Four Spaces Open – First Studio-based PhD in the US
Transart Institute seeks applicants for four remaining spaces on its practice based PhD studies starting July 2011
Transart Institute offers a UK-validated course of studies leading to a PhD for working artists, art faculty and all professionals in related fields who are seeking advancement in visual arts and new media.
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Transart Institute, through the School of Art & Media and the Graduate School at University of Plymouth is offering a low-residency PhD degree for advanced studio art and scholarly study in a three to four year full time degree program with an average work commitment of 30 hours per week. Registration is initially for the MPhil stage, with students transferring to PhD registration at the end of the first year. The Degree is only offered for practice-based research (creative work) accompanied by a written thesis. Details online
Proposals
Transart is particularly keen on encouraging proposals that in the widest sense explore space and inhabitation of space, the archive, documentary art making, language/image, software studies, network culture, performance and the role of art in peace, mediation and international relations. The proposal should demonstrate systematic study, independence, critical competence and originality. It should include a record of the ‘practice’ element and also serve to contextualize the practice intellectually while clearly demonstrating its contribution to knowledge. Online details on the application process
Goals
The course of studies at Transart Institute aims to create a space for students of all disciplines to interact with a wide range of artists, scientists, theorists, media practitioners and visionaries. Students investigate their work independently in both a cultural and studio context. The a-disciplinary model at Transart Institute is designed to enrich students’ praxis; foster change; facilitate a connection between group and personal work; provide the means for contextualizing work in the wider world; and develop interaction strategies with audiences. PhD research is expected to contribute significantly to the current creative cultural dialogue through informed, published, exhibited or performed work and documentation thereof.
PhD project and thesis
The PhD builds on the achievements of student’s Masters level work, by developing a creative project of significant and relevant practice-based research which represent an original contribution to the fields of art and culture. The specifics of each practice-based PhD project are particular to the goals and interests of the candidate. The thesis will show systematic study, independence, critical competence, originality and will be capable of publication in whole or in part. It will include a record of the ‘practice’ element and also serve to contextualise the practice intellectually while clearly demonstrating its contribution to knowledge. The relationship between the studio-based work and the written work as practice-based research activities share a common set of resources. Therefore studio and written components of the PhD project are to be conceived of as a whole.
PhD project presentation
Students experiment with exhibition and presentation possibilities at the penultimate summer residency in preparation for the PhD project presentation the following summer at the Transartfest. As appropriate to the nature of the PhD project, students have the option to exhibit, perform or document their projects.
Location
Transart Institute is an international program. Summer residencies take place in cooperation with arts organizations in Europe. Winter residencies take place in New York at various arts initiatives and galleries or University of Plymouth. Transart Institute provides a range of accommodation listings and arranges a special group rate at a student hotel each summer as well as student travel and city guides. Most students prefer to stay together but students make their own arrangements for travel, accommodations and meals during the residencies so many options are available. Travel info can be found here.
Structure of studies
YEAR 1 MPhil
Summer residency research training and support study sessions
Week 1: Elected studio topical workshop
Week 2: Elected cultural studies topical seminar
Week 3: Seminar “Research Methoologies 1″, planning sessions, group and individual critiques, lectures
Offsite: Develop proposal, critique group meetings and individual supervision
Winter residency support studies: research presentations, group and individual critiques, lectures
Weekend: Seminar “Research Methodologies 2″ (Bennett)
YEAR 2 PhD
Summer residency research training and support study sessions
Week 1: PhD research proposal presentation, first possible transfer to PhD registration from MPhil
Week 2: Seminar “Art as Research, Research as Art”, critiques, lectures
Offsite: Development of practice-based research project, critique group meetings and individual supervision
Winter residency support studies: research presentations, group and individual critiques, lectures
YEAR 3 PhD
Summer residency research training and support study sessions
Week 1: PhD research presentation
Week 2: Seminar “Framing a Practice 2″, critiques, lectures
Offsite: Completion of practice-based research project, critique group meetings and individual supervision
Winter residency support studies: research presentations, group and individual critiques, lectures
YEAR 4–7 Thesis write-up year(s)
FINAL SUMMER RESIDENCY
Week 1: Research result presentations, viva voce, pedagogical praxis seminar, lectures
Fall: PhD award letters
Transart faculty and students come from a wide range of academic and artistic backgrounds as well as geographic locations. A majority of Transart students are emerging and mid-career artists and teachers at tertiary institutions. Summer faculty includes:
Radhika Subramaniam, a curator, editor and writer based in New York. She is presently the Director/Chief Curator of the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School for Design where she is also assistant professor of Art and Design History and Theory.
Nicolás Estévez, an interdisciplinary artist working mostly in performance art and public interventions. His projects have been exhibited extensively internationally at venues such as , P.S.1/MoMA, Madrid Abierto/ARCO, Havana Biennial, El Museo del Barrio, Bronx Museum of the Arts. Estévez has been awarded a commission to present a town-wide project as part of The MacDowell Colony Centennial. His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, NYArts Magazine, The Boston Globe, Art Nexus, Flash Art, Cuban Arts, and in major publications in Mexico, Spain and the Dominican Republic.
David Dunn, a composer and artist who is internationally known for his articulation of frameworks that combine the arts and sciences towards practical environmental activism and problem solving. He has been the recipient of over 35 grants and fellowships for both artistic and scientific research, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, Langlois Foundation, Ford Foundation, and various US embassies. In 2005, he received the prestigious Alpert Award for music, and the Henry Cowell Award from the American Music Center in 2007.
Geoff Cox, a Researcher in Digital Aesthetics in the Department of Information and Media Studies at Aarhus University (DK). He is also an occasional artist, writer, and Associate Curator of Online Projects, Arnolfini, Bristol (UK), and Reader in Art and Technology, University of Plymouth (UK) where he is part of KURATOR/Art and Social Technologies Research group. He is an editor for the DATA Browser book series (published by Autonomedia), and co-edited ‘Economising Culture’ (2004), ‘Engineering Culture’ (2005) and ‘Creating Insecurity’ (2009). His research interests lie in the areas of software studies, network culture and a reappraisal of the concept of the ‘public’.
Student Experience
The majority of Transart students are emerging and mid-career artists and educators at tertiary institutions. Transart Institute’s residencies are a meeting place for cultural exchange. Transart students and alumni will converge for the summer residency from areas as diverse as Italy, Egypt, Pakistan, Iceland, Croatia, Ethiopia, Canada, Costa Rica, the UK and the US.
For many students the time at Transart is a transformational experience. New York based artist Virgil Wong found “The community I’ve become a part of through Transart is already much more immersive than what I’ve developed in ten years of living and working as an artist in New York City”. Photographer and performer Angelika Rinnhofer found that “to work independently can pose a challenge but it also offers freedom and flexibility. Since a large number of students are accomplished artists and earn a living, Transart’s concept is ideal to work toward a degree and to expand one’s artistic career in addition to having a job.”
Application Deadline is July 1, 2011 with rolling admissions. Admissions information
General information: www.transartinstitute.org
For specific information please contact Selina Heaton: [email protected]
USA: +1 (347) 410 9905 | Fax: (508) 682 2853
Summer residency | July 23–August 13, 2011 | Tanzfabrik, Berlin
Winter residency | January 5–8, 2012 | Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
Transartfest: Berlin, August 4–5, 2012
MFA Creative Practice and PhD studies validated by University of Plymouth UK | www.plymouth.ac.uk
Transart Institute