year.

5. Anthropological (qualitative): for example Art students' experience of professional art working.

6. Experimental: for example New techniques of carved brickwork in public art.

Art History has been a 'magpie' drawing from other methods. The teaching of 'art history' in higher education in general has also changed through time: at Goldsmiths the words 'art history' were abandoned in favour of 'cultural theory'. In whatever field, issues of objectivity vs. subjectivity have been primary sites of discussion, with the foregrounding of 'the personal' allied to developments in the politics of representation in the 1970/1980s (for example the work of Mary Daly or Sonia Boyce).

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What is art-practice-led PhD research?

The terms 'art-practice-led' or 'art-practice-based' serve to differentiate a relatively new approach from an older tradition of art history or art theory PhDs. Art-practice PhDs involve the making of artwork by the researcher, as a major part of the research process, and may be strongly related to other PhDs involving practice, such as engineering, or experimental science. Various institutions have defined them in different ways:

"• research which is initiated in practice, where questions, problems, challenges are identified and formed by the needs of practice and practitioners; and, secondly,
• that the research strategy is carried out through practice, using predominantly methodologies and specific methods familiar to us as practitioners in the visual arts and design." (CRIAD, 2000).

Whereas others define what they are NOT:

"The degree is not awarded as an expression of the aesthetic value, social worth or cultural significance of particular achievements, i.e. for high professional competence and peer recognition alone." (Biggs, 2000).

The 'rules' are not yet fixed, but the new field is not unrelated to previous research methodologies:

Relationship to other research methodologies: The diagram 'Methodologies in Context' (Gray and Pirie, 1995, p.14) shows 'Artistic' methodology in a web, relating not only to the history of Newtonian science methodology, but also to more recent social science methods, and quantum science, which takes on issues of complexity, chaos theory, and uncertainty, in a postmodern way.
A close relation to art practice is the field of design practice, such as architecture - Schon's The Reflective Practitioner being an example of this.

Some images from examples of PhDs: (all are University of Sunderland)
Laura Johnston (1997): Applied materials research concerning refractive glass.
Kelly, Jessamy (2009): Applied materials research, less 'scientific', more identifying characteristics.
Jan Hogarth (1999): Strongly practice-led. A series of sculptural artworks
Carole Baker (2000): Photography practice concerning animals, informed by semiotic media theory.
Beryl Graham (1997): A hybrid approach - some practice, some curating, some conventional case studies.
Cook, Sarah (2004): Not necessarily practice-led. Interviews, analysis of curatorial practice.
The methods of these doctorates will be examined in more detail in Session 2.

How is it different to 'just making art'? Write down a list (in two columns) of some characteristics of art-practice-led PhD research vs 'making art'. When you've done this, you can compare your list to our examples.

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Summary

Practice-led research is just one of many approaches to research. Methods for research often cross over or combine. The approaches are united in the common PhD aims of presenting original knowledge, and training the student in research methods. The exact rules for art-practice-led research are changing through precedent.

In the last decade there has been a great deal more published material concerning debate around art-practice-led research (see reference list for Barrett and Bolt 2007; Gray and Malins 2004; Macleod and Holdridge 2006, Laurel 2003; Mäkelä and Poutarinne 2006, Sullivan 2005; Working Papers in Art and Design 2000-2008). There are now plenty of methodological precedents which you can cite in releation to your own research, rather than having to re-invent the wheel or write lengthy methodology sections in your disseration. Therefore, the homework for next session is:

Task to complete before next session: To locate and gather information on the methodology of one other recent/current art PhD not discussed so far, for brief 5-10 min presentation at next session. Sources for finding these include our School Materials for Art-Practice-Led Researchers: Links including:

1. British Library EThOS you can register for free, and download whole theses as pdfs, or order.

2. Index to Theses (UK-based searchable lists of abstracts of all M.Phils/PhDs).

If connecting from outside the University, try this link:
http://www.theses.com.ezproxy.sunderland.ac.uk:2048/
If that doesn't work, go to http://metalib5.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com:8344/V/ log in with your Uni username, then click Resources, Databases, search for Index to Theses.

3. UMI: Online Dissertation Services (USA)

again, if accessing from outside the University, you'll need the password from LIbrary Services.

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References for this session (see also full bibliography)

Allison, Brian (1996). Research skills for students. London: Kogan Page.

Baker, Carole (2000) Imaging the animal: Visual media representation within creative practice. Sunderland: Unpub. PhD thesis, University of Sunderland.

Barrett, Estelle and Barbara Bolt (eds.) (2007) Practice as research, approaches to creative arts enquiry. London: IB Taurus.

Biggs, Michael (2000). Research degrees in art and design. Available from URL: <http://www.herts.ac.uk/artdes/desres/mabiggs/frdc/subfram3.htm> [Accessed 2000 May 10].

Cook, Sarah (2004) The search for a third way of curating new media art: Balancing content and context in and out of the institution. PhD thesis: University of Sunderland.

CRIAD, Practice-based research. Available from URL: <http://www.rgu.ac.uk/subj/ats/r1.htm> [Accessed 16 May 2000].

Elinor, Gillian (1996) "Professional doctorates in creative practice." In: Gray, C. (ed.) RADical: International research conference '94. [CD-ROM]. Aberdeen: Gray's School of Art, Robert Gordon University. 16.

Friedman, Ken (2 Jun 2000) "PhD and DA compared." DRS discussion list [Online]. Available from: drs@jiscmail.ac.uk [Accessed 20 July 2000].

Graham, Beryl (1997). A study of audience relationships with interactive computer-based visual artworks in gallery settings, through observation, art practice, and curation. Unpub. PhD thesis, University of Sunderland.

Gray, C. and Pirie, I. (1995). '"Artistic' research procedure: Research at the edge of chaos?". In: Proceedings of Design Interfaces Conference Vol.3. The European Academy of Design. Salford: University of Salford. (This is also available as a PDF file from the RGU web site).

Gray, Carole and Julian Malins (2004) Visualizing Research: A guide to the research process in art and design. Oxford: Ashgate.

Hogarth, Jan (1999). 'Dislocated landscapes': A sculptor's response to contemporary issues within the British landscape. Unpub. PhD thesis, University of Sunderland.

Macleod, K. and Holdridge L. (2006) Thinking Through Art: reflections on art as research. London: Routledge.

Johnston, Laura (1997) The innovative application of the coated glass surface in architecture. Unpub. PhD thesis, University of Sunderland.

Kelly, Jessamy (2009) The combination of glass and ceramics as a means of artistic expression in studio practice. Sunderland: Unpub. PhD Thesis, University of Sunderland.

Laurel, Brenda (ed.), (2003) Design Research: Methods and Perspectives. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Macleod, Katy (1999b). "New knowledge/art knowledge: Postgraduate research in fine art", Drawing Fire, Vol.2 No.3. 35-40.

Mäkelä, Maarit and Sara Poutarinne (eds.) (2006) The Art of Research: Research Practices in Art and Design. Helsinki: University of Art and Design.

Phillips, E. M. and D. S. Pugh (2000) How to get a PhD: A handbook for students and their supervisors. 3rd edition. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Schön, D. A. (1981) The reflective practitioner. New York: Jossey-Bass.

Sullivan, Graeme (2005) Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in the Visual Arts. London: Sage.

UK Council for Graduate Education, (1997) Practice-based doctorates in the creative and performing arts and design. Coventry: UK Council for Graduate Education.

Working Papers in Art and Design. (2000-2008) Working Papers in Art and Design. http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/artdes_research/papers/wpades/index.html.

DRAFT: last updated Dec 2014 Beryl Graham
 

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