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<div>Dear IDCs,</div>
<div><x-tab> </x-tab>We need
more models of the practice-based Ph.D., including more from
myself. Thanks to Mary Anne and the on the art-practice Ph.D.
degree within a polytechnical institute and Simon on the British
Ph.D. model, plus more summary approaches to other programs by Chris
and Mark.</div>
<div><x-tab> </x-tab>Danny
raised the professional school model; I wonder myself whether the
profession of artist is akin enough to the guilds of engineers,
lawyers, doctors, public health officials, academic administrators,
etc. to make the professional degree an option. The art market
plays out more selectively and differently than the market for the
services above. In the US, professional school students often
owe significantly higher tuition, paid by their corporation or through
loans recouped through later earnings. On the other hand, would
the Plymouth model, CiAA and other instantiations be an example of an
existing, successful professional model of the practice-based Ph.D.?
</div>
<div><x-tab> </x-tab>I am
wondering why it is taking me so long--other than my health--to get
down to business and describe my department's Ph.D. proposal. On
one hand, I am worrying about how much to reveal of what is a 107 page
formulaic (format mandated for Ph.D. proposals in the California
system) and not entirely processed proposal. I am not sure how
truly a public document it is yet. Furthermore, the emails keep
coming (thank deity) and I don't want to get behind in something I am
(very light- handedly) moderating. </div>
<div><x-tab> </x-tab>So, I
will share my take on the posts. Then I need to prepare
highlights of the proposed UCSC Film and Digital Media
Ph.D.--obviously another day's work. Two things are different
about it than what has been discussed so far below: 1-rather
than having to choose one possibility in the mix of academic and
creative research offered by Danny Butt, we have allowed for all
three. One option is indeed an art project itself as creative
research without an additional thesis. Furthermore, academic
research itself may be expressed in media format. I will copy the
section on this and our rationale in the Ph.D. description. 2-
We envision the MFA as one possible gateway to the Ph.D. Would this
satisfy Tom or Mark? I believe Mary Anne's Ph.D. also envisions this
possibility. (Our MA would be the default degree for those who
do not qualify to proceed to the dissertation project.)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>In the meantime, provocative questions have been posed and
positions taken. I'll identify and compile three of the areas of
discussion raised so far below:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>1. The MFA versus the Ph.D.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Tom Sherman: "While the boundaries between roles in a
digital culture are fast</div>
<div>disappearing, the gap between the street and the university is
certainly getting wider. My question is are these PhD studio programs
closing more doors than they are opening?" </div>
<div><x-tab> </x-tab>Mary
Anne answered with positive contributions a practice-based Ph.D.
can make. </div>
<div><x-tab> </x-tab>Chris
raised the problem of the devaluation of the MFA again fairly
vehemently in a later post, posing a barrage of questions
around:</div>
<div>--careerism and the "professionally sanctioned digital
artists" who seek academic and corporate positions</div>
<div>--whether the practice-based Ph.D is a model of academic art akin
to 19th institutions?</div>
<div>--is this a mean of differentiating art in the research
university from art schools? (marketing?)</div>
<div>--How will this PHD be operative within the art market system -
is it necessary?</div>
<div>--"Is this move a more accurate reflection of larger
cultural and socio-economic values?"</div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">The issue of 2 year/3 year MFA came up
earlier (Mary Anne)-the 2 year inadequate for anything but a
breathless learning project but mandated economically by both
institution and students, the 3 year preferred as providing a more
adequate creative/academic foundation. Should the MFA-- never accepted
at equivalent value to the Ph.D. in academia-- be enhanced in value or
abolished in favor of the MA-Ph.D. system? Chris:</font>
"But, of course, with a PHD, a much wider range of employment
options seems probable, no?"<font color="#000000"> Mark's
suggestion, a Ph.D.-M.F.A. dual degree.</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Both Tom and Simon question the motives and necessity for most
Ph.Ds.:</div>
<div>--Simon: "If the [Ph.D. applicant] candidate answers that
they wish to establish a new approach to</div>
<div>creativity, where academic research becomes a central element in
their working practice and they wish to contextualise significant
aspects of what they do in that environment then I assume they
appreciate what a PhD is for."</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>2.What body of knowledge does this practice-based Ph.D. signify
or draw on? Is there a contradiction between academic and creative
