m

§P~~fR'~~~~rch Paper
Volume 1 Number 1 1993/4

1 Research in Art and Design

Christopher Frayling
 The objects of the
College are to i;ldvance
learning, knowledge and
protesslonal cornp~tenc~
Dartlcularly In the tleld ot
tln ~ arts, In the prinCiples
a.nd practl(e ot art and
de,lgn In their relation to
industrial and commercial
P,rocesses and so~al
aevelilments an other
subJe s relatln t ereto
th~uq teachlRg, research
an co laboratlon with
In ustry and commerce.'
CMrtef of Incofporation of the Roya l Col lege of Art
28 July 1967
Royal CoIlege of Art
Kensington GoI't
london $W7 2EU
UlII\ed KifI9cIom
TtItphont; 011·584 S020
Faoimile; 01 1·584 8211

!S8N 1 814115 55 1

C Christopheor Frayling and Royal College: of Art 1993

Research in Art and Design Where artists, craftspeople and designers are concerned, the
word 'research' - the r word - sometim es seems to describe an
Christopher Frayling activity which is a long way away from thei r respective practices.
The spoken emphasis tends to be put on the first syllable -the re
- as if research always involves going over old territory, while art,
craft and design are of course concerned w ith the new. The
word has traditionally been associated w ith; l obscure corners of
specialised libraries, where solit ary scholars live; I white-coated
people in laboratories, doing esoteric th ings wit h test-tubes;
I universities, rather than colleges; I arms length, rather than
engagement; I artyfacts, rather than artefacts; I words not deeds.
Recently an opposing tendency has emerged - largely as the
pragmatic result of decisions about government funding of
higher education - where the word has come to be associated
with : I what artists, craftspeople and designers do all the time
anyway; I artefacts, rather than artyfacts; I deeds not words.
Much of the debate - and atten dant confusion - so fa r, has
revolved around a series of stereotypes of what research is, what
it involves and what it delivers. The debate has also led towards
some very strange directions indeed - su ch as the quest ion
(asked in all seriousness) 'does an exhibit ion of paintings count
as research or doesn't it? ' This paper attempts to unpack some
of the stereotypes, and red irect the debate aw ay from some of
its more obviously bli nd alleys.

There seem to be almost as many definitions of point, says the OED, is that the search involves discovering new perspectives, or new
research flying around in higher education care, and it involves looking for something informa t ion, is actually a very recent
right now , as there are reasons for promoting which is defined in advance: a crim inal, a bed formulation ,
them. So I thought I'd go back. 10 base - the for the nigh t, a regular musical theme . It isn't So the dictionary doesn't take us very far-
OED. The Olfford English Dictionary lists two about professionalism, or rules and guidelines, except that it establishes that the word has
basic definitions. one with a little r and one or laboratories. It is about searching. trad itionally been used of art [and, wi th a big
w ith a big R, and within these, many many Research with a big R - olten used in R, of design), and that for a~ activity to count
subsidiary ones. Research with a little r - partnership with t he word 'development' - in either sense as research the sublect or object
meanmg 'the act of searching. closely or means, according to the OED, 'work directed of research must exist outside t he person or
carefully, for or after a specified thing or towards the innovation, introduction, and persons doing the searching. And the person
person' - was first used 01 fOya l ge nealogy in improvement of products and processes'. And must be able to tell someone about it, The
1577, then in one of the earliest detective nearly all the list ed usages, from 1900 dictionary also shows that prior to the turn o f
stories William Godwin's Caleb Williams in onwards, are from the worlds of chemistry, the century the word research carried no
1794 (w here it concerned clues and evidence), architecture, physics, heavy industry, and the specific scientific meaning - indeed it p redated
then by Charlotte Bronte In 1847 to describe social, sciences, Research as professional the division of knowledge into arts and
Ihe search for overnight accommodation. p ractice, which earns it the big R, And it s sciences,
Subsidiary definitions include 'investigation, usage developed wi t h the prolessionalisation But we aren't, 01 course, t alldng about
in quiry in to t hings; also a quality of persons of research in the university sector and in t he definitions here : we're talking about usage,
carrying out such investigation' and, in music chemical industry. In 1gOO, the word 'research' and this is where t he Humpty Dumpty principle
and poet ry, 'a kind o f pre:ude, wherein the as applied to t he humanities - for example - comes in, In Alice Through the Looking GJass,
composer seems to search or look out for the w ould have meant: Humpty Dumpty has strong views about how
strains and touches of harmony, which he is to words come to mean what they do.
• antiquarianism
use in the regu lar piece to be played
• the st ud y of constitutional documents 'Tho!,e'.g!cry to< you', wid Humpty Dumpty
afterwards' . So research w ith a linle r has been
• a self-mot ivated activity funded by paid 'I don'l know whal you meaon by 'glory" Allee said,
used, in t he last fou r hundred years, of art Humpty 0u'Tljlly Wliltd <:Or'IlemPluovsiy. 'at course
teaching or other occupation,
practice, of personal quests, and of clues and you don', ·ti~ 1'~I you, l "",an '_~'!. roic~ knock-

