Parsons The New School for Art and Design will be holding a 2-day conference from Octoberr 22nd to the 23rd that will aid in the continual changing perception of what constitutes a terminal degree in the field of art and design.
The conference, entitled “Evolution; Art and Design Research and the PhD,” is an international collaboration with 5 different universities and professors who either have completed PhD’s or are in the process, all giving ten minute talks in order to aid Parson’s goal of offering practice-based PhDs. Parsons School of Design believes that thinkers should not be the only scholars who are able to master their skill, makers deserve the same liberty.
The “Evolution” conference will mark a critical change in the identification of a research culture within Parsons.
It is only natural that a school would want to be able to provide the highest level of degree in the offered area of study. As of now, Parsons offers an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) degree; a specialized degree in which confirms advanced education with an emphasis on practice. A PhD, globally known as the highest degree that exists to award graduate study, pronounces the awardee as a “doctor” of the specialized field of study a person focused on with original research for usually between three to five years.
But, what if a person decides to aim their focus in a more innovative direction with the same time and amount of original research?
“The traditional PhD format is more historical, formal, and one-sided. We hope our idea of offering liberal, fluid, practice based systems bring us to the center of debate,” Simone Douglas said, the organizer of the first of many conferences to come as well as the Director of the MFA program of Fine Arts at Parsons.
As of now, there are relatively few programs in the Art and Design field that offer a PhD, mainly in England and Australia. There are no Art and Design doctorates offered in the United States today. Professors from the University of Sydney, University of London, University of Newcastle, Columbia University, as well as Parsons, will all be speaking on behalf of demonstrating the importance of adapting a PhD into the art world. Parsons will not be basing their ideas on other universities that have offer creative PhDs before, the hope is to go further, become inspired by the speakers and present the most fluid masters degree in the world.
The envisioned PhD structure hopes to include a variety of pathways or programs to accommodate different student ambitions and projects. Victoria Vesna, a professor who practices art and science will be speaking at the conference to emphasize the importance of contemporary discourse, as well as a student who has a Physics degree from Princeton and is now attending the Fine Arts Department at Parsons.
Timo Rissanen, who recently joined Parsons The New School for Design as Assistant Professor in Fashion Design and Sustainability, is currently in the process of getting his doctorate, and will also be presenting at the conference.
“There is something really rewarding about having thought about the same subject for six years, and the idea of being able to do something concrete with it is just fantastic. I want to inspire artists to go deeper into their works then they have ever before,” Rissanen said.
This ground-breaking conference will provide a forum where people can share their ideas to understand the contemporary discourse and debates around PhDs in art and design, while staying open to ideas allowing introductions to a broad range of structures and approaches. Parsons School of Design plans to revolutionize and acknowledge the gravitas research across the forms of design, that could potentially change the definition of “doctor” and “scholar” for centuries to come.
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