Upgrade report
At the beginning of this term I had to submit an introduction to my work (c. 5,000 words) and then present it for 15 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of questions. This is part of the degree: you are expected to transfer from a Probationer Research Student to a fully-fledged DPhil candidate.
The ‘upgrade’, as it’s known in the department, outlines your research questions, a brief overview of the literature, details your methodology as well as the field-sites. My structure looked like this:
Abstract // Introduction // Literature review – spaces of experimentation – experiments with art – non-representational theory // Aims and questions // Methodology – field-sites – methods – ethics // Précis // References // Timetable
Abstract: Within Geography there has been an increasing interest in the spaces, sites and practices of experiments. Such work has tended to focus on the scientific lab, or has been concerned with sites of artistic experiments in the city. However, little work has been done on the emergence of distinctive hybrid spaces, such as art-studios, as spaces of aesthetic, or sensory, experimentation. By drawing on work from a range of disciplines, the report outlines three sets of issues that will drive the research: firstly, the configurations of spaces that generate, or are generated by, these kinds of ‘studio-labs’; secondly, the techniques, rhythms and movements of experimental practices that bring about the new; and thirdly, both the ethical and political imperatives that underpin these spaces and practices, as well as the potential these ethico-political interventions may hold. A set of research encounters with art-studios will offer opportunities for thinking about these issues, through an ethnographic approach. A number of sites have been identified: (1) the Institut für Raumexperimente in Berlin, which seeks to interrogate space-based experimental techniques; (2) an interdisciplinary project, also in Berlin, which is concerned with creating an inverted acoustic space to sonically disorientate the audience; and (3) The Topological Media Lab in Montreal, a so-called ‘atelier-studio-laboratory’, which invents novel forms of gestural media, expressive instruments and compositional systems that support speculative performances and installations. Through collaboration within, and beyond, the discipline, this thesis will seek to highlight the spaces of aesthetic experiment.
The presentation was fairly tense affair – plenty of questions – but a useful process, where you can get a taste of academic debate. I had only presented my work once before (the RGS-IBG Mid-Term Conference, a few months earlier) and so was slightly nervous. I was pleased people engaged with my work, had questions to ask and suggested other lines of enquiry.
Just this week I met my supervisors to discuss the upshot of my report, following the assessors’ comments and recommendation to transfer! Plenty to consider…
This post is tagged introduction, oxford, upgrade