practices?</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>--David raises a question about knowledge claims of a
practice-based Ph.D.</div>
<div>--Danny's first question brought up the research/practice
relationship with a degree program, reiterated in Chris's
question "institutionalized bifurcation of research and practice
- how will that be actualized within the PHD?" Danny
posed three options:</div>
<div>"1) The PhD is fundamentally a research training
qualification, and in different countries and institutions the
research/creative practice homologies are more or less developed. Is
the practice component seen as i) research in itself, ii) somehow
equivalent to research but not exactly the same, or iii) not research
but a reflexive form of practice which requires academic writing to
secure its contribution to knowledge (or transferability)? In my view,
there are no right answers to these questions but they are more or
less determined by the institutions responsible for the money, with
governments taking a much stronger role in the Commonwealth countries
than in the US, and a range of different approaches among the
non-English speaking countries which others will know more about than
me. The point is that one needs to have a viable definition of
research, and be prepared to make a strong case for the role that
practice plays in the research qualification.</div>
<div>--Danny's subsequent question on how practice should be
evaluated and the url of a Ph.D. design list. Simon notes the
importance of benchmarks. </div>
<div>--Chris: Further discussions is necessary as to what
practices these programs may embody and, subsequently, produce Š or
continue to reproduce in terms of academic legacies and the
self-replication of research trajectories. How does one
reconcile this with the implicit underpinnings of creative practices -
how does one redefine such a discipline via the mechanisms of an
institutionalized infrastructure and ideologies? </div>
<div>--Mark: Beyond the sociopolitical effects of devaluing an MFA,
Mark questions "imposing inherently wrong academic models, which
effectively snuff out what is in fact, not just a series of courses
and academic thresholds, but a culture of knowledge making practices
that as with all cultures, are constituted by informal modes of
producing themselves."</div>
<div><x-tab>
</x-tab>Furthermore, he is constructing "a genealogy for a
specific epistemological practice that has emerged since then, but has
not yet been recognized as a coherent discourse network ( roughly in
Foucault's sense)... Artists, traditionally, have objects but not
knowledge." He, like Chris, sees this as 19th c as
the epistemological model. Meanwhile, "<font
color="#000000"> The post-1840 discourse network for which my work
establishes a genealogy, constitutes a counter-tradition. It does
indeed exist, but has not been recognized as a coherent discourse, in
part because its elements lie scattered about and have never been
collected.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">historical contexts that need to be
addressed, and on which to build and make the case for constituting
structures, curricula, and evaluative strategies for praxis-based
knowledges, at a theoretical - epistemological - level. I think this
would be pragmatically useful for program proposals, along the lines
of including a "history" section. And I think it is
imperative to do so. My point is that there is a need to historicize
these projects of curricula/structure design, that the genealogy i've
extracted is but one among many, and i would like to see a taxonomy of
such genealogies developed." I welcome Mark's project and await
news of more of his findings in his book or when he is ready to share
them. Note that both Danny and Simon could be cross-referenced
here.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">3. This area of question that is more
diffuse and harder to formulate having to with whether the world and
/or media art have changed in a way that makes the practice-based
Ph.D. more plausible and useful</font></div>
<div>Mark notes "The higher status that literary knowledge has,
is a historical problem." Does print and literature
indeed still possess higher status? Have more styles of learning and
modes of communication become part of the ground of everyday life and
academia?</div>
<div>--Robert suggests that there is something different about
studying new media--mentioned in my previous post. Digital arts
certainly elide the legitimacy of borders based on medium.
</div>
<div>--Tom: Digital technologies and networks have knocked down so
many doors. Interdiscipinary studies continue to try to break down
disciplinary segregation in universities.</div>
<div>--Simon: In the case of practice based PhD's this process is
still in development. It will probably never stop if such PhD's are of
value, but as a new approach to formal research this PhD model is in
an intense period of discovery and uncertainty. Evaluative
methodologies are in flux and debate over what is</div>
<div>and isn't appropriate rages (as well as any academic debate can
rage?).</div>
<div><br>
</div>
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