Practice makes Perfect - Theorising Method in Visual Research

[Joanne Lee]

Swansea Metropolitan University Sept 6th & 7th 2012

Key note speaker confirmed; Dr Jac Saorsa
Dr Jac Saorsa is a visual artist, writer and researcher in art practice and philosophy. She has exhibited her work and lectured internationally and is currently Programme Director of the MA/MFA Fine Art at Cardiff Metropolitan University School of Art and Design where she lectures in the theory and practice of drawing. Recent publications include her second book; Narrating the Catastrophe: an artist’s dialogue with Deleuze and Ricoeur, 2011, Intellect Books.

Second Call for Papers
The topic of methodology, while fundamental to academic research, remains unresolved and contentious within the field of art and design. Other fields of qualitative research, such as the humanities and social sciences, have adapted methodological frameworks that have their origins in the hard sciences to the point where they can take full ownership of completely new research paradigms that are fit for purpose.
Art and design remains at a relatively early stage in this process, and the debate takes place within an atmosphere of some institutional prejudice regarding the validity of practice as research. It is therefore essential that as artists and designers we articulate and theorise our own methodological frameworks in ways that are comprehensible and recognisable to other members of the academy. This will ensure the validity of academic research in art and design and empower and enable students, supervisors and examiners.

This two-day symposium brings together post-graduate, post-doctoral and independent researchers to present and debate the issue of methodology in practice-based and practice-led research. This is an opportunity to theorise methods within a methodological framework in order to generate dialogues and synthesise potential models that move the debate forward. To contribute to this we hope to publish papers from the symposium in a peer-reviewed publication.

Presentations may take the form of 15 minute solo papers, 5 minute poster presentations, or 20 minute student/supervisor collaborations where supervisors provide a methodological contextualisation of the student’s practice. Submissions are invited which do one or more of the following:
• Expand on and make rigorous links between method and methodology in art and design
• Give examples of adaptations/hybridisations of research methods/methodology from other disciplines or paradigms
• Demonstrate the methodological differences between practice-based and practice-led research
• Provide examples of language and terminologies for describing, explaining and/or justifying practice as research
• Show how visual practice relates to other research methods as part of a practice-led research project

Please submit 300 words abstract proposals (200 words for posters) to
[e-mail] by 31st May 2012.

For more information on the symposium and on our keynote, Jac Sarosa, visit http://www.smu.ac.uk/practicemakesperfect