The PD Arts + Creative programme embraces diverse forms of artistic and design research. It invites reflection on what artistic research can be, and how creative practice engages with complex questions in society.

The PD Arts + Creative programme is based on artistic and/or design research that responds to a question relevant to the candidate' art or creative practice, and/or that focuses on an intervention from that practice in a specific social context or practice. Over a period of four years (full-time) or a part-time equivalent with a maximum duration of eight years, a creative professional works through a combination of research and creation, learning and reflection on the required qualifications and final products. This adds up to the equivalent of 240 EC. At its core are one or more arts and creative interventions, combined with a well-grounded, coherent reflection that can be presented in various communicative form(s) and contexts.¹ In addition, receiving training and supervision, teaching and ensuring adequate dissemination are part of the programme as well.

Multiplicity of the PD Arts + Creative programme

The PD Arts + Creative programme covers the broad and diverse field of research in and through the arts and creative practices. Over the years, this multiplicity has been organised in various ways. For example, a distinction is often made between artistic research and design research²:

• In artistic research, one's own art or creative practice is the reason for doing research. This research distinguishes itself methodologically from academic research on the arts in that it takes place in, and through, artistic and creative practices. The results of the research are therefore partly artistic practices and products: performances, compositions, shows, installations, sculptures, and collaborations. Because it unfolds through artistic processes while engaging critically with broader questions, artistic research often draws on diverse disciplinary traditions, It can therefore be understood as a meta-discipline – one that brings together methods, perspectives, and forms of knowledge from multiple fields, enabling hybrid and practice-driven ways of inquiry.
• Design research involves the use of artistic and/or design methods to achieve an intervention in another social practice or in a curatorial or pedagogical practice. Within this type of research, artists, and designers work on socially relevant innovations, together with all possible parties in the field in question. As a rule, there is co-creation and there are multiple stakeholders. In this context, the term 'Key Enabling Methodologies' is used to identify the various creative interventions in social practices.³

In the arts and creative domain, the distinction is made between 'arts as research', in which one's own art or creative practice can be a form as well as an object of research, and 'arts in research', in which art or creative practices play a role in other forms of research, conducted for the benefit of social transitions.⁴

In addition, the terms 'practice- led' and 'practice-based' are frequently used to make a similar distinction. Practice-led research involves interventions in the arts or creative practice, while practice-based research leads to new knowledge or interventions related to another domain by means of creative artifacts or processes.⁵ In the actual practices of artists and designers, we often see a combination or overlap of these forms of research.

Expanding the limits of classifications

The creativity and urge for transformation inherent in the sector, means that every typology and every category with which one tries to map out the research field will always be confronted with practical examples that expand the limits of these classifications. The substantive focus of the Arts + Creative PD programme is, therefore, fundamentally open and enabling within the boundaries of the admission requirements and final attainment objectives. The inevitable discussion about and reflection on the question of what artistic and/or design research is and which requirements it should meet is an essential part of the enrichment of the field and the reflexive professional practice to which the PD programme leads.

PD Arts + Creative Research Catalogue

On the Research Catalogue of the Professional Doctorate Arts + Creative programme, PD research is shared as part of the wider research culture. A detailed archive of programme documents, including frameworks and guidelines, is also available via our Research Catalogue.

The Research Catalogue (RC) is a non-commercial, collaborative publishing platform for artistic research, provided by the Society for Artistic Research. PD Arts + Creative candidates are encouraged to use this platform to present and document research projects, making the programme’s work publicly accessible and embedded in an international research environment.

References

1. By ‘arts + creative interventions’ we mean all arts and creative works, actions, processes, methodologies, approaches, action knowledge, products or prototypes that contribute to solving problems in professional practice, both from the arts + creative sector itself and from other domains.
2. See, for instance, SIA (2020). ‘Verkenning naar de versterking van praktijkgericht onderzoek aan kunsthogescholen’. The report also mentions research on the arts. This falls outside the focus of the Arts + Creative PD.
3. Alonso, M. B., van der Bijl-Brouwer, M., Hekkert, P., Hummels, C., Kraal, J., Krul, K., … & Tromp, N. (2020). Sleutelmethodologieën (KEM's) voor missiegedreven innovatie. CLICKNL
4. Wang, Q., & Hannes, K. (2015). A typology of arts-based research. In Undisclosed issues in qualitative research, Date: 2015/04/09-2015/04/10, Location: Brussels, Belgium.
5. Candy, L. (2006). Practice based research: A guide. CCS report, 1(2).