evid ence w hich a detectiw must decode. The The concept of humanities research as down .'91'1Il0'01 to< youl"
 Matisse. But. he says, such reference materials autobiography rather than understanding. The
'SuI 'tjtxy' ~'I mNn '. noc:. knod-down
~t" Alice objected. shoold not be confused with research and in movie stereotype of the artist is almost
"""" 1_ , v.ord· H""'P\Y Oumptywid. in fair.... any case, the point of the exercise is single- invariably like thi s - from Michelangelo, played
KomI..! t ~, .~ mum ju$1 whM I choose ~ to mNn
- neiIher more !1CIf ..... mindedly to produce a finished painting. Only by Charlton Heston (1965), or Caravaggio
the art historians - a breed of 'Nhich he was played by Nigel Terry In Derek Jarman's version
'It. quntjr;n i!.' wid Alice. 'whfthet IOU GorI male
IIefY suspicious - would think otherwise, after (1986), to Ken Rus.se/rs biographies of more
.....crds mNn '" ITIMlY diff.."" 1hings'
'It. qwsuon i!.' wd Hump\y Dumpty. 'Which i!. to be the fact. Yes, he had the spirit of research in modern artists. And it is, I believe, shared by
I'I'IISt" - thit"ull·. him. But that was nor his objective. Research many outside our world. The question is, which
to the painter, he said, equals visual intention. is to be master, that' s all. As John A. Walker
Which is to be master? Or,to put it another
He's a maker not a researcher - and he doesn't has written:
way, 'Nhere does the legitimation come from?
even feel comfortable verbalising about his
From a peer group, Of an institution, Of a idN INt.on might be, COt'IW\KIJorI •. ,,,the<
wori<. .~

fundinq structure, or an invisible College, or a tt.... "" ~ Of INt it moght be the

