倫敦大學金史密斯學院

The MPhil/PhD Art is a 3-4 year (full-time) or 6-8 year (part-time) research project, the pursuit of which may involve your already-established practice, or may require the development of new modes of practice specific to the project.

There are three different pathways that you can choose to study:

Pathway 1: Thesis by Practice
Pathway 2: Thesis by Practice and Written Dissertation
Pathway 3: Thesis by Written Dissertation

We consider all elements of the MPhil/PhD to be sites of rigorous experimentation and encourage researchers to pursue their projects through processes of making, thinking, collaborating, investigating, experimenting, analysing and speculating. Bearing this in mind, we understand that the shape and trajectory of your research may change as you make connections and develop your practice throughout the course of your research. We will work with you to develop the most appropriate – and generative – means of pursuing, documenting and disseminating your findings, as best befits your project.

Throughout the course of your research, you will relate your research to the work of other artists and cultural workers in the field. As befits your project, you also make connections beyond the field with the work of writers, philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists and others. In this respect, the model of the PhD encourages you to follow your curiosity for, and make connections with and between, the thought, work and action of others.

Another distinguishing aspect of art research is the need to document process, and you will be encouraged to think expansively about how you do so. How might documentation become a space for reflecting on decisions made, however intuitively you arrive at these in the first instance? How might documentation communicate the mode of enquiry as much as the findings? How might documentation draw attention to detail and process and the complexity inherent in thinking, making, questioning and communicating art?

Skills

Our art programmes aim to equip you with the necessary skills to develop independent thought and confidence in your practice. In addition, these skills are of use in other career paths you may wish to follow.

Careers

Our researchers have been successful in many fields including media, museums, galleries, education, the music business and academia. Many have continued to be successful, practising artists long after graduating, and have won major prizes and exhibited around the world.