“Why methods for supervising Practice based research degrees in Art and design need to innovate on traditional practices?”

In an image we read everything all at once - text is linear, one foot in front of the other. When working from an art and design visual context the tradition methods can steer students away from their practice, as was the case for many years in the UK.

A mixed methodology helps present embedded knowledge inherent in the artifacts. It creates a body of visual knowledge, which enhances textual ideas to create a more complete field of study. Examination is important, as the submission needs to be understood by those who have sufficient expertise to read the works, via semiotics for example. It uses the visual language of the Artist and Designer to explore part of the ineffable within practice led doctorates.

As a tool the Visual Epistemology assists in establishing the early stages of the field of study. Most of all it sets the scope of the research with Visual dominance, as opposed to the tradition of a textual dominant thesis. Given this constitutes another paper at this conference I will not speak to the epistemology at this time.

However it is important to build the field of study which includes a visual reservoir of influences and inspiration, intention, interpretation referencing historic and contemporary practices. In its early stage it is, to a greater extent an intuitive collection of images and artifacts that hold a key to the contribution. The process involves reflection and categorization and harsh editing. This requires guidance by Director of Studies or Supervisor via simple questions reflecting back the assertions of the research, and in the main asking why? This process has often been a valuable method to establish questions, the title, and in some cases the student, having found the gap in knowledge can identify the contribution.