The work may be oIImbiguous - ~ in
section of society at large? IS this a political ~ 01. host c:f 1O<MiII«ton, i!. .... IQ Iht
1923, there were squabbles about what it ethos 01 Hollywood:'
question, with a small p: about degrees and
validations and academic status, the colour of
peoples' gowns or, more interestingly. a
conceptual one, about the IIefY bases of what
could possibly mean - but the artist isn't in the
business of unambiguous communica tion. To
adapt Herbert Read's famous di:>tinction about
It is unthinkable, he adds, that there could ever
be a popular movie about a non-expressive
'i
I
art education, this is research for art, rather artist such as Piet Moodrian.
we all do in art, (faft and design?
than either research into art or research Mewing on to the designer, up until
Assuming that a little more than politics
through art, if indeed it is research at all. twill relatively recently the popular stereotype was
atld money-raising are going on, I'd like to look
be elaborating on these distinctions a little later rather different Instead of the expressi .... e artist.
at some of the widely shared assumptions
00 . we have the pipe-smoking boffin who rolls up
which surround this debate - and, in unpacking
But there's an even more dramatic his sleeves (always his, incidentally) and gets
them, at the ways in 'Nhich its terms can
moment, which neatly illustrates several down to some good, honest hands-oo
perhaps be adjusted to be of more practical
popular assumptions about the artist's relation experimentation. From leslie Howard in The
''''. to his or her aNn practice - about how art First of the Few(1942), to Michael Redgrave in
And I'd like to start with Picasso·s painting
happens. It is from a 1956 Hollywood film The Dam Busters (1955). The designer-boffin's
Les DerrIcmeIles d'Avignon.
called Lust for Ufe, and it involves Kirk Douglas, .... ery best moment of donnish understatement
sporting an orange beard, batting off some came in The Dam BustM, when the man from
.~ '"'I opinion' wid 1'Iauo. '10 wItCh mNI"IS no'It'oi'>g
in~. To find i!. the thin9. Nabody iI m...s1fd crows above a wtleat-fieid in the South of the ministry says to Dr. Barnes Wallis (Michael
in IoIIowing ....... who, ...". his ~ fi><ed on the France. Redgrave): 'Do you really think the authorities
ground. ~ hi!. life looting lot the pocket.oool
In this sequence, Vincent .... an Gogh played would lend you a Wei~ngton bomber, for
tI\II fom.roe 5houId PIlI ... hoi PIth .•.
by Kirk Douglas, is impetuous, anti-rational, tests7'Nhat possible argument could I put
AfrIof"I9 the _at sins thit II\ive been a<cused 01 inward looking - and convinced that he is on forward to get you a Wellington?' To 'Nhich
(ommming, fIOfII' i!. _ "M tNn the o>e INt I the boffin replies 'Well if you told them t
an impossible quest to express what is on his
/'Iive • .s the principii ~ in my....,n;, 1ht sprn
01 resNrdl. 'MIen I P'int. "'I' cq.a i!. 10 """"'-.Nt
mind, or in his mind's eye. He's white, male designed it, d'you think that might help?' Cut
I ' - foo.nd IfId not -.Nt , .." II:ooIUr.g fa. ~ MI atld quite barmy. He can't talk about his art - to Barnes Wallace in the cockpit of a

,
inlMlions an' flO! wffiOenI 1fId• .s _ s.Jy in SpinisI\
'it's impossible' is the best he can do - and he Wellington ...
law ......1 to. I"'owd bj rletS ¥'Id flO! by fY5Of\S .
WOI'ks very fast - just look at the way he paints Doing is designing for these people - not
The idH 01 --...dI .... 011.., mIde Plin\ng 90 all those crows, and creates his stormy sky of systematic hypotheses, or :>tructures of thought
HitI)'. IfId INde the Jrtisllose hifT"MN in ......,tal turbulent dark blue. The resulting picture or orderly procedures; but potting-shed, hit-
Iucubr~_ ~ Ihis his lIMn the principal 'JUtI
becomes yet more evidence of his mental and-miss, sorry I blew the roof off but you
01 modtm .on. The spirit 01 te5NfCh .... pOisoned
!hose ........ ' - not f'*t undtfstood III \t'e positive disturbance, 'Nhich itself is evidence of know how it is darling, craft-work. I
IfId c:ond.I5M! eIomenl> in modtm If! IfId .... mIde something called his 'artistic temperament': More recently, thffe's been a change in the
them JI\efI'Ipt to pWrt the irMlitJIt ¥Id, ~, the
Crows over a WheatflM:l (in~) is. popular image of the designer - reflected in
~-.'
according to the film, completed at great assoned television a~rtisements of the late
speed just moments before he tries to shoot 1980s 'Nhich show young designers at work or
In this rare interview of 1923 (one of only a
himself - in the summer of 1890; actually, this play. The designer is no longer a boffin but is
few he ever gave for publication). Picasso is in
wasn't his last canvas, but pop history has now a solitary style warriot who knows his (still
part describing the reference materials he had
always preferred to believe that it was. The it is usually his) way /!I'ound the inner dty
used when preparing Les Demoiselles
artist. by definition, is someone who works in jungle, and who believes in an aesthetic of
d'Ayjgnon of 1906-7. VISUal memories of the
an expressive idiom, rather than a cognitive salvage, or junk.
red-light district of Barcelona, some ancient
one, and for whom the great project is an The young designer has become an
Iberian sculptures he'd seen in the louvre,
extension of personal development: imagineer - an archeologist of images, and
Cezanne's Mont-Sainte-VlCtoire, a recent

