Hi everyone,
It is, indeed, a pleasure to have been invited to discuss this topic! Since I received the email from Simon I have been wondering about the reasons why an artist would undertake a research degree. Given that I am not an artist myself I actually asked a few about their motivation to embark on Masters and PhD studies while I was in Prague at the MutaMorphosis conference (http://mutamorphosis.org/2012/) last month. Some of the responses I received were quite pragmatic, namely that the availability of funding, in the form of scholarships, had been a strong incentive to determine their choice, or that academia simply provided a familiar forum to continue their practice, following from their undergraduate studies. While it is not a very exciting reason, I was not surprised to hear that the scarcity of funding for the arts had been the drive for some. Interestingly though, was the fact that these responses were not much different from the ones provided by many biological science students as to why they were doing a PhD (a cohort that I am more familiar with, given my academic background as a biologist and neuroscientist – and similarly in science the abundance of scholarships provides a source of income when other research positions are unavailable). Affirming the similarities between scientific and artistic practices within the context of a research degree is actually the main point I wish to sustain. As a scientist, for me it was not enough to pipette liquids or to grow cells in Petri dishes in the laboratory – I wanted to do science to build an understanding about the processes occurring within living beings and to contribute to the body of knowledge about the biological world around me. My motivation to do a PhD was the willingness to engage in an intellectual challenge that would form the base and provide a context for my scientific practice. And this intellectual drive was very much what Donna indicated as her main reason to undertake her PhD, just as Sue mentioned that the concern for a research informed by tacit knowledge was a core concern during her doctorate. Moreover, while I agree with the problematization outlined by Simon (that possibly the divergent epistemologies underpinning the various academic fields fuels the debate about the (dis)advantages of research degrees), I am not aware of such questions being considered within the biological and physical sciences. Scientific contexts are among themselves quite different, for the work of an astronomer or mathematician is vastly different from that of an ecologist or microbiologist, but it is never put into question that a scientist may wish to undertake doctoral studies and to produce a thesis situating their own research within the wider framework of their area of engagement. Why should such practice be questioned when undertaken by an artist? Particularly when the creative practitioner is exploring hybrid territory, I would argue that the thesis (usually a requirement for obtaining a research degree) is actually helpful and necessary as the form of expression in which to conciliate different disciplines being explored. What I find exciting in this wave of research-led practice/practice-led research is the potential to find common ground between the various disciplines. A neuroscientist and a dance artist might seldom communicate, but dance can provide a real situational context and research material for the former, and exploring notions of embodiment can lead the latter to learn about the somatosensory nervous system – and therefore these research processes provide the conditions for otherwise infrequent dialogues to occur. This was already mention by Simon when identifying hybrid practices as a frequent ground for the emergence of these research students, and beautifully alluded to by Donna in her metaphor of *holding axes sharpened by encounters with others*. Instead of merely being a scientist I rather become a Dr_Iam_a_scientistresearchacademic so that I can engage in a conversation with my colleague Sue, also known as Dr_Iam_an_artistresearcheracademic. Kind regards, Maria
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