Research methods for creative and critical practice
SEMESTER 1. 2015-16 Part 1. Generic (Wks 1-6), Part 2. Discipline based (Wks 7-12)
OBJECTIVES OF MODULE
This module provides in its first part (Weeks 1-6) a generic introduction to a range of core research methods in the creative and visual arts for all masters students in NCAD and for PhD entrants. It aims to assist you in the conception, development, documentation, delivery and reporting of both your major creative projects and your dissertation activity. While the emphasis is on providing a useful toolkit of research methods and set of exemplars with application to both your practice and critical work, the module also addresses a broader set of concerns with the distinctive character of research in the visual arts. We explore how critical theory and studio and field practice might best interact within the visual arts, and how scholarship aligns with professional reflective analysis and creative impulse. We seek to enable you to more effectively plan, contextualise and report upon your individual studio or library based projects. The approach taken is an interdisciplinary one with students exposed to a range of different research approaches adopted within the visual arts and indeed across the broader field of the arts, humanities, social and natural sciences.
In the second part of the module (Weeks 7-12) students break out into their disciplinary groups in order to address the specific research methods given priority within their course.
NB This course is also a core module for students enrolled in the structured PhD who follow the core programme weeks 1-6 then dedicated Phd methods provision weeks 7-11
LEARNING OUTCOMES
On successful completion of this module you will have a basic understanding of a distinctive set of research methodologies for the visual arts, including practice based approaches, and how these relate to broader currents of research practice in other fields. You will have engaged with examples of research practice in the arts where advanced students have sought to provide a critical context for their studio or field practice. You will be aware of the forms of documentation and reflective analysis employed to assist in the task of reporting and evaluating research and creative practice work in the arts. You will be able to plan your master’s dissertation and/or major studio project to meet the requirements of university level graduate work.
TIMETABLE
PG Induction Day
wk 1 Core Provision
wks 1-6*
*wk 5 holiday Disciplinary Provision
wks 7-11
Design/FineArt /ACW/DHMC/Education/PhD PG Research Day
wk 12
This class meets at 09.30 on a Monday in the Harry Clarke lecture Theatre (HC) weeks 1-6 and thereafter in rooms allocated by the disciplinary teams
NB week 1., Mon 28th Sept., and week 12., Mon 14th Dec are all-day, all masters students events also held in HC
COURSE TEAM
Prof. Des Bell, Head of Research, Dr. Declan Long( Coordinator MA Art in the Contemporary World) Dr. Anna Moran (MA Design History and Material Culture) Sarah Durcan (Coordinator MFA, Fine Art), Enda O’Dowd (Coordinator MSc Medical Device Design), Emma Creighton (Coordinator MA Interactive Design)
RECOMMENDED READING
Graeme Sullivan Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in Visual Arts, London: Sage 2010
Hazel Smith and Roger Dean (ed) Practice-led Research, Research-led Practice in the Creative Arts, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 2009
Carole Gray and Julian Malins Vizualizing Research: A Guide to the Research Process in Art and Design http://www.upv.es/laboluz/master/seminario/textos/Visualizing_Research.pdf
Alex Milton and Paul Rodgers Research Methods for Product Design, London: Laurence King 2013
RESEARCHER’S TOOL KIT
Concise Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford UP
Roget’s Thesaurus
Raymond Williams Key Words: a dictionary of culture and society
This is not a neutral review of meanings. It is an exploration of the vocabulary of a crucial area of social and cultural discussion, which has been inherited within precise historical and social conditions and which has to be made at once conscious and critical – subject to change as well as to continuity. (Raymond Williams, 1976)
NCAD Postgraduate Student Handbook (including Style Sheet for Written Work) (https://www.ncad.ie/files/download/Postgraduate_Student_Handbook_2014-2015.pdf)
ASSESSMENT
| Assessment Tasks | Task description | Word length | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Generic | Initial research outline* | 1500 | 06/11/15 |
| 2. Discipline based |
Developed research proposal (details to be provided by disciplines) |
1500 | 15/01/16 |
* On the basis of an identified research topic agreed with your tutor, produce an initial research outline which scopes your intended project clearly locating it within a field of existing scholarship or practice and providing a review of the relevant literature and/or cognate creative work and artistic approaches which have influenced your thinking. The proposal should have the following elements:
| Project overview | 500 words |
|---|---|
| Annotated bibliography+ | At least 20 items |
| Literature/field review | 1000 words |
+ listing of author, title, place of publication, date of publication, pagination plus short single paragraph brief summary/evaluation of 50 words approx. of each chosen text See: (http://guides.library.cornell.edu/annotatedbibliography) (http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/specific-types-of-writing/annotated-bibliography)
WEEK 1. Monday, 28th September 2015
NCAD Postgraduate Induction and Research Day
09.30 am Tea/Coffee in Gallery lobby area
10.00 am OPENING ADDRESS
-Professor Declan McGonagle, Director, NCAD
10.10 am WELCOME AND ORIENTATION Prof. Desmond Bell,
Head of Academic Affairs and Research
Lecture: What could research in art and design be about?
