Dear colleagues,
One of the delusions that never ceases to surprise me is unswerving faith in
the written word as the most effective means through which to communicate
knowledge. This faith even seems to survive the contradictions, ambiguities
and bluster that characterizes many a bloated post.
Of course artifacts don’t ‘speak’. But they can embody knowledge. Our
knowledge of Impressionist painting comes primarily from Impressionist
paintings rather than from what has been written about impressionist
painting, as Peter Hill points out in his recent article about creative
practice-led PhDs in the Times Higher Education:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=412481
It is not enough to use the shortcomings of Frayling’s attempts to move the
debate forward as an excuse to rehearse these circular arguments about
practice and research. Ken Friedman suggested in an earlier post that:
‘… much of the problem lies in the confusion of design practice with
research…’
Perhaps if there is confusion, it lies more in the assumption that practice
is a process of repetitively applying skills. He also states, confusingly:
“The emphasis on research by design has hindered the breadth people ought to
get when they earn a PhD.”
Eduardo Corte-Real clearly identifies the problem in his earlier post:
“In fact what we have been doing with non practice based doctorates are PhDs
in Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, History…”
The fact is that in the Art & Design sector, practice led research will
continue to grow, evolve and contribute to knowledge, rather than merely
contribute to knowledge about research methodology.
Best regards from snowy Cambridge
Martin
Professor Martin Salisbury
Course Leader, MA Children's Book Illustration
[log in to unmask]
0845 196 2351
http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/microsites/ccbs.html
--
EMERGING EXCELLENCE: In the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008,
more than 30% of our submissions were rated as 'Internationally
Excellent' or 'World-leading'. Among the academic disciplines now rated
'World-leading' are Allied Health Professions & Studies; Art & Design;
English Language & Literature; Geography & Environmental Studies;
History; Music; Psychology; and Social Work & Social Policy &
Administration. Visit www.anglia.ac.uk/rae for more information.
This e-mail and any attachments are intended for the above named
recipient(s)only and may be privileged. If they have come to you in
error you must take no action based on them, nor must you copy or show
them to anyone please reply to this e-mail to highlight the error and
then immediately delete the e-mail from your system. Any opinions
expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily
represent the views or opinions of Anglia Ruskin University. Although
measures have been taken to ensure that this e-mail and attachments are
free from any virus we advise that, in keeping with good computing
practice, the recipient should ensure they are actually virus free.
Please note that this message has been sent over public networks which
may not be a 100% secure communications
Email has been scanned for viruses by Altman Technologies' email
management service - www.altmanco.uk/emailsystems
|