Brief description

Module Title: RESEARCH AND PROCESS IN PRACTICE

Academic Year: 2002/3

Co-ordinator: John Harvey

Other Staff:   Paul Croft, Robert Meyrick, Chris Webster

Semester:   1

Course Delivery: Lectures: 0 hr
Seminars: 0 hr
Tutorials: 6 x 1 hrs
Practicals: 0 hr
Workshops: 0 hr
Study Time: 194 hrs (General reading, Dissertation and Presentation preparation)

Assessment   Dissertation: 90%
   Oral Presentation: 10%

Brief Description
The purpose of this module is to help deepen your comprehension of the work that you will produce for the Portfolio and Exhibition 1 modules. Research and Process in Practice is predicated on the belief (fundamental to the School's philosophy) that innovation and a mature awareness regarding the nature of one's own practice can only be achieved by examining past achievements and contemporary practice in art. In undertaking this module you will be expected to develop an understanding of the historical, theoretical, and artistic background appropriate to your own fine art practice. In this context you will be encouraged to identify, measure, and comprehend your own intent and achievements in relation to past and present precedents. As a consequence, you should develop a greater intellectual grasp both of your own work and of the ideas and artists that bear upon it. The module will, in effect, enable you undertake research using your own work as a starting point. While the dissertation will emerge from a consideration of your own work, it is important to stress that this is a scholarly endeavour rather than either a biographical, journalistic, or diaristic form of writing. For this reason, you are expected to observe the same conventions for writing and publication as if this were a dissertation in Art History. You will also deliver an illustrated presentation based upon the dissertation at the end of the module. The implication, therefore, is that you should write with the clear Outcome of communicating to an audience.

In addressing past and present practices appropriate to your work, you will concentrate on a number of topics. Your supervisor will help you decide which of the following suggestions are appropriate to your own work. Understanding:

? movements, artists, ideas, and processes are currently most relevant to you
? the creative and cognitive processes that shape the evolution of an artwork.
? how to formulate and implement ideas, hypotheses, a framework, and a programme of work
? the interactive relationship between concept and form
? how other artists locate themselves in a historical and contemporary context, and use past art to comprehend their own
? how to rationalise and evaluate your achievements in relation to the work of other artists.
? how past and contemporary culture outside art influences your work and ideas
? how artists successfully communicate their ideas to an audience
? how your work should develop in the context of Exhibition 1, in the light of your findings

Syllabus

This structure is given for guidance only:

Stage 1 (Summer Vacation)   Self-evaluation, composing a proposal and scheme of action

Stage 2 (Weeks 1-2) Defining your current and projected practice and developing a bibliography of primary and secondary sources appropriate to it (includes picture/literature research), and a programme of research development in consultation with your tutor

Stage 3 (Weeks 3-4) Implementing the programme and writing-up preliminary findings

Stage 4 (Weeks 5-7) Re-evaluating or refining the programme and writing-up findings

Stage 5 (Weeks 8-11) Implementing the programme in relation to practical work projected for Exhibition 1, and writing-up findings

Stage 6 (Christmas Vacation) Recording material, finalising the written element, and preparing for the Presentation

Stage 7 (Examination Period) Submission of Dissertation and Presentation

Pre-Requisites
AR10120, AR10220, AR21310, either AR20220 or AR20230, either AR21820 or AR21930, either AR20720 or AR20830, either AR20520 or AR20630.

Co-Requisites
AR30130. Either AR31220, AR30920, AR30720 or AR30220

Incompatibilities
Not available in Single Hons Art History, Single Hons Art History with Fine Art, and Joint Honours Fine Art and Art History.

Skill Development

The module will assist the development of the following academic and transferable skills:

? Self-directed project work -- through the production of the Dissertation and Presentation paper
? IT and information handling -- you will be expected to word-process the Dissertation and Presentation paper. Where appropriate, supporting work may be generated using computer-graphic software in consultation with individual tutors and subject to the availability of existing resources.
? Writing in an academic context -- The Dissertation and Presentation will be composed in accordance with academic conventions.
? Oral discussion and presentation -- These will be developed in the context of one-to-one tutorials and the Presentation
? Careers need awareness -- you will be made aware of the relevance of the knowledge and skills acquired through this module to postgraduate study in Art Practice at MA and Ph.D. level. This will be achieved through an opportunity to exchange ideas with the School'r contingent of Postgraduate students.
? Self-management -- you will be expected to construct a realistic timetable for the completion of discrete phases of research and writing in consultation with their supervisors.
? Group activity -- None.

Assessment

Components
Dissertation (90%) (7,000 words minimum to 10,000 words maximum) This discusses the visual-historical tradition appropriate to your work. The text will be divided in to two parts. Part 1 = an Introduction, followed by a main body presenting an observation, a description, and an interpretation of historical precedents, artists, and theoretical ideas, techniques, methods, materials, processes, and contexts relevant to your work; Part 2 = an application of findings to your work, with a view to developing a programme of action suitable for Exhibition 1.

Oral Presentation (10%) This demonstrates your authority over the subject, skills in visual and verbal communication, and ability to explain and justify your ideas before your peers. The Presentation paper should be distilled from the Dissertation and last no more than 20 minutes.

Conditions
Both assessed elements must be passed. Only the failed component need be resubmitted.

Bibliography
Michael Compton, Art as Thought Process, London: Arts Council, 1974.
Teresa Newman, Naum Gabo: The Constructive Process, London: Tate Gallery Publications, 1976.
Harold Morick, The Challenge to Empiricism, Belmont, California: Wadsworth, 1972.
Lois Swan Jones, Art Research Methods and Resources: A Guide to Finding Art Information, Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1978.
Paula A. Baxter, `Implementing Database Services for Art Research?, Art Documentation, Spring 1987, pp. 16-18.
Ursula Meyer, Conceptual Art, New York: Dutton, 1972.
Norman Bryson (ed.), Visual Theory: Painting and Interpretation, London: Polity Press, 1991.
Sandy Nairne, State of the Art: Ideas and Images in the 1980s, London: Chatto and Windus/Channel 4, 1987.
E. H. Gombrich, Topics of Our Time: Twentieth Century Issues in Learning and Art, London: Phaidon, 1991.
Isaiah Berlin, Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas, London: Hogarth Press, 1979.
Harold Borko, Abstracting Concepts and Methods, New York: Academy Books, 1975.

Aims
The module should enable you to:
A. develop a specific program of research and a research methodology
B. develop a self-reflective approach to creativity
C. locate your work within an historical and contemporary discourse.
D. create an interface between the practice, theory, and history of Art.
E. undertake a systematic inquiry within a prescribed framework
F. form and test hypotheses
G. apply methods and techniques appropriate to the subject in rigorous, proficient, self-critical, and self-reflective ways
H. describe your practice in a way that is communicable to peers
I.   justify and evaluate actions and decisions
J.   prepare you for Exhibition 1

Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module you are expected to be able to:
1. research and compose an extended piece of writing that clearly demonstrates an ability contextualize, reflect upon, and critically appraise your fine art practice (Aims: A, B, C, D, F, G)
2. communicate to an audience a distillation of the Dissertation, orally and visually, in a professional manner (Aims: H)
3. formulate ideas and opinions in a substantiated and orderly manner (Aims: A, E, F, H, I)
4. formulate defined and realistic Outcomes and a plan of action for implementation in Exhibition 1 (Aims: A, B, D, J)

Relation to Assessment
Outcomes 1, 2, 4 are assessed through the Dissertation
Outcome 3 is assessed through the Presentation

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6