First idea for a PhD proposal
Over the last couple of days I have been distilling an idea about what might justify several years of academic work. Interestingly this idea has emerged from what I have been blogging about, as well as the work I have been doing in the Arts Faculty at Warwick. The idea is to give a much clearer idea about what the arts are, why arts education and theraphy is essential, and what follows from that in terms of cultural and political actions. But fundamentally, it is about a philosophical project that seeks to demonstrate the proper position and importance of aesthetics, which is no longer as an adjunct of epistemology. So here's my first thoughts:
Each art has a different arrangement of sensory experience that is drawn from and develops an everyday machinery of experience. As such we can talk about a 'clinical essence of each art' (Deleuze, Francis Bacon, The Logic of Sensation p.54). But what does Deleuze mean by clinical essence? His work with the psychotherapist Guattari was concerned with seeing psyhcological disorders as psycholgical orders (sensory arrangements) interrupted, 'botched' as they say in A Thousand Plateaus, carried out without the required support and context. In response to this they see the 'clinical essence' as being both the sensory arrangement and the support required for its successful operation (from, for example, the psychotherapist). This is a key point in Deleuze's aesthetics, one that also occurs at around the same time as Guattari's Chaosmosis. Art is both a sensory aesthetic expression and a therapy that supports and enhances that expression. And following from that, in the process of establishing and developing that clinical essence, it makes sense for there to be a pedagogical practice for each art, ensuring that the clinical essence is realised. Guattari, involved as he was directly in the clinical practice, was concerned with developing this pedagogy of the arts as therapy.
So the claim then is that there is, appropriate to each art:
- a manner of arranging sensory experiece which defines the art;
- a clinical essence defined by that sensory experience;
- a pedagogical practice;
- an evaluative judgement (aesthetics) to guide that pedagogical practice.
In the book on Francis Bacon, Deleuze goes into great detail about painting, and in some detail about music. In Proust and Signs, and elsewhere, he talks of prose and poetry. Dance on the other hand, which has an interesting relationship with both music and painting, remains to be explored. And perhaps we can apply this approach more widely. The study of history, for example, as an art with its own sensory arrangements, clinical essence, pedagogy and aesthetics. And how about languages, mathematics, sociology, the sciences, which now rather than being seen as solely motivated by a universal progression of knowledge are instead justified as therapeautic processes in themselves.
I'm just working on some short summaries of D&G's thoughts on the various art forms, including more on painting from the Francis Bacon book. That'll appear here shortly.
Robert O'Toole
11 Jun 2004 10:59
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[Skip to the latest comment]Rob, do you have any anxieties about being able to produce a "unique idea" for your PhD work? I certainly do. I have no background whatsoever in Bacon, Deleuze or Guattari so I can make no judgement as to your ideas' originality. My application for doctoral study is in at the English department but I wonder if my proposal is original enough….Have you seen the biographical film about John Nash called A Beautiful Mind? The whole first quarter of it depicts Nash wondering around the campus trying to think of his "unique idea." I feel his pain. :-)
11 Jun 2004, 11:58
Robert O'Toole
I have an anxiety about people expecting me to produce a 'unique idea', when really such a big and complex project as a PhD should be about producing a whole spectrum of effects. For example, I want to influence the future of arts education, and i have a whole set of ideas and theories that might do that. I suppose the unique thing is that I see a change in our philosophical attitude towards the arts and aesthetics as being essential. That's not a unique idea, but it is a major stance leadning to a unified and distinct project.
11 Jun 2004, 12:13
Robert O'Toole
Yes I have seen A Beutiful Mind, and no I'm not going to go crazy and think i'm part a CIA conspiracy. It's a good film.
11 Jun 2004, 12:14
johneffay
Hi J Jameson. The way to form a PhD proposal is to find something that you really want to work on for three plus years and come out with an argument as to why it would be interesting to do so. As the thing nears completion, you should be able to point precisely to what elements of your thesis are unique but there is no way they will expect you to do this before you've done any work on the thing!
11 Jun 2004, 15:15
Robert O'Toole
I think John is write, and it's taken me so long to get to the point where I feel I can do a PhD because I thought I must have a big and well sorted idea. Perhaps the funding bodies encourage that too much, although I know that they have changed a lot recently.
I've recently looked at how PhD's work in other subjects as well. I found that in Cop Sci it seems that the first year is about defining a problem to solve. So the students start off with an idea of what area they want to work in, but define the PhD through these initial investigations, which sounds like a more sensible approach.
11 Jun 2004, 15:27
Robert O'Toole
Er, i mean Comp Sci not Cop Sci, although that too would be an interesting subject.
11 Jun 2004, 15:28
What you need to do is find someone you think would make a good superviser, and talk it through with them…
This is the big difference in science PhDs – the superviser gets the loot, and the students apply to, and then work for, them :-)
14 Jun 2004, 16:49
Robert O'Toole
Arts and humanities PhD students work much more independently. Which has its benefits and its drawbacks.
15 Jun 2004, 09:05
I've been struggling with this as well – the AHRB published their guidelines for the first time this year, and apparently they stressed the originality of research much more than everyone had thought previously. Like John mentioned, the problem seems to be finding a research topic where you can stress a different angle to everyone else, or something that hasn't yet been fully explored. Although as far as I know, there isn't much written on Deleuzian aesthetics at the moment (in English anyway – apparently there's more in French, but until my translation skills improve that'll have to wait..) so there's a gap in the market waiting to be filled (urggh – what a way to talk about a phd..)
15 Jun 2004, 13:17
johneffay
There's loads on Deleuzian aesthetics in English although, like most of the secondary literature on Deleuze, the majority of it is dreadful. The trouble with doing a PhD on Deleuze and aesthetics is that you'll have to wade through it…
Theres a lot less on the development of DeleuzoGuattarian pedagogical practices though. I think that could be really interesting, if rather tricky to flesh out.
15 Jun 2004, 13:37
Yet more proof that my bibliographic skills are not all they should be… I don't suppose there's something major out there on the Proust and/or Francis Bacon books? Although if there is it's probably better I don't know, as with a week left I have no wading time…
15 Jun 2004, 14:43
So what would your topic be, once distilled down into a thesis title? From my experience of arts PhD people, what you are proposing is a massive (probably unmanagably so) field – you need to find a question to answer within it. That's the hard bit :-)
16 Jun 2004, 17:08
Robert O'Toole
Yep, big and complex, and to some unimagineably so. Like i say, a whole assemblage of developments heading in a relatively discernible direction. A problem (as distinct from a question which already has an answer), as Deleuze argues, is not statable, but rather is a field constituted from a web of tensile forces.
In many ways philosophy is more akin with exploration and with art than with science. Of course you can always try to turn it into science or engineering, but really you should first read D&G's What is Philosophy?
I suppose that's a PhD in itself, and of course that's part of the problem field that i'm working in.
16 Jun 2004, 17:23
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