PhD or not to PhD?: How to improve research based art practice

A discussion on the YASMIN list
March 3–14, 2008
To join the discussion register at: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

Moderator: Prof. Dr. Oguzhan Ozcan, Director of PhD in Art and Design at Istanbul Yildiz Technical University (http://oguzhan.ozcan.info) and YASMIN corresponding editor.

Respondents will include: Ken Friedman, Kristina Niedderer, Deirdre Barron, Chris Rust, John Zimmerman, Basak Senova. All interested persons are invited to participate.

Dates: March 3–14, 2008

"To PhD or not to PhD?: How to improve research based art practice"

Like scientists, artists are engaged in research activities. However research is carried out in different ways when comparing artists to scientists. During the last 20 years, a number of academic institutions have created PhDs in Art as well as a Practice Based Research Degrees. For a thorough report on this question, please refer to the one written by Professor Stuart Lain, University of Brighton available at:

http://www.it.bton.ac.uk/research/euindia/knowledgebase/brightonpg/laing.htm

We would like to invite Yasminers to discuss the broader question of how research education in art should be designed today.

Respondents will include:

Prof. Dr. Ken Friedman, Swinburne University of Technology
Dr. Kristina Niedderer
Dr. Deirdre Barron, Swinburne University Faculty of Design
Prof. Dr. Chris Rust at Sheffield-Hallam University
Dr. John Zimmerman, School of Design Carnegie Mellon University
Dr. Basak Senova, School of Communication, Kadir Has University