2
 signs, and styles from with., the urban 'touches I'Ief arm'). Sut on the whole, the with research. the scientist (whose research
wasteland. Not a creator of meaning so much psychopaths have won the day. The earliest expertise has until recently been taken for
as an intuitive searcher after the latest thing. animated story films, made by Georges Melies granted) has eKaClty the same problem With
Don't think twice, it's alright. I'm reminded of in the first decade of this century, featured creativity - which is generally seen as the
the designer who was overheard on a bus, explorers and scientists as manic, top· hatted prerogative of the artist rather than the
saying 'let's be philosophical about this, don't music·hall turns, belonging to someth ing called scientist. Thb is partly why the process of
give it a se<ond thought' . the Institute of Incoherent Geography. Since discovering has been virtually ignored until
Now, side--by·side with the image of the then, iI's been estimated that mad scientisl5 or recently, and why the activity of fine art is of
expressive artist, the boffin and the style· their creators have been the villains of 31 % of increasing interest to historians of science.
obsessed designer, we have the popular image all horror or fantasy movies worldwide. that look at The Double Helix: it could almost be
of the research scientist. and how he or she scientific or psychiatric research has produced an artist's autobiography.
works. My third public imaqe. And it is almost 40% of the threats in all horror and fantasy If the stereotype of the scientist as
at the opposite extreme to the rllclu drtb! dloU IIlQVies - <tOld· by con trast - that sciefltists have fMe",rcher roeeds some "djusting - to make It
the trendy designer. only been the heroes of 1 \ % of horror movies. seem c/o5er to art and design (though by no
The research scientist is orderly, he • again, So it is saints and sinners. means identical with it) • the popular image of
it tends to be he, in popular images - has The saints have a self·evidently 'scientific' the fine artist needs a lot of work as well. For,
! conjectures and hypotheses and he sel5 about way of thinking, they tend to say 'Eurekal', in the history of art since the Renaissance,
proving or disproving them according to a set and their successes instantly persuade the there are of course countless examples of
of orderly procedures. His subject exists ootside scientific community around them of the artisl5 who have explored their materials for
himself, so he must submerge his subjectivity wi~m of their ways. It all seems so simple. what they are, and not simply as 'raw
and personality in order to study it. He takes a And yet. of course, critical rationalism, which materials'. Who have worked in a cognitive
problem, makes tentative conjectures relies on making everything explicit, by rather than an expressive idiom. George
regarding the answer to it and keeps revising revealing the methods of one's logic and Stubbs's researches on animal anatomy·
the answer in the light of neat. well ordered justifying one's conclusions, and which has at involving portfolios of drawings of diSsections,
experiments, which must be repeatable or the heart of its enterprise a belief in clarity, has which were also used by scientisl5 - made
replicable. He is what is kn()Wn as a critical been under considerable theoretical attack in possible George Stubbs's animal paintings and
rationalist. the last 10-15 years. Sociologisl5 such as Harry they have lived on in parallel with the pictures.
