Handbook : Unit informationEdith Cowan University

Faculty of Education and Arts

School: WA Academy of Performing Arts

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

• Unit Title

  Doctor of Philosophy Thesis

• Unit Code

  DVA7200

• Year

  2015

• Enrolment Period

  1

• Version

  1

• Credit Points

  0

• Full Year Unit

  N

• Mode of Delivery

  On Campus
  

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Description

PRACTICAL PROJECT: Students will design, direct or produce a major arts project, culminating in a performance, installation or exhibition. Working in a contemporary arts environment, in collaboration with other students from other arts disciplines, students will be asked to research, devise and produce new works of art or approaches to arts practice. It is expected that this activity will be a contemporary expression of arts practice and could frequently be an exploratory work spanning and integrating art forms. Students will combine the analytical, creative and technical experiences developed throughout the course.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. Combined the analytical, creative and technical experiences developed in other areas throughout the course into producing a major research project.
2. Designed, directed and produced a major arts project.
3. Developed a researchable theme in a contemporary arts environment.
4. Interacted and collaborated with other students from other arts disciplines.

Unit Content

1. Students will conduct their arts research based around a practical project. Two staff will be assigned to provide assistance: (a) an artistic supervisor, who will have significant experience and expertise combined with a knowledge of contemporary practice in the area selected, and (b) a theoretical supervisor, who will have an appropriate background in the theories which underpin contemporary research in the arts or some appriate configuration of artistic and theoretical mentorship. Students will be required therefore to devise and conduct a research project based around four elements: (a) Contribution to knowledge. The research should address a problem which is both researchable and significant. Not all problems are researchable, and neither are they all significant. It is the aim of most research to make an original contribution which builds and extends upon an existing body of knowledge. (b) Conceptual framework. The problem should be set into a conceptual framework that enables one to see the logical or imaginative connection between the premises and the implications. (c) Methodology. The problem being addressed should be set in the context of a reasonable research methodology which will yield to analysis and evaluation. The methodology that is used for addressing the problem follows from the conceptual framework. Methodologies can vary from single case studies to experiments, action research and quantitative analysis. It is here that the Academys students should focus their attention on research through the practices of the creative arts as an acceptable medium for exploring issues in the visual and performing arts. Students should show a good grasp of the methodology. The methodology should be appropriate, systematic, clearly presented and, in some sense, replicable. (d) Interpretive framework. The results of the inquiry should be used to address the initial problem. What has been learned from the research which is an original contribution to knowledge? THEORETICAL CONTEXT: Students will provide an appropriate record of their research through a comprehensive and analytical exegesis based on their creative project and the development of their artistic ideas and processes (20,000 to 30,000 words). Students will be expected to research the theories which underpin contemporary practices, performances and exhibitions of the arts and, through this, to cultivate a theoretical context for their project. Students will be required to elaborate and legitimise their contemporary arts programme through a model of practical and theoretical enquiry appropriate to successful practice within their chosen area. This may involve contextualising the practical activity within an appropriate theoretical framework, a reflection of the aims of the practical work and a consideration of the projects in terms of others working within the same area. University guidelines for thesis writing can be found in the following document: Doctoral and Masters by Research Handbook, Graduate School, Edith Cowan University,

Additional Learning Experience Information

Independent study with supervision.

Assessment

GS3 GRADING SCHEMA 3 Used for research or project units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

Text References

• Riley, S.R., & Hunter, L. (2009). Mapping landscapes for performance as research. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Leavy, P. (2009). Method meets art: Arts-based research practice. New York: Guilford Press.
• Duxbury, L., et al. (Eds.). (2008). Thinking through practice: Art as research in the academy. Melbourne: RMIT.
• Denzin, N.K. (2008). Performance ethnography. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
• Crawford, T. (2009). Modern methods for musicology: Prospects, proposals and realities. Farnham: Ashgate.
• Clandinin, D.J. (2007). Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
• Chatzichstodoulou, M. (2009). Interfaces of performance. Farnham: Ashgate.
• Biggs, I. (2009). Art as research: Creative practice and academic authority. Saarbrucken: VDM Verlag Dr Muller.
• Bentkowska-Kafel, A. (2009). Digital visual culture: Theory and practice. Bristol: Intellect.
• Barrett, E., & Bolt, B. (2007). Practice as research: Approaches to creative arts enquiry. London: I.B. Tauris.

Website References

• ECU Graduate Research School http://www.research.ecu.edu.au/grs/

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