Chris Mullen 08 11 2002
(for discussion)
In conjunction with your own reading of the University
regulations and the student handbook, I thought you might like to
read and think through how I try and prepare you for your examination.
Other supervisors may have different routes to the same goal. This
is my checklist.
I undertook a traditional thesis route for my own
PhD and have developed my own visual projects in the context of teaching
in art and design departments in the UK. I have been an external
examiner and contributed to the validation of post-graduate courses
in multimedia and more traditional disciplines. Since 1995 we at
Grand Parade have devised ways of developing projects which sustain
an imaginative and innovative balance of making and thinking. Now
Jackie has presented her thesis I have looked back through my tutorial
notes for all of you to synthesise these sheets of advice.
Although it could be said the projects emerge in the
studio, they also do so in libraries, and at bus stops.
What is a studio based postgraduate
award after the MA ?
ÊHow does it differ from a project
realised as a traditional academic thesis ?
How does
the MPhil/PhD project extend your previous course/creativity/
experience ?
1. making and researching what do you think the relationship
is between making and the act of informing yourself about those decisions
? when you sustain project work, how does the gathering of imagery,
the act of reading relate to what we see at display ? does the subject
in the image have a coherence ? do you intend mystery and if so can
that mystery be solved and what is the role of research (for you
or the viewer) in the process ?
2. researching and making as you explore a theme,
a subject, a text, a critical gloss on that text,
how do your deliberations, contemplations, observations
inform your making ?
is the programme of research coherent, serendipitous,
undirected and creates visual possibilities accordingly ?
can you hold to a research path in the act of making,
or does each new research possibility throw you off track ?
is your research methodology so fixed and even rigid
that you are constrained as to your subsequent visualisation and
technical explorations ?
interviewing is any of your research an oral component
?
what role does the interview play in your project
?
what proportion is planned and what proportion extemporised
?
have you adequately recorded the event ?
do you have possible routes of return to the interviewee
for clarity and expansion ?
what examples of good practice can you adduce of
an interview that has succeeded in its purpose ?
is this appropriate to you ?
extrapolating from evidence. what are you seeking
to prove from the evidence you are gathering ?
are the determinants of the argument clear to you,
your supervisor, the average person? are you seeking a statistical
nature of proof ?
are you sure you are clear as to what you want to
achieve with statistical proof ?
have you a sufficiency of numerical examples for
your proof ?
have you kept the exercise under control, without
draining off your energies into excessive statistical detail?
notation, there is an equivalence (or ought to be)
between making and researching in the demands made of your notational
techniques. how well do you notate information in words and images
?
when do you choose one rather than the other ?
do you more naturally seek to record something in
words rather than images?
could you storyboard an argument you wished to record
?
what examples of good practice can you find in arts
and sciences of the way that texts and images combine to encapsulate
information you want to record permanently ?
diaries what is the role of the diary in all this
?
do you have your own way of notation or do you follow
existing modes ?
how do these relate to what you did at school /
can you be described as a prisoner of your method ?
how do you notate the fourth dimension - e.g. information
that changes over time, or information that exists in space ?
the digital what systems of notation might be explored
on computer ?
what applications already exist for these methods
?
how are you adapting existing applications for your
own purposes ?
have you planned for loss of information by regular
copying ?
do you know how to print effectively for hard copy
?
can you perform a screengrab and store/print ?
3. research methodology, we agreed that conventional
academic practice has had centuries to establish and question research
methodologies -
how do you respond to the traditional disciplines
of academic research - the selection of key texts, the pursuit
of other scholars who have researched the subject/method, identification
of existing methodology, the confidence to be critical of existing
methodology etc etc..?
Have you made sure to record the exact details for
the citation of references ?
in the studio based PhD what methodologies are to
be considered and maybe audited, are there things you do that traditional
scholarship overlooks ? e.g. visualising and the mental image;
see website section - how do you convert auditory impressions into
their visual equivalent ?
how do you translate the text that is read into
visual form ?
when recalling an event how do you create mental
imagery - how do you create sequences - how do you store those
visualisations? can you recall and describe at the same time ?
how sophisticated is your narrative development
from mental images ?
how do you remember/evoke/record non visual sense
data, such as taste, noise and smell?
visualising and invention how well can you imagine
figures, atmospheres, environments which you have not directly
experienced ?
this might be a reconstruction based suggestive
evidence or a completely fresh invention. How might the basic constituents
of invented memory be orchestrated into narratives, tableaux or
just exchanges ? Can you imagine/invent spoken dialogue ?
can you speak internally in different voices ?
can you imagine a colour that has never been ?
techniques of memory how does your memory work and
how might it be improved ?
is there much to be gained by concentration of mind,
or does the memory release occur when least expected ?
