Expanded notions of research for artists. Interview with Lily Diaz-Kommonen (Media Lab, Helsinki)

by Trebor Scholz

Over the past years a few "practice-based Ph.D." programs for artists have emerged. New media theorist-practitioners get the chance to enter into a discipline other than art. They learn to speak to it with the necessary competence and rigor. People stand in long lines to enter these young programs. While much of this recent development was pioneered in the UK, also in the United States Ph.D.s in "New Media" are in the making. But only few of them are "practice-based" allowing artists to develop their art production parallel to their writing. Many of the communities of new media art are grouped around festivals and conferences at which they reflect on their work, present and contextualize it. Computer-mediated art is a relatively new field and initially there were few media theorists who had the necessary technical insight to deeply understand the functioning of media artworks. Media artists bring the wide variety of their skills and a creative imagination of new methodologies to the production of texts. While many new media artists in the U.S., are mystified by their colleagues entering Ph.D. programs, the aforementioned motivations are valid reasons for such educational pursuits. Critical voices also point to the rampant competitiveness of caffeinated singles jumping from one opportunity to the next who may simply need yet another point to add to their vita. Critics also argue that these Ph.D. programs lack in theoretical rigor.
In the United States, the word "art" appearing in applications to even the most enlightened foundations often kills those project's chance for funding. Even some professional art fans turn away from art arguing that it is all too ego-driven and too often of little social relevance. Resource scarcity in the cultural sector is met with imaginative alternative economies. Responses include arts advocacy, alliances with corporations and self-institutional attempts.
The drive for an artist Ph.D. is seen by some as the search for legitimization in front of the National Foundation for the Sciences that favors applications from "principal investigators" who hold a Ph.D.. Artists in turn shape their projects in science formats to fit into these funding parameters.

Trebor Scholz:
How do you place the work of the Doctor of Art (in Art and Design) program at the Media Lab Helsinki in this context, in between enthusiastic and critical narratives? Why should artists go down a Ph.D. track? What does "practice-research" mean in the art context?

Lily Diaz:
The Doctor of Art (in Art and Design) program at the Media Lab Helsinki equips artists and designers with the necessary skills for independent research and practice. Some of the areas being researched by students in the program are: interactivity design for public places, drama in narrative interactive media, hci, inter-authorship in interface design, integration of cooperative technologies in real world scenarios, sound interfaces, content management in learning environments, socially-engaged and collaborative practice, domestic digital photography, and collaborative ontology design.

I agree with you that theoretical reflection is an integral, and important, part of new media art practice. However, I do not think that these conferences have had much to do with whether there are advanced educational degree programs in art and design. At least not in Finland, where the first degrees were awarded already in the early 90s. Furthermore, I do not think that it is imperative that artists in general pursue advanced degrees. However, it is a good thing that there are opportunities and options for those who desire to do so.

We are located in a university that is dedicated to pursuance of knowledge in the fields of art and design. According to Finnish law, the Doctor of Art (in Art and Design) degree that is offered by UIAH is a scientific degree that stresses the role of research. It is equivalent to the Ph.D. degree. This sounds like a contradiction but effectively we are saying that we do not recognize the divisions between arts and sciences and that it is possible to conduct scientific research in art and design.

The DA seminar is the backbone of our program. In this course, students present and discuss their work. We also have lectures and guest speakers. The provenance of the guest speakers is varied, they can be from Media Lab UIAH or from another department in our university. They can also be from other universities in Finland and from disciplines other than art. In addition, we feature guest professors from abroad. This week we had Maureen Thomas, creative director of Cambridge University Moving Image Studio (CUMIS), who is also a visiting artist in the Crucible Studio research group, and Marikki Hakola, from the Film department. Maureen spoke about theories of narrative and their application in interactive narrative design. Marikki presented her doctorate thesis work.

http://www.arct.cam.ac.uk/cumis/flash_content/index.html
http://crucible.lume.fi/

Aside from the seminar, we also have workshops. These are short–usually one-week long–intensive interactions in which the student explores and works with one particular theme. Earlier this semester, for example, we had a workshop on Scenario-based Design Methodologies with John M. Carroll from the School of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State University. Last semester we welcomed Klaus Krippendorff from the Annenberg School of Communications for a workshop of Research Methods in Design. Next semester we will be hosting Erkki Huhtamo and Machiko Kusahara from UCLA and Waseda University in Tokyo respectively.

http://www.asc.upenn.edu/asc/application/

Through these activities, students have access to experts from diverse disciplines. The objective is for students to draw from these sources and produce their own contribution. Students are also encouraged to seek their own group of experts which they can consult and work with.

