PhD and Research

ED20

Placing research at the heart of its curriculum, erg proposes a third cycle degree within the “Art and art sciences” program at the École doctorale 20, in partnership with universities and Écoles Supérieures des Arts (esa) in Belgium’s French Community. Its curriculum aims at elaborating and pre-senting closely correlated artistic and theoretical works. The aim of the “Art and art sciences” program is to carry out a high-standard art project in parallel withhtheoretical research leading to a PhD thesis.

The PhD thesis in “Art and art sciences” includes an artistic segment – elaborating and presenting a work informed by theoretical research – and a written, theoretical dissertation – an original work of research offering a critical reflection and a critical development linked with the doctoral student’s artistic work. The two works are examined and evaluated jointly as a single entity.

The training offers a framework both specific to each student’s research and practice, providing the means to refine theoretical and methodological tools during seminars and other specialized academic activities, and gives the necessary conditions to the elaboration of the art project integral to the doctorate. The work of research follows a multidisciplinary dynamic shaped by the exchanges at play between artistic and scientific disciplines. The school encourages synergies between the different personal works of research and favors a dialogue around issues at once specific and common to the various artistic media.

All in-depth Master graduates from an esa or in possession a diploma recognized as equivalent may register to the doctoral training and to doctoral studies in the French Community universities in partnership with an esa. Applicants need to de-fine a thesis project and have it approved by two personalities of their choice likely to supervise their work. One of them – the promoter – must belong to the university faculty, hold a doctorate obtained after the defense of a thesis, and be a part of the École doctorale, while the second one – the co-promoter – must belong to the esa faculty. The latter school provides the infrastructures necessary for the elaboration of the students’ artistic work. Full information available on the Doctoral School 20 website: www.artetsciencesdelart.frs-fnrs.be

A/R

A/R asbl – art (slash) research – is a non-profit organization for the support, exchange, circulation and promotion of arts research in the Higher Schools of Art of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. This platform came to life in recognition of how diverse emergent arts practices, particularly in art schools, invent their own research methodology appropriate to the questions at hand, thus creating new fields of inquiry and knowledge. Artistic creation is fundamentally unpredictable, unexpected, and even unverifiable, thus evading all pre-defined notions of what research in the arts can mean prior to being practiced. It similarly eludes all subsequent systematization, or all uniformity of procedure and methodology. So it is essential to establish evaluation and identification strategies that are tailored to these particular objects. This mission will be carried out in close collaboration with the artistic council of A / R asbl.

A / R asbl aims to support research in the arts by acting as an initiator, through calls for projects implemented under the auspices of its artistic council.

Most importantly, arts research, like any other research, must not stay confined to the places where they emerge, rather should be made accessible to both other artist-researchers and the larger public. A / R asbl intends to take on the responsibility of disseminating this research and putting it into circulation.

The platform also provides information related to theses that have been completed or are in-progress in the WBF as part of a Doctorate in Art and Art Sciences organized by the Universities in collaboration with the Higher Schools of Art.