How do the two process work in your mind ?
In giving account of your own working processes
what is the balance between the memorised and the physically notated
?
does it make a difference if you close your eyes
to memorise ?
crafting and displaying work (see also beneath)
do you aim for the highest standards of making ?
in what ways of making can you say you are innovatory
?
in the fusion of making and researching have you
found the most effective systems of making ?
4. research context in the light of your research
project and given the project,
how well have you established a context for the
research and the making and that fusion of both ?
have you thought about the theoretical context to
the project (how it relates to contemporary currents of debate
-
the narrative,
the structuralist debate,
the authorial,
situating your activities in the post-modern,
the contemporary debate as to markmaking and photography
etc),
have you thought about the aesthetic debate (the
way we perceive the shapes, colours and formal relations) and
have you established an historical context against
which you set the fundamentals of your project ( having decided
the appropriate historical context,
how does your work relate to that of others, and
including those you have deliberately studied in depth) ?
5. the role of the media
how do the media you have selected particularly
benefit your project ?
looking at your title and aims, could what you have
been achieved been achieved any other way ?
what was appropriate in the medium you have chosen
?
in what way did it benefit your project to explore
other media ?
if you have selected a traditional mode of expression,
are you sure in your motives, or does it imply a caution and hesitation
to embark on expressions new to you ?
If you select new media for expression, how confident
you can achieve what you want ?
how much time will you spend merely mastering the
techniques and / or technology ?
6. innovation
in what way is my project demonstrably innovative
?
in what way is your project providing new information
that has not existed in the world ?
how can you you express this in words that have
existed in the world and described things that do exist in the
world ?
in what way does your project advance understanding
in ways that it has not in the past ?
how does the innovatory elements sit in your setting
of the context ?
7. verbal and written description
how well have you succeeded in describing what you
have done ?
verbally can you structure that description and
use the right words ?
when you do so are you using words that have been
mutually agreed and are recorded in your Glossary ?
are the technical terms for screenwork accurate
and take into account the true language of the application ?
when you write a description, how well is it structured
?
have you used the description to find out how you
feel about something, and the whole thing needs writing again ?
is it stored safely and capable of being emailed
for checking ?
can you read the supervisor's handwriting,
receive the email in html with colour additions/suggestions in
colour intact ?
have you established a coherent and unambiguous
list of constituent elements in presenting images and text ?
have you used the correct protocol for italics,
and checked the body of text in a Style Guide for publication ?
have you used footnotes sympathetically and efficiently
throughout ?
in your list of references have you indicated why
a particular item helped you in your cause ?
8. image and text
in presentation in your designed piece on paper
have you established editorial balance / are you
alive to the design issues in the format you have set yourself
?
have you made allowances for the surface on which
you are designing (screen, paper) ?
is the editorial flow you have decided upon monotonous
and conservative (surrendering to the prevailing conventions of
the book/magazine template ?
is the deployment of image and text merely decorative
in places ?
are you enlivening presentation purely for its own
sake ?
can you articulate this verbally ?
9 group spirit and support,
to what extent have you benefited from consultation
within the research group, seeking advice, balancing advice with
your own beliefs/attitudes/ impulses ?
how good a student have you been in the group context
- studentship ?
are there ways in which others have caused you to
change your mind and why ?
who else influences your decisions and why ?
how do you cope with criticism?
10. modes of study -
how is your rate of progress and momentum related
to your mode of study - part time, full time, suspension a split
studentship ?
How have you related your project work to other professional
aspects of your professional work - e.g. freelance work, personal
projects.
are you achieving a balance that shows you are clearly
a part-time student ?
over what period of time would you say you actually
had achieved the exact weight of work (15 hours part time, 30 hours
full time) ?
what adjustments have you had to make ?
how do you handle falling behind ?
how do you handle criticism you are falling behind
?
perhaps the same for the full time, but establishing
how you manage to keep personal projects
11. papers, conferences and student successes
are you testing yourself against your peers ?
as you consolidate work, what do you want to develop
for presentation to
the general public,
the group of your peers,
the larger academic community ?
are there aspects of your studio based work you are
downplaying because you think conferences are for written papers
?
what are the visual components of what you wish to
present ?
