Course Definition
This course aims to enable artists and designers to theorize and to write effectively on their own creative output and projects, as well as to give them the ability to conduct research and develop theory in wider related fields such as art theory, art criticism, art education, new media, curatorial studies and the like. The research methodology of this field can be seen to be a merger of qualitative inquiry, aesthetics and narratology; although quantitative approaches may also come into play, particularly where the evaluation of design projects is concerned. Given the oftentimes subjective nature of writing about one’s own projects and creative output also calls for additional approaches and tools, which include the ability to put together a solid documentation of personal creative output as well as integrating such a documentation into both the text and the presentation/summation thereof.
The course work will take the student from a start-out point involving the definition and setting up the parameters/boundaries of their topic, to a final point of writing a well structured theoretical text as well as learning to prepare a cogent presentation through which the creative work under scrutiny can be summarized efficiently and be disseminated at academic gatherings. Interim stages will cover areas such as approaches for conducting both online and off-line research, with an emphasis on the ability to efficiently use search engines and key words for content development, processes for undertaking effective literature reviews and their manner of integration into personal research, including an understanding of academic referencing styles.