All Ireland Society for Higher Education
| Name: | Jordan , Peter |
|---|---|
| Email: | pjordan@wit.ie |
| Institution: | Waterford I. T. |
This paper aims to summarise the state of the art in practice-based/led research in art and design. Definition(s) of the concept will be followed by a developmental history of these specific approaches to the research process. Practice-based research in art and design itself has a short history, having originated and developed over the last twenty years. Initially described as practice-based research, the concept of practice-led research has more recently been mooted. This paper will address a number of the conference themes, in particular, those of scholarship, diversity, Bologna and assessment criteria. In terms of scholarship, reference will be made to significant issues such as the definition of core characteristics and regulatory requirements, as addressed for example, by reports such as the U.K. Council for Graduate Education, 'Practice-based Doctorates in the Creative and Performing Arts and Design'. Recognition of diversity between subject areas and methodologies must allow for the recognition of a specific mode of research appropriate to the practice of art and design. The precise formulation of this mode has proved to be problematic, but recent literature on the subject, for example 'On the Move', published by the European League of Institutes of the Arts, suggests the gradual recognition of a new culture in Doctoral Fine Art and practice-led research in higher arts education in general. Progress in the above has been aided by the Bologna process, which requires a more unified, Europe-wide, approach to education in art and design, as in other fields. Finally the paper will consider the assessment procedure for practice-based/led research in art and design - how this is both distinct and yet comparable to the assessment criteria used in other subject areas.
(Abstract ref: #36.)