In research for my article for Axis Web, To PhD or not to PhD?, I have recently spoken to David Hancock about his experiences studying towards a practice-based PhD at the University of Salford.
Do you think an artist need a PhD to be successful in their career?
No, not as artist, it makes no difference, but if you want to get into teaching in higher education then it is a great help. The advertisements I have seen recently require candidates to have a PhD.
What were the benefits of the PhD (ie. funds, time, facilities.etc)?
I receive a grant of £13,500 each year for 3 years. I also received a further £300 each year for study trips. I have had full use of the facilities at the University, the support of great staff, and interaction with the students across a number of courses at both MA and BA level. I have to teach a minimum of 6 hours per week as part of my PhD. It has also allowed to focus on my work for 3 years. My PhD is practice based, so my research is drawn from my own work and this informs my research, so it has been an incredibly productive period in terms of output, but also in terms of developing ideas through research.
What attracted you to studying towards a PhD initially?
I had recently gone back into education as an opportunity to shake up my practice. My career was badly affected by the crash in 2008. I lost my collectors, representation, and opportunities to exhibit. I did a Masters to open up new ways of working. After 2 years on the Masters, I felt there was a lot more I could achieve through continuing with my education, so I applied to do a PhD.
On retrospect, do you think the doctorate has enhanced your practice/career? If so, how? If not, how so?
Yes. The written and research aspects of the PhD has enhanced my practical work providing reasons to explore my ideas through other means. In order to answer the questions posed by the research, I have explored creative outlets that I would not have done or thought of previously. This is also due to the University environment, and what I have learnt from the students, staff, and the courses I have taught on.
Do you see differences between artists practice in ideas, content and form that are engaged in academic research (such as PhD) and those who work outside the academic environment post BA/MA education?
Not especially. I think any good artist will have a strong and well researched rationale for making a particular body of work. The PhD is more an opportunity to get this down in a more structured way and expand upon the research. You would go much further with a PhD, and expand into other areas, but as I have found, this creates new outlets to explore. I have found the process creative and inspiring, and I think the work I have made during the PhD has been my strongest to date, and this can be evidenced in the opportunities I have had to exhibit the work.
Would you ever consider that studying towards a PhD is a sign that you are struggling as an artist outside of education?
If you mean struggling financially, then to some extent this is true. The PhD has offered me financial stability which is a good environment to making work. I can focus on the work and not worry about having to take on other jobs that diminishes my time in the studio. An artist would not do a PhD to advance their career in the art world. It wouldn't help you get representation with a top gallery. The PhD isn't judged on the quality of the artwork, just on the ability of the artwork to be used as a methodology to answer an academic question. It is not a badge of artistic quality, as that is too subjective for a PhD.
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David Hancock graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1996 and has been exhibiting widely since. He has appeared in a number of prominent exhibitions such as the John Moores 21, Young Masters and the BP Portrait Prize. He has had solo and group shows across the UK and Europe as well as New York, Los Angeles, Shanghai and Hong Kong. He is currently undertaking a PhD at University of Salford. Hancock currently has a solo exhibition 'Cosplay' at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, which runs until 1st June 2013.
Wednesday 20 March 2013
Monday 18 March 2013
To PhD or not to PhD? Interview with Mike Chavez-Dawson
I am currently writing an article for Axis questioning the benefit for an an artist to study towards a practice-based PhD. I have been meeting with a few artists who have completed, or are currently working towards a practice-based doctorate to get their point of view.
Mike Chavez Dawson is currently a PhD Research Fellow at MIRIAD, and has given me his response to my questions below:
Q: Do you think an artist needs a PhD to be successful in their career?
MCD: For me, any academic course is a form of discipline akin to a mental and creative assault course. There are a multitude of rules, bureaucracy and etiquette to navigate, yet as artists we can transform this compromise into a 'medium'-or better still, a 'method'. Of course, this ultimately depends on what is perceived as the 'practice'.
