CHRIS MULLEN PRACTICE BASED PH.D SOME DOCUMENTATION
It is part of the gentlemanly and scholarly tradition that PhD awards are achieved after an accumulation of tutorials over a glass of port. At British Art Schools, a pint of beer should be substituted. Things can be sorted. A nod and a wink. An appeal to a shared set of understandings of Master and Accolyte. Any more than the termly encounter could be, I was warned, "spoon feeding". I once found a Canadian Hungarian student cheerful at being told her work was "not quite good enough..." A week of minor adjustments. she thought, and the PhD was mine. Little did she know the seriousness of the situation. The Donnish approach seemed to deter any form of documentation. With studio based candidates, for many of whom English was a second language, the Donnish encounter is inadequate. With candidates developing their work in an international context many choose to pursue postgraduate studies while not resident in the UK. I introduced into the MA course (Narrative Illustration/Editorial Design) at Brighton a policy of documenting all aspects of teaching, from seminars and tutorials to briefings in advance of critiques and assessment events. Many students (1989-1996) were part-time, and several working art and design professionals who couldn't attend certain weeks. This was the attraction of open folders of hard-copy documentation in the studio itself, and later, on the WWW. It seemed absurd when I started supervising Brighton PhD candidates (1996-2004) not to continue this documentation - a copy for me, one for the student and one for the Office. I wanted all tutorial reports to be on the WWW but was instructed not to in case prospective recruits were discouraged by revelations of institional underprovision. In the sections of documentation above I have tried to synthesise this material. It was all of my own devising and suffers from this isolation within the system. It nevertheless represents evidence how work can be achieved within the context of the studio, within a climate of mutual support. In the University of Brighton and elsewhere there are people who still believe that the successful PhD candidate is one who had survived the perilous objects placed in their way.
PHD STUDY AT BRIGHTON (FULLTIME MODE) 1. informal meetings with Chris Mullen before application and attendance at the regualr Tuesday group meetings. 2.Interview and advice 3. Year One, developing the project, single and group tutorials 4. at the end of every academic year (August) the Big Picture Show 5. At the end of Year One, a student must pass a Thesis Outline Approval meeting (supervisors, Research Dept,representatives) 6. At the end of Year Two, the student's project must be approved by a Transfer Meeting that considers the work has a good chance of reaching the appropriate standard for a PhD award. 7. At the end of Year Three, the student presents the thesis for examination.
It was the achievement of our research group that several successful candidates who had chosen the studio based mode (also known as Practice based, Practiioners' route etc) were assessed on the basis of visual display supported by the highest standards of documentation. The successful awards (see student list) combined studio based work with internationally recognied standards of theoretical and historical understanding.
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