Advancing Supervision for Artistic Research Doctorates

Lead partner: Orpheus Instituut

Being able to share knowledge and expertise with colleagues is essential for the development of an independent professional artist. In performing arts, such as theatre and dance, concrete methods and strategies for peer-to-peer feedback are widespread. Within the field of artistic research and artistic research education, however, artistic feedback has not been given much attention. In fact, numerous studies have recognised the need for specific training in this subject area. Considering the similarities between the work of artists and artist-researchers, the integration of strategies for feedback from the performing arts into artistic-research programmes, and into doctoral supervision processes in particular is a potential asset for the future of artistic research.

Questions raised

• How can research output of a non-discursive nature or one that is not based on text be submitted to feedback in the context of artistic doctoral work?
• What are the specific requirements for pertinent and efficient feedback in situations where non-discursive material has to be commented upon?
• How can these new insights enrich relationships between supervisor and doctoral student in disciplines where this relationship is mainly based on text?

To build a culture of feedback in the context of doctoral studies based on a differentiated approach to creative work will make the doctoral supervision processes more adapted to the hybrid, cross-disciplinary practices often met in the context of artistic research. Also, communication between student and supervisor that is not based on text only but rather on the understanding and elaboration of artistic processes, will allow supervisors and students alike to better articulate the object(s) of research. Further, it will have a positive effect on the way staff and students perceive supervision and transform processes of critique into empowering tools. Last, an improved understanding of feedback and the integration of new discourses into the curricula of artistic PhD programmes will lead not only to better practices of evaluation and to enhanced approaches to student assessment.

At stake

• Defining supervision, supervision vs. other concepts like mentoring, coaching, etc.
• Ethical dimensions in supervision
• New competencies for supervisors
• Professional education for supervisors (training)
• The art of giving feedback in artistic research (transdisciplinarity)
• The role of the research environment for supervision

Advancing Supervision for Artistic Research Doctorates produces intellectual outputs ready to use for those involved in doctoral supervision across all art disciplines. Innovative formats like an interactive mindmap, exhibitions and essays, a non-normative guide book, a web based tool kit and a prototype for a training module deal with all dimensions of the triangular doctoral framework: institution – supervisor – PhD candidate.

Advancing Supervision for Artistic Research Doctorates is developed in a transnational cooperation setting coordinated following the publication of the ELIA position paper “The Florence Principles on the Doctorate in the Arts”. The consortium comprises nine partner institutions and is coordinated by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Aims and topics

Advancing Supervision for Artistic Research Doctorates aims to improve doctoral education at art universities. It addresses doctoral supervision as the core component in doctoral education, proposing a balanced set of measures to improve supervision on a practical level (addressing institutions and students), a strategic level (addressing membership organizations), and on an advocacy level (addressing stakeholders and policy makers). The members of the project consortium, led by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, come from all artistic fields (fine arts, media arts, performative arts, architecture and design, music, art theory) ensuring a transdisciplinary perspective of supervision in artistic research. The strategic partnership includes various European institutions in order to take into account a comprehensive range of national and local frameworks, and it includes members from different types of art universities, ensuring the validity of the project findings for all institutional contexts. 

The project proposes to closely investigate six areas in which tools and measures will be created to advance doctoral supervision in artistic research:

• defining supervision (supervision vs. other concepts like mentoring, coaching, etc.);
• ethical dimensions in supervision;
• new competencies for supervisors;
• professional education for supervisors (training);
• the art of giving feedback in artistic research (transdisciplinarity);
• the role of the research environment for supervision.

Project output

The four intellectual outputs dealing with these issues took on the formats of mind maps, handbooks, online tool kits, briefing scenarios, a training concept as well as a comprehensive final publication on „Undoing Supervision | A Non-normative Guide on Key Issues in Supervising Artistic Research Doctorates“, which documented and summarised all project findings. In addition to these outputs, the project developed training tools and modules to create an original and tailor-made training activity for the field of artistic research. This training activity accounted for the fact that state-of-the-art doctoral supervision needed to be implemented in a triangular way, establishing a process that included student, supervisor, and institutional decision makers. Therefore, the training addressed these three target groups and devised a training method that advanced the skills of all three actors involved.

Events

The project organized three multiplier events, the first one was carried out in collaboration with an big international stakeholder event organised by ELIA, the ELIA Academy. This cooperation ascertained the widest possible broad dissemination of results and interaction of the strategic partnership consortium with students, supervisors, university leaders, stakeholders from the higher arts education sector, and policy makers. The second multiplier event addressed the target group of supervisors, beyond the partner institutions. The third and final multiplier event presented the project results to a broad audience, and encouraged in particular the debate with representatives from other fields and disciplines. The embeddedness of the consortium members in Europe-wide network organizations ensured the sustainability of the project and the achievement of high-quality results.

Coordinator

Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Austria)

Partners

• Academy of Fine Arts Prague (Czech Republic)
• University of Bergen (Norway)
• Zurich University of the Arts (Switzerland)
• University of Art and Design Linz (Austria)
• School of Architecture Aarhus (Denmark)
• Orpheus Institute (Belgium)
• The Glasgow School of Art (United Kingdom)
• ELIA - European League of Institutes of the Arts (Netherlands)

With the support of the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union

Project Reference: 2018-1-AT01-KA203-039320