Course Structure/Why such a course?
The course's structure will follow a practice based approach whereby you will be taken through all the steps that go into writing a theoretical text in the field of artistic/creative practice. You will progress week by week, starting by defining and narrowing the subject that you wish to write upon, learning how to structure a paper, getting a grasp on how to conduct research and literature reviews; ending with a full, referenced academic text of 5000+ words that follows the requisite standards, and that is also accompanied by a visual presentation that demonstrates the contents of your text. What is important to know is that this text will not be your thesis. Instead it will become an independent paper that you should feel confident enough about to submit to an academic, peer reviewed journal as an article.
Therefore the first step, which will be your homework for this week, is identifying what it is that you want to write on: This could be the project that you wish to pursue for your degree. However, you may not yet be ready to do this since you are only starting out. In this case an earlier work that you have already completed may be more suitable. You should also keep in mind that the aim of this course is not to get you to create original work but to teach you how to conduct research that will substantiate your future work and teach you how to write upon it academically. Therefore you may also write on a subject that does not relate to your own work, provided that you remain within the art/design fields, and provided that your subject is focused enough to write upon.
Thus, the primary job whilst identifying the subject is to narrow things down and become focused, but not to the point where you are so focused that you cannot contextualize your subject through references or place it within a broader field. Be aware that a 'subject' is not a 'field.' Which means that you cannot write about 'video' or 'typography' or 'sculpture.' Neither are generalized concepts such as 'memory,' 'urban,' aesthetics,' 'motion,' etc etc etc... 'subjects' in and of themselves. A subject addresses a specific issue or content that resides within a 'field' and rests itself upon 'concepts.'
To make this easier for you, I am asking you to write an abbreviated abstract of 150 words that identifies your subject. Bear in mind however that this is not a 'real abstract,' but only a small exercise that is deliberately restricted to a very small number of words in order to help you become focused upon what it is that you want to work on for the rest of the semester.
______________
To answer the question as to why such a course is needed for the VACD program at SU, global definitions of graduate degrees that are available in our field may be needed:
- MA: Is a graduate degree that is awarded upon the mastery of existent knowledge in the field, demonstrated through a dissertation, and is an interim degree that stands between undergraduate work and a PhD.
- MFA: Is a studio based graduate degree that centers around practice based work. The degree is awarded upon the demonstration of original art/design work through an exhibition or portfolio, accompanied by a written artist's statement. The MFA is a terminal degree since the creative practice of the student is held to be the equivalent of new knowledge, which is the requirement of the PhD.
- PhD: Is a graduate degree that is awarded upon demonstration of mastery of of existent knowledge in the field, accompanied by new knowledge that is contributed to the field through a theoretical thesis.
The conflict at our university is that we award an MA, whilst basing ourselves in creative studio practice, which is actually the provenance of the MFA. Therefore what we have here is a hybrid:
On the one hand the MA requires the mastery of existent knowledge in the field, demonstrated through a written theoretical dissertation, while the MFA stipulates a demonstration of original art/design work through an exhibition or portfolio. This means that your studio practice constitutes one part of your degree requirements whilst a dissertation that shows that you have gained mastery of the existent knowledge in the field constitutes the requirements of the other half. In effect, what we have at Sabancı University is a mini-PhD, in this case awarded upon demonstration of mastery of of existent knowledge in the field, accompanied by new knowledge that is contributed to the field through a demonstration of original art/design work through an exhibition or portfolio.
On the one hand the MA requires the mastery of existent knowledge in the field, demonstrated through a written theoretical dissertation, while the MFA stipulates a demonstration of original art/design work through an exhibition or portfolio. This means that your studio practice constitutes one part of your degree requirements whilst a dissertation that shows that you have gained mastery of the existent knowledge in the field constitutes the requirements of the other half. In effect, what we have at Sabancı University is a mini-PhD, in this case awarded upon demonstration of mastery of of existent knowledge in the field, accompanied by new knowledge that is contributed to the field through a demonstration of original art/design work through an exhibition or portfolio.
This course aims to make you proficient in the first part of this combination - the mastery of existent knowledge in the field, demonstrated through a written theoretical dissertation.
Since, as a terminal degree, the MFA is becoming increasingly obsolete this process may prove to be very beneficial to those of you who wish to continue on an academic path: Most art schools world-wide have either already been integrated into universities or are in the process of becoming so. The PhD (which nowadays is widely being offered in the field of Theory of Artistic Practice) is therefore the new expected norm, and most art institutions require this degree when applying for positions. The study that you will engage upon here will prepare you for the PhD that you will be proceeding to in the future, will help ease you into the process of theorizing upon your creative output.