Presentation by UWS doctoral researcher Ben Parry for the UWS Creative Practice/Research group seminar: 3 x 3 x 3, 23rd May 2011 For more information visit http://uwspracticeresearch.blogspot.com

1. “The subjective artist and the objective academic”Ben Parry

2. The use of practice in research and the methodology that killed the practitioner Katy MacLeod’s research on PhD methodologies revealed candidates often suffered from "an acute anxiety about retaining their identity as artists” self-induced paranoia anxiety or valid cause for concern?

3. What will a PHD do for - and to - my creative practice as an artist?

4. ThedichotomybetweenPracticeandResearch in a practice-based model;between - subjectiveartist andobjective academic researcher -self-reflective artist andanalyticalresearcher - tacit / experiential knowledge andcognitive knowledge “Art as a research tool” ?

5. Questions to a practice-led researcher Q: Can you advance art through a PHD? Q: What do we understand within art/cultural practice as a ‘real’ contribution to original knowledge? Q: What do we mean by knowledge in the context of art research? Q: By contributing to original cultural production, do we necessarily contribute to theory or cognitive knowledge? Q: How do we develop methodology around practice that allows sufficient freedom in which creative thought and inspiration can roam? Q:How does art practice really become a ‘research tool’?

6. Subjective Art and Practical Knowledge Research process as criteria of contribution to knowledge Q: In what format is this knowledge to be represented? Q: How does practice-based methodology balance the tacit dimension of practical knowledge? Q: How can we develop methodology around art practice? The artist as the pragmatist of empirical knowledge unquantifiable space of ideas is without measurement intuition –chance –improvisation –instinct – spontaneity - engineered serendipity - luring of accidents Q: How do you write-in and account for the tacit dimension of a practice-based methodology?

7. ‘The only interesting answers are those which destroy the questions’ Susan Sontag