Also, it should go without saying that no one should undertake a course for the sake of gaining the qualification, which should be viewed as a by-product of the process. One should wholeheartedly extract whatever knowledge, understanding and skill the given parameters, time and facilities provide. Of course, as artists we should endeavour to push, question and even rebel when and where possible, although for this to be effective one requires patient intelligence and critical astuteness.
Therefore the focus and openness, and the critical and creative flexibility that a PhD course demands should allow artists to succeed in their endeavours with more finesse and dexterity.
Q: What were the benefits of the PhD (for example, in funds, time, and facilities)?
MCD: As I implied, one benefit is the intensity provided by the academic discipline. Another is to view the PhD as a 'residency' of sorts, one that provides space, time and some reasonable economic recompense (if you're lucky enough to receive a bursary, freeing you from applying for many projects and so forth).
This is especially helpful if there's a key part of your practice you really want to resolve and frame within an ongoing discourse (or 'field' in which you find yourself), although more importantly it's about refining and furthering that area. I should say that as an artist you should arrive at a new perspective that becomes the next level of engagement for your practice.
Q: What attracted you to study towards a PhD initially?
MCD: It was having a particular framework and period of time to make a more in-depth examination of a key area, one that kept coming up in my practice (the borders between documentation and performance from a contemporary visual art perspective).
Also, I felt that this would contribute to the field of inquiry, and the only context that could facilitate this was the PhD.
Q: In retrospect, how do you think the doctorate has enhanced (or not enhanced) your practice/career?
MCD: I'm nearing the end, and personally I don't think I'd be making the work that I'm doing now if it wasn't for the PhD. I feel a deeper confidence and clarity in my methods. I have a refined nimbleness to my practice. It's certainly a personal shift, especially as I'm not drawn to pursuing an academic profession yet, and want to engage with a wider demographic beyond the institute.
In addition, one of the best things for me was being able to justify reading extensively in the area of my inquiry and practice. This was a luxury and a discipline that was hard to maintain as a freelance professional artist and curator.
It has certainly enhanced my career thus far.
Q: Do you see differences in ideas, content and form between the practice of those artists engaged in academic research (such as a PhD) and those who work outside the academic environment after a BA or MA education?
MCD: Again, it comes down to how you engage with the parameters, and the things that allow you to focus in a particular way. There's certainly a gear-shift in terms of intensity and clarification of your practice with an academic pursuit; the knack is to apply a flexible 'transposability' to the field or area in which you practise.
Q: Would you ever consider that studying towards a PhD is a sign that you are struggling as an artist outside of education?
MCD: I think artists just struggle whether they are outside academia or inside. It's their motivation and the extraction of possibilities that are important, and the struggle is just part of the course.
I feel it's best to view a PhD as a long residency where you're focusing intensely and rigorously on a key area of interest, one that you're happy to be grilled about by other knowledgeable folk.
So, from my perspective this is subjective. Ask me tomorrow and I might give a different answer.
-------------------------------------
Mike Chavez-Dawson is an Interdisciplinary Artist Curator based at Rogue Artists Studios, Manchester, his work fluctuates between curation and performance.
He was the visual arts editor and FLUX SPACE curator for FLUX Magazine for over a decade.
He curated and instigated the critically acclaimed Unrealised Potential show for Cornerhouse and more recently the hugely successful David Shrigley solo show 'How Are You Feeling?'.
He's currently a PhD research fellow at MIRIAD, and has recently shown and performed at TATE Britain, Barbican, ICA, Cornerhouse, The Whitworth Art Gallery, British Art Show 7 at Nottingham Contemporary and The Whitstable Biennale. As well as numerous international shows and projects in Dresden, Seoul, Rome, New York, Sans Francisco, Lisbon and Helsinki.
Mike Chavez Dawson is currently a PhD Research Fellow at MIRIAD, and has given me his response to my questions below:
Q: Do you think an artist needs a PhD to be successful in their career?