12. towards examination,
are you keeping your head ?
are you capable of realising a coherent timetable
of developments that culminate in the completion of the project
?
in overall terms what do you mean by the 'completion
of the project' ?
are you aware of the protocol of your title, the
abstract, the identity of the examiner, dates and times and sequences
?
have you consulted your student handbook, the University's
regulations ?
have you practised what you intend to say or will
you rely on the day ?
what questions will be asked at the viva ?
are you reconciled to being asked to improve sections
? do you take these things personally ?
what do you think are the strongest elements of
what you have done, and, correspondingly, the weakest ?
at each stage of the project (interview, group presentations,
thesis outline approval and transfer) have you documented your
thinking processes and what do they tell you about your strengths
and weaknesses ?
the abstract - does this state clearly and in unambiguous
terms the substance of the project, and have you read the appropriate
regulations and handbook ?
have you excised the personal e.g. 'I' and
is it appropriately formal a statement ?
it will be read by many people outside the University
to see whether they want to requisition your work.
13. glossary, chronology, appendixes,
have you checked that crucial terminology
is consistent throughout, and any technical terms are fully explained
?
is your chronology useful as a context for your studies
?
is it at all visual and does it emphasise the visual
in any meaningful way (you can't
provide a chronology of everything ) ?
can you situate material
in appendixes that is not appropriate in the main body of the
text and yet which ought to be included ?
is your contents
page up to date in reflecting changes ?
14. final destination of studio based work
is your final thesis
an installation an exhibition (and how do they differ) ?
have you made adequate provision in advance for the
technology of
showing / TV sets,
monitors,
lights,
security,
wall display,
NOTE -
make a list with your supervisors,
contact heads of school and gallery staff,
have you made a model or similar simulation of
the space ?
15. Extending your professional skills and status.
have you monitored the acquisition of skills developed
during the work ?
how do these accomplishments further extend your previous
professional experience ?
Those skills can be personal skills of personal organisation
and visualisation of concept, but could also track specifics such
as
display and installation,
and computer applications -
word processing,
data base,
narrative,
multimedia.
Have you paid sufficient attention to the role that
sound plays in your work ?
Have you notated sufficiently editorial decisions
made in presenting written accounts of your work ?
Overall how has the project made you a better imagemaker
?
In what way can you demonstrate that professional
extension you will take back on completion of the project ?
APPENDIX 01 The Tutorial -
questions of your work -
the role of the supervisor,
the second supervisor.
What is your attitude to your supervisor ?
Are you a person who prevaricates and then realises
the appointment is overdue ?
Do you use the tutorials as a narcotic / a tonic/
a distraction/ ?
Do you make your own notes of what was discussed and
decided ?
Do you ever look back and review a longer period than
a month of studies ?
Are you punctual, give enough notice, mindful of the
workload of which you are only a part ?
Have you a clear personal agenda for
the tutorial and how does this mesh with your supervisor's?
Was this agreed in advance ?
What was your planning for the tutorial ?
How close is the evidence to what you'd said
you'd bring ?
Can you give the same wording of your title each time
on demand ?
How does your tutorial performance relate to the title
/ subtitle/ aims/ timetable as standing ?
How is it supported by developmental work in sketchbooks
at tutorial ?
Do you think your supervisor is unfair ?
If so, how do you make this clear ?
Does your supervisor's advice
remain consistent and if not, how do you explain this ?
Are you sure that you can begin a tutorial with the
sufficiency of information needed to set the scene ?
Do you sometimes assume that the supervisor can recall
all necessary details or your project at will ?
What information do you need to give at the beginning
of the tutorial to make sure you are both on the same plane ?
The tutorial report how close is this to the reality,
is there anything you want to add ?
Have you established in your own mind the way that
the one tutorial builds on previous tutorials ?
Have you a perspective of your own development ?
have you left space for the contribution of the accidental
?
What do you think you have to achieve for the next
tutorial, and are you convinced by the arguments ?
have you checked where the activities
lie in the great timetable of your project's development
?
the second supervisor
what role do you want this person to play ?
remember how little they are paid and cannot extend
tuition far into Time.
negotiate access through the first supervisor,
put keep both informed.
have you done so ?
brief them well in advance of meetings where they
attend.
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