Interestingly, this stereotype exisl5 in pop Collins, in his book Changing Order and John Constable's researches into cloud
depictions of true·life scientists, rather than philosophers such as Paul Feyeraband, have formation - his many cloud drawings and
fictional or fantasy ones. S:udies of the image stressed that in science - as in everything else- paintings - made possible John Constable's
of the scientist in pop culture have shown how there may well be con.iectures but many of landscape pa.ntings. This is not to suggest that
fictional scientisl5 tend on the whole to be them are unconscious and they tend to be Stubbs and Constable were, respectively, vet
something else: lunatics, or alcoholics, Of' changed or modified without any explicit and weatherman, but that they operated Quite
psychopaths, or obsessives of some description discussion, and they tend to involve a consciously· in a cognitive idiom, researching
• I suppose Drs Frankenstein, Faustus, Jekyll significant measure of subjectivity. In other subjects which existed outside themselves and
and Strangelove are the prime examples· while words, the Edward G. Robinson version of their own personalities. In this century, one
real·life scientisl5 in films tend on the whole to research doesn't much resemble what science could cite arbsl5 who explore the doors of
be impossibly saintly, increjibly generous, looks like in the laboratory, or what it feels like perception such as op artists· or computer
unbelievably humanitarian, and very often to those who are doing il. Changing Order, artists - or artists as semiologiSI5 - as their heirs
martyrs to their staggeri~y effective research according to Harry Collins, involves irrationality, in this sense. Research for art and sometnTleS
as well - I suppose Edward G. Robinson as Or. crafl5man 's knowledge, negotiating reality research through art, to re--use the distinction.
Ehrlich, the Nobel·prizewinner who discovered rather than hypothesising aboot it, above all One problem is, that the classic examples of
I a cure for syphilis in Dr Ehrlich's Magic Bullet tacit k~owledge rather than propositional this - Leonardo, Stubbs, Constable - date from
(\ 941), Of' Greer Garson as Marie Curie in knowledge (and when there is propositional a long time ago. Their drawings would be
M;xbmc Curie (1 943) or Mickey ROOI'ley as knowledge, a fair amount of tacit knowledge is unlikely to be at the cutting edge of such
young Thomas Edi500 and Spencer Tracey as in there, too). In the history and philosophy of research today, in the era of electron·
the grown·up one, are the classics. Edward G. science, historians such as David Gooding - microscopes and other ways of enhancing the
goes out with an eKhortation to the people in who studies the methods of Michael Faraday· image.
the 1 & 9s to 'rid men's hearts of the diseases are now stressing the finks between As Tom Jones has written:
of hatred and greed', while Madame Curie at experimental scientists and creative artisl5
"While l_do "" Vn:i', dr;tYMOJS ~
the very moment of her scentific discovery (through the joint uses of imagination, intu ition
_lorniuoI rtsN<Ch. """' WO<I< ., "m,1 does """" in
turns to husband Walter Pigeon and says and craft practice), especially in the nineteenth 1M ...... ctnono)<be rtferenao maw .., lilt 'ludyol
'Pierre - do you mind? You look first' ('He century. Where the artist has difficulty _ Icmy r..o.ing ~rflWd fdt beyond whill CiOn be
~ by the unaided~ . Additionally, u,.
smiles understandingly' says the script, and persuading people of the connection of art
meOicII sJrjk new requued ...e '" spe<~ 111M Ihey