MCD: For me, any academic course is a form of discipline akin to a mental and creative assault course. There are a multitude of rules, bureaucracy and etiquette to navigate, yet as artists we can transform this compromise into a 'medium'-or better still, a 'method'. Of course, this ultimately depends on what is perceived as the 'practice'.
Also, it should go without saying that no one should undertake a course for the sake of gaining the qualification, which should be viewed as a by-product of the process. One should wholeheartedly extract whatever knowledge, understanding and skill the given parameters, time and facilities provide. Of course, as artists we should endeavour to push, question and even rebel when and where possible, although for this to be effective one requires patient intelligence and critical astuteness.
Therefore the focus and openness, and the critical and creative flexibility that a PhD course demands should allow artists to succeed in their endeavours with more finesse and dexterity.
Q: What were the benefits of the PhD (for example, in funds, time, and facilities)?
MCD: As I implied, one benefit is the intensity provided by the academic discipline. Another is to view the PhD as a 'residency' of sorts, one that provides space, time and some reasonable economic recompense (if you're lucky enough to receive a bursary, freeing you from applying for many projects and so forth).
This is especially helpful if there's a key part of your practice you really want to resolve and frame within an ongoing discourse (or 'field' in which you find yourself), although more importantly it's about refining and furthering that area. I should say that as an artist you should arrive at a new perspective that becomes the next level of engagement for your practice.
Q: What attracted you to study towards a PhD initially?
MCD: It was having a particular framework and period of time to make a more in-depth examination of a key area, one that kept coming up in my practice (the borders between documentation and performance from a contemporary visual art perspective).
Also, I felt that this would contribute to the field of inquiry, and the only context that could facilitate this was the PhD.
Q: In retrospect, how do you think the doctorate has enhanced (or not enhanced) your practice/career?
MCD: I'm nearing the end, and personally I don't think I'd be making the work that I'm doing now if it wasn't for the PhD. I feel a deeper confidence and clarity in my methods. I have a refined nimbleness to my practice. It's certainly a personal shift, especially as I'm not drawn to pursuing an academic profession yet, and want to engage with a wider demographic beyond the institute.
In addition, one of the best things for me was being able to justify reading extensively in the area of my inquiry and practice. This was a luxury and a discipline that was hard to maintain as a freelance professional artist and curator.
It has certainly enhanced my career thus far.
Q: Do you see differences in ideas, content and form between the practice of those artists engaged in academic research (such as a PhD) and those who work outside the academic environment after a BA or MA education?
MCD: Again, it comes down to how you engage with the parameters, and the things that allow you to focus in a particular way. There's certainly a gear-shift in terms of intensity and clarification of your practice with an academic pursuit; the knack is to apply a flexible 'transposability' to the field or area in which you practise.
Q: Would you ever consider that studying towards a PhD is a sign that you are struggling as an artist outside of education?
MCD: I think artists just struggle whether they are outside academia or inside. It's their motivation and the extraction of possibilities that are important, and the struggle is just part of the course.
I feel it's best to view a PhD as a long residency where you're focusing intensely and rigorously on a key area of interest, one that you're happy to be grilled about by other knowledgeable folk.
So, from my perspective this is subjective. Ask me tomorrow and I might give a different answer.
-------------------------------------
Mike Chavez-Dawson is an Interdisciplinary Artist Curator based at Rogue Artists Studios, Manchester, his work fluctuates between curation and performance.
He was the visual arts editor and FLUX SPACE curator for FLUX Magazine for over a decade.
He curated and instigated the critically acclaimed Unrealised Potential show for Cornerhouse and more recently the hugely successful David Shrigley solo show 'How Are You Feeling?'.
