I have graduated with my PhD recently and my opinion about
"Does a great work of art, of design, of music constitute knowledge?" In the process of creating something there is new knowledge accumulated that may result in a project but also in many pages thesis. For the Design Research Conference for instance there are several kinds of submissions: design methods, tools, philosophy, hustory and process as a case study... I think that project based PhD contributes with knowledge that comes from the process of creating something, conclusions also can be drawn from the ability of solving a design problem.
Just to note that my own PhD thesis is the traditional research based thesis with all the elements like literature review, methodology, research, evaluation and results. The criteria in my university are do I have knowledge in the filed and do I present contribution. If somebody has a project as a thesis the award depends on the examiners' opinion and on the candidate's ability to argue their point. In my opinion if the candidate is knowledgeable they would be able to argue their point and motivate their work. On other side if the candidate get awarded a PhD something has to be sent to the library at the end of the day.
Sylvia Tzvetanova
|