An example of the output, or outcome, of the program is our next doctoral dissertation: Cinemasense/Elokuvantaju, by Antti Raike. Cinemasense is a web portal about filmmaking. In addition to the portal which has been translated into English, Finnish Sign Language, Spanish, Colombian Sign Language and Japanese there is a written dissertation where the researcher/film-maker discusses the theoretical underpinnings of his work, with respect to accessibility and Design for All.

http://elokuvantaju.uiah.fi/2001/english/study_material/pre-production/storyboard.jsp

We are also seeking to develop methods that are "of design" and "of art." And like other disciplines, we are also looking for ways to customize the methods of other disciplines and adapt them to the needs of our areas. This is something that all the other fields of knowledge are constantly doing and have always done. Archaeology, for example, has substantially borrowed from chemistry, geology, history… Ultimately in our current world situation, bringing the way of thinking of the natural sciences, the social sciences and the humanities closer to the world view of designers and artist can have a positive influence in the "knowledge-sphere."

TS: Would you say that cross-disciplinarity is endangered when artists focus exclusively on one topic? How do you encourage an interdisciplinary practice?

LD: We believe that it is good for artists and designers to concentrate deeply on the subject-matter that they have chosen. I think that this is one of the reasons why they come to our program. We have a deeply ingrained multi-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary culture that is already evident in our MA program in which students of different backgrounds work together throughout their studies. It is important not to confuse trans-disciplinarity with lack of depth. Actually it demands that students spend more effort developing their line of thought, since they cannot simply follow the paths of their disciplinary ancestors. In addition, our program is not only about art but even more about design. Design always requires research.

There is a very interesting book edited by K. Styles and P. Selz, Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook for Artist's Writings. Although the book does not claim to be about artist's research itself, it is a sample of artists notebooks which provides insights into different processes involved in the creation of art and how an artist's make use of sources from disciplines other than art.

TS: When visiting UIAH's Media Lab, I was impressed by the small research tanks that you have on your premises: glass cube laboratories that are dedicated to one project of 3-4 artist/researchers with specific funding from outside-university funding.

LD: We do have a large number of projects, some funded, some not funded. Some more production-oriented and some more oriented towards basic research. Our education builds very strongly on the research we do. We try to construct ways in which students can be involved in research and find out for themselves if that is an interesting activity for them. We have several thematic research groups. The students in the Doctor of Art (in Art and Design) program can pursue their work independently or in collaboration with the research groups.

Notes

Media Lab Research Groups:
ARKI (Digitalization in the context of everyday life)
http://arki.uiah.fi/

Learning Environments for Progressive Inquiry Research Group
http://fle3.uiah.fi/group/

Crucible Studio research group
http://crucible.lume.fi/

Systems of representation (Representation of knowledge in digital dimension)
http://sysrep.uiah.fi

Research-Based Ph.Ds:
http://www.smartlabcentre.com/5phd/index.htm

http://www.planetary-collegium.net/about/

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/slade/courses/gradresearch.html


References:
PixelACHE 2005
Upcoming new media festival
http://www.pixelache.ac/2005/program.php?name=engl

Assembly
The big annual demo event
http://www.assembly.org/asmorg/

Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art
http://www.nifca.org/

Mind Trek (2004 pages)
conference held in Tampere
http://www.mindtrek.org/mindtrek/english/index.tmpl

Artists Association MUU
Finnish Artists' Assiciation MUU, founded in 1987, is
an artist-run interdisciplinary artist association.
http://www.muu.fi/

Katastro.fi
http://www.katastro.fi/

M-Cult
Centre for New Media Culture
http://www.m-cult.org/index_en.html

Computer Arts Center at Espoo
Develops and produces new media arts events.
http://weegee.espoo.fi/toimijat.asp?path