In several academic institutions raises the question of a opening on the research in master [master] and Ph.D. [doctorate] to other approaches besides the PhD’s or doctorate’s classic scientific devices. What is concerned, therefore, are the professional doctorates and those based in practice. An early example in this field was developed in the UK with practice based PhD in creative and performing arts and design [Practice-based doctorates in the Creative and Performing Arts and Design]. After this experience, the question of the nature of these doctorates, which could eventually no longer require the preparation of a written thesis to support the invented or created artifact, draws worldwide attention.
This article will address these issues based on a critical approach of the doctoral system implemented at the Sorbonne since the 1970s. From the candidates’ history and the history of institutions, I will inquire the scientific and artistic devices implemented and the limitations and problems emerged. The first section is devoted to the student’s processes of axiological conditioning. The second, to their practices’s process of artification; the third is devoted to the discussion of the epistemological problems of research in art confronted with the scientific research and the problems found by doctoral students. Finally, the article discusses the tools and methods brought by the humanities and social sciences.
visual arts; fine arts; doctorate; artists’ writings; meta-practice methods; research; science
