The Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts

Contexts

which demonstrate the many ways in which artists have approached the business of
research. For instance, in the interview with Joanne Tathum, we can pick up precisely
how Tathum began to use words ‘to find, manipulate or establish a particular meaning
or direction’ for her work. she says:

the writing that i initially wrote as an artist was about trying to forget about

logic in a way and trying to move forward in a way which meant writing was

more skilful or crafted. so there was an interim period where i was trying to

use words in a way which i felt was useful or appropriate.

(Thompson 2006)

The long process of Tatham beginning to understand how words work is set out
in this interview and becomes part of her analysis of an artwork’s ‘ability to occur
simultaneously in many different spaces at the same time, to be many things equally
and exactly’. This is also part of her conscious understanding that there are structures
for the interpretation of her work and that the use of written language was a key
element of entering into a ‘performative space of interpretation’, that is a space which
is socially responsive and reflexively exacting. susan melrose has also written several
papers on performativity, and in ‘entertaining other options: restating theory in the
age of practice as research’, she outlines the ‘multi- planed and multi- faceted schematics
of writing and performance’ (melrose 2002). she also endorses the particularity of
what she calls ‘insider knowledges’ which lead to ‘performance theory- and- practice’. in
other words, this is a conjoining of what we might call tacit knowledge and intellectual
achievement. notable in this essay is its analysis of a ‘crisis’ in writing which arises
from the ‘diverse sites of semiotic engagement of the performer, choreographer and
spectator, etc.’ This has been very little recognized in the literature on research in
the arts and it arises out of paying attention to the event of theatrical performance.
melrose makes clear that we need ‘a professional, writing- productive context and
economy’. in the next section of this chapter, we will indicate why individual doctoral
studies might make a contribution to the cultures of both postgraduate academic study
and of professional productivity.

Case studies: doctorates in fine art

in this second part of the chapter we will present individual phds with a view to
providing insight into the research process, final submission and what melrose has
called ‘professional productivity’. it will be useful to say right from the start that our
research is drawn from either supportive research cultures and/or knowledgeable, or
appropriate and supportive research supervision, that is supervision which is fully
conversant both with the student’s area of art practice and with the cultures of
postgraduate research. in our view it is important that phd research is conducted
within a substantial environment where a range of different research activities are
undertaken and supported; it is not appropriate for the phd researcher to enjoy an
isolated position divorced from lively research cultures sufficiently robust to function
alongside and in relation to other disciplines. This is the case with our first example
drawn from the broad area of technical and technological innovation. however, like all