,
 ..~ ....... ~ lOt. ~ by ~..-tJ!,I . 1rIdftd. whole range of attitudes towards the use of for the research and methods tradition in
9"'f<1 ~I WtntIfic: .......1M1dOng. it i'I diflic:uII. 10
reference materials and procedures and mental design, indeed for the tacit use of those

-_.
Of
~!hI! much.-d! imo ~~(in
\he _ In whoch oI l1ti bHn dflined reI.Iuw 10 attitudes - but, again, in the light of history. In methods by designers - to say nothing of
SI<iIbI. c~;orId leon..-do Iii Vll"lCilis po:JSSitJIe a sense, the coocept of design as research • applied semiotics. I orw::e asked an eminent
•
either applied research. where the resulting adverti5ef _while I was making my television
kllCMlledge is used for a particular application. series The Art of Pers1Jasion, for Channel 4
It is much more likely to be a matter of
or action research. where the action is about his line on the science of semiotics, 'Oh',
referencing the sub;ea or illustrating it in ways
cakulated to generate and validate new he said ·thar. That's what I do for a livingl -
that photography cannot achieve.
knowledge or understanding, or even (but very Equally, the popular image of the art and
Nevertheless, the e:o:amples show;
rarely) fundamental research· is so well design student ignores those important
• that artists have worked just as often in established that it doesn't need elaborating moments in our history when research· in
the cognitive idiom as the expressive here. But popular assumptions about design · anyone's definition - was a central part of the
• that some art counts as research· and indeed some of the self·images of curriculum.
anyone's definition designer> • do live on. And what's less well By the same token, the popular image of
• that some art doesn't. known. is lhe fact that if you examine the the scientist· as critical rationalist, engaged in
origins of art and design leaching in Britain, fundamental research and shouting things like
It is a relief to discover that there's no question
you'll probably see that 'research' as a problem 'Eureka' or 'it's a crazy idea but it just might
01 giving every single painter sin<:e the
area, or as something which exists outside work' • the image against which a lot of
Renaissance an honorary Ph .D., in absentia.
studio design, is, again, a relatively recent research tends still to be judged, is equally
Whatever definition we end up with, it can
phenomenon. len take your average design wide 01 the mark. Doing science - as opposed
never in my view - in pnnciple or in practice ·
student at the government school of design in to post-rationalising about science - just
fit all fine art activities. Why should it1lf
london from the late 18405 to the 1860s. doesn't seem to be 11I:e that. if recent
Picasso had wanted a doctorate of philosophy,
Already, art and design had been separated researches into the pnilosophy and sociology of
I'm sure he would have registered for one.
from the mainstream university sector · in science are any guide. Doing science is much
Instead he is said to have turned down
1836. they were poised to go in. but the more like doing design.
honorary degrees allover the western world.
Mechanics Institute-style model was adopted Implicit in much of what I've been saying, is
There must be an institutional, or pedagogical,
instead - but the curriculum was based to a a criticism of yet anom stereotype - thaI of
or academic, or technical, or some reason for
large extent on formal rather than tacit ·the practitioner'. As if action which follows
wanting to do research. Not just status,
knowledge. and on design as a kind of reflection, or reflection which follows action,
promotion and fund-raising .
language. You learned the grammar· from can be put in a box exclusively marked
To illustrate this, here's a fatTlOllS ql.lOtation
books by Owen Jones, or papers by Gottfried 'practice'. Research is a practice, writing is a
from John Constable, to set again~t the Picasso
Semper· and. if you were very lucky. you then practice, doing science is a practice, doing
statement I quoted earlier. The quotation is
learned the usage as well. But in studying the design is a practice, making art is a practice.
from a lecture to the Royal Institution in May
grammar - with reference to other grammars. The brain controls the hand which informs the
1836:
such as those of botany and sometimes physics brain. To separate art and design from all other
, aom I>trt 0tI btI\IIIf ot "'1 own PfottWon. ;orId 11 M l and mechanics· you were given a<cess to the pra<tiCe5, and to argue that they alone are in a
~ IS wrth no InIIU!Ne spin! !l>fll rON l \¥'d btl.". very latesl research into the design process. It different world. is nOi only conceptually
I"'U: but I om ~ m.l \he WOIId VoooJd t.
wasn't doing ver>us thinking. It was practice as strange, it may well be arteciOal (to use Stuart
ondinfd 10 i0oi; 10 p;ornton for intorlTllllOll 0tI