Research-creation in doctoral theses of arts and design

Abstract

This paper is a thematic review of research about development of doctoral theses with creative practices in arts and design. These thesis interest to researchers and academy by international debate about validity on method and generation of communicable knowledge in the research-creation. Goal is to study current research on doctoral theses in arts and design made through creative practices. Specifically, methods, searches and conclusions of researches that have addressed the problems of dissertations that assumed the research-creation are identified. To examine current panorama of problem, we resort to analysis of content in articles and research reports, with international, regional and national contributions. Each document identifies possibilities and difficulties of research based on creative practice in dissertations from around the world. Conclusions of this review highlight potential of creation as tool to obtain and process data in an arts or design research. Likewise, it highlights importance of transparent data registration as a methodological guarantee and need to maintain an academic structure for presentation of written texts. Finally it is observed that there are no orientations, norms or inter-institutional agreements about research-creation. In this sense, it is necessary to establish consensus to guarantee a fair evaluation among peers, to recognize results obtained and to evaluate relevance of knowledge reached in a dissertation based on the practice of art or design.