The pedestal and the pendulum: fine art practice, research and doctorates

Abstract

This article reports on the issues arising from the AHRC Research Review: Practice-Led Research in Art, Design and Architecture, published in February 2008 by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. These include the continuing question of defining activity in the field, the underdeveloped scholarly infrastructure, and the nature of the contribution to knowledge made by the artefact or designed object. The article also draws upon an analysis of completed doctorates in art and design made possible by the Art & Design Index to Theses (ADIT). This earlier project, which set up a scholarly resource for the research community, enables the growth of doctoral activity in the fine art field to be measured and the range of approaches to enquiry to be evaluated. The analysis of doctoral work to date indicates the extent to which professional practice has begun to be incorporated into doctoral projects. An uncritical revisionism or relabelling of activities within the realm of professional practice and doctoral study is evident in the data consulted in the two studies, reflecting the continuing prominence of the exhibition as a means of disseminating the outcomes of creative practice.