11.00 am Postgraduate Study at NCAD - What’s it all About?
Ruby Wallis -- PhD Fine Art, 2015 graduate
Jules Michael MFA, 2015 graduate
Len Ooman -- MSc Medical Devices, 2015 graduate
12.00 pm INTERVAL AND LUNCH BREAK with visits
12.30pm Library Visit
1.15pm Tour of NIVAL
Visit NCAD Gallery
2.00 – 2.15pm The Students Union and Post Grad Life
2.15 GUEST LECTURE
David Godbold + More like this than that
+ David Godbold completed his PhD in Fine Art in NCAD in 2007. His work has often concentrated on the production of visual imagery in high and low culture. Through drawing, painting and mixed media, his work offers a critical examination into the image-making process, alongside a semiotic, epistemological and personal investigation into culture and linear historicism. (http://www.imma.ie/en/page_197029.htm)
3.15 pm – 4.15pm SCHOOL AND PROGRAMME INDUCTIONS (distribution course
material etc)
4.30 pm Reception hosted by NCAD Students Union in basement cafe
LECTURE PROGRAMME
WEEK 1. Desmond Bell What could research in art and design be about?
• a working definition of research from the Frascati manual
• are artists actually concerned with research and knowledge production and can we delineate the specificity of arts research?
• Frayling’s distinctions between: Research into art and design; Research through art and design; Research for art and design
• the domination of scientific thinking in scholarly research models or is a creative arts enquiry governed by stipulated research questions
• the distinctiveness of the arts and humanities as the subject and object of the sciences of man
• the division of theory and practice within the university and its social foundations
• Stephen Scrivener’s analysis dismissing the notion that the art object can in itself embody knowledge – do we accept this?
• Documentation and exegesis : or what has to accompany the art object to make the art process a research one?
READ
Christopher Frayling Research in Art and Design, RCA Research Papers Vol.1/No1 1993
http://www.transart.org/wp-content/uploads/group-documents/79/1372332724-Frayling_Research-in-Art-and-Design.pdf
Stephen Scrivener The art object does not embody a form of knowledge, Working Papers in Art and Design 2, University of Hertfordshire
https://www.herts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/12311/WPIAAD_vol2_scrivener.pdf
Kirsty Beilharz The role of exegesis and its relationship to the creative work
http://www.kirstybeilharz.com.au/PDFs/SlideSummaryCPCE-role-of-exegesis-sm.pdf
Desmond Bell ‘The Primacy of Practice: Critical sources for making sense of the theory-practice divide in Film and Visual Studies’, Kinema
http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/article.php?id=485&feature
Mick Wilson et al (ed) Handbook for Artistic Research Education (ebook)
http://www.elia-artschools.org/images/products/120/share-handbook-for-artistic-research-education-high-definition.pdf
WEEK 2. Mon 5th Oct 09.30 HC
Donna Romano, NCAD Librarian Accessing library and on-line sources for master’s research activity
• A brief guide to the NCAD library as a resource for masters study
• Guide to use of other Dublin libraries for research activity including TCD Copyright library : the ALCID Scheme open to Masters and Doctoral students
• Effective use of NIVAL for visual arts research + other specialist visual research collections
• Using on line sources like Jstor
• Bibliographic research, on-line searches and the production of an annotated bibliography
• First steps in conducting a literature review
• Citation systems and use of the NCAD style sheet
• Guide to the first assessment task – producing an annotated bibliography
WEEK 3. Mon 12th Oct 09.30 HC
Dr. Declan Long Guide to cultural resources and critical positions for the visual arts researcher /artist
• art history versus visual cultural studies - a false choice?
