[first draft] Chris Mullen 08 11 2002

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 supervisorÕs 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 Ôcompletion of the projectÕ ?

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 UniversityÕs 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. ÒIÓ 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 canÕt 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. destination 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 supervisorÕs?

Was this agreed in advance ?

What was your planning for the tutorial ?

How close is the evidence to what youÕd said youÕd 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 supervisorÕs 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 projectÕs 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. ..................................................................................................................... to be continued