He's currently a PhD research fellow at MIRIAD, and has recently shown and performed at TATE Britain, Barbican, ICA, Cornerhouse, The Whitworth Art Gallery, British Art Show 7 at Nottingham Contemporary and The Whitstable Biennale. As well as numerous international shows and projects in Dresden, Seoul, Rome, New York, Sans Francisco, Lisbon and Helsinki.
Tuesday 5 March 2013
Towser Bothy Zine Library - Artist Book Collective at Leeds International Artists Book Fair 8.3.13 - 22.3.13
Last year, some of my artists books and zines were included in the Towser Bothy Zine Library at Holmfirth Arts Festival, curated by Alice Bradshaw and Vanessa Haley. The Zine Library, built by artist Bob Milner, included my artist book 'On the way' and zines 'Directional#1' and 'Directional#2'.
The Towser Bothy Zine Library has been selected by Artist Book Collective, to be shown as part of the Leeds International Artists Book Fair and Divided We Fall Festival in Leeds. The dates are 8th - 22nd March 2013. For more information, please visit:
Artist Book Collective: http://abcarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/pop-ups.html
Divided We Fall Festival: http://dwf.uk.com/about/
The Towser Bothy Zine Library has been selected by Artist Book Collective, to be shown as part of the Leeds International Artists Book Fair and Divided We Fall Festival in Leeds. The dates are 8th - 22nd March 2013. For more information, please visit:
Artist Book Collective: http://abcarchive.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/pop-ups.html
Divided We Fall Festival: http://dwf.uk.com/about/
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'On the way', 2012. For more information, or to purchase, please visit PAPER gallery.  'Directional#1', 2012. For more information, or to purchase, please visit PAPER gallery |
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Jerwood Drawing Prize at The Gallery (Arts University Bournemouth) 22.3.13 - 26.4.13
Last chance to see the Jerwood Drawing Prize, and my drawing 'Navigating the Junction' at The Gallery at the Arts University Bournemouth, information below:
22 MARCH – 26 APRIL 2013
The Jerwood Drawing Prize 2012 is the largest and longest running annual open exhibition for drawing in the UK. Judged by an independent panel of selectors; Stephen Coppel, Curator of the Modern Collection, Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum; Kate Macfarlane, Co-Director of The Drawing Room, London; and Lisa Milroy, Artist and Head of Graduate Painting, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, the Prize aims to explore and celebrate the diversity, excellence and range of current drawing practice in the UK.
From its beginning, the Jerwood Drawing Prize has championed the breadth of contemporary drawing in the UK. From a submission of almost 3,000 entries, the selectors have brought together an exhibition of 78 works from 73 artists. The shortlist includes established artists as well as relative newcomers and students fresh from art college.
Jerwood Drawing Prize 2012 has toured throughout the UK, London to Hastings, Birmingham and Gateshead, with its final stop at TheGallery, Arts University Bournemouth.
For further information on the Jerwood Drawing Prize and tour visit: jerwoodvisualarts.org and aub.ac.uk
EXHIBITION RELATED EVENTS:
THURSDAY 18 APRIL 2013: 5.00 – 6.00PM
Chaired by Professor Stephanie James,
Associate Dean\Head of School of Visual Arts, Arts University Bournemouth
Panel Members to include:
Sarah Williams;
Gallery Manager and Curator: Jerwood Visual Arts (JVA), London, Artist and LecturerTom Hammick; Exhibiting Artist Jerwood Drawing Prize 2012 - Artist and Senior Lecturer at University of Brighton Fran Norton; PHD Student, Arts University Bournemouth and ArtistLaura Banks; graduate from BA (Hons) Fine Art, Arts University Bournemouth, 2012 and Artist
Followed by a Drinks Reception 6.00 - 7.00pm, TheGallery, AUB
ADMISSION FREE
BOOKING ESSENTIAL
Tel: O1202 363272Fax: 01202 537729
Email: gallery@aub.ac.uk aub.ac.uk
TheGalleryArts University Bournemouth, Wallisdown, Poole, BH12 5HH
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