• a review of the range of journals in the field of visual studies and contemporary art practice
• the role of research within critical and curatorial practice
• raids and reconstructions: artists’ use of art historical resources as visual inspiration and contextual resource
• using the NIVAL collection for scholarly research and to inform practice
• review of other Dublin museums/galleries as research resources
• use of on-line visual sources for visual research
READ
Smith, Marquard Visual Culture Studies: History, Theory, Practice London: Sage http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/28934_Smith___Introduction.pdf
Joss Bailey How has visual culture been defined?
http://jossbailey.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/defining-visual-culture.pdf
Visual Studies: University of Huston Selected bibliography in visual studies
http://www.visualstudies.uh.edu/fieldofvs_bibliography.asp
Martin Irvine 'The Work on the Street: Street Art and Visual Culture'
in, The Handbook of Visual Culture, ed. Barry Sandywell and Ian Heywood. London & New York: Berg, 2012: 235-278. http://faculty.georgetown.edu/irvinem/articles/Irvine-WorkontheStreet-1.pdf
WEEK 4. Mon. 19th Oct.HC
Francis Halsall et al Meeting the challenge of dissertation and other critical writing in the visual arts
• the practice based PhD as a testing ground for the integration of studio/field
• practice and critical writing/report in practice based visual arts study
• the notion of the reflective practitioner and the hermeneutic circle of practice - documention - report and reflection - reinvigorated practice
• case study 1.
• employing the normal structure of a dissertation to plan your work - drafting introduction - review of the critical literature and cognate art work - identification of your methodology - drafting chapter outlines
• executing a literature review - patient exegesis (précis) of other scholar’s work - identifying major issues and concepts in the field
• identifying and formulating your research question as the basis of the investigation: case study 2.
• documenting and reporting your studio practice/field work/bibliographical research - what to report and how?
• drawing supported conclusions from your enquiry and/ or presenting work for exhibition/publication
READ
Desmond Bell ‘Is there a doctor in the house: riposte to Victor Burgin’ Journal of Media Practice, Vol.9. No.2, 2008
Mark K Smith ‘Donald Schön: learning, reflection and change’, the encyclopedia of informal education.
http://infed.org/mobi/donald-schon-learning-reflection-change/
University for the Creative Arts: Dissertation Planning and Proposal
http://community.ucreative.ac.uk/article/12237/Dissertation
http://community.ucreative.ac.uk/article/12718/The-Dissertation-Proposal
University of Vermont Suggested Outline for Thesis Proposals and Theses
http://www.uvm.edu/~aivakhiv/thesisoutline.pdf
WEEK 5. MON 26TH OCT BANK HOLIDAY
WEEK 6. Mon. 2nd Nov. 09.30 HC
Sarah Durcan and Emma Creighton The studio as research laboratory for practice based research in art and design
• observational and ethnographic methods in fine art and design practice
• field and studio research into materials, media and audience/users
• the studio and art practice as crucible of the investigative process in visual art: case examples
• methods of documenting the art/ design process: logs and diaries, photographic documentation, auto-ethnographic accounts, iterative design process
• models of research project management in design and applied arts
• structured reflection on art/design practice as iterative process
• capturing reflective analysis through critical writing
• exhibition and public engagement as critical moments: artist statements, gallery and open space encounters, product testing with users
• critical contextualization of one’s work and the possibility of generating transferrable knowledge in practice based research
WEEKS 9TH Nov 16TH , Nov 23RD , Nov 30TH , Nov 7th Dec DISCIPLINARY PROVISION
WEEK 12. Mon. 15th Dec. 09.30 – 17.00
NCAD Postgraduate Research and Development Day (Masters)
09.30 Coffee in Gallery lobby with research poster exhibition
10.00 Guest lecture (tbc)
Appropriation Art Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriation_(art)
11.00 Student presentations Panel 1.
12.30 Lunch and poster exhibition
13.30 Student presentations Panel 2.
15.00 Coffee
15.30 Panel discussion and round up Aligning Critical Theory and Creative Practice in Visual Arts Research
Declan Long
Lisa Godson
Helen McAllister
Philip Napier
Des Bell (chair)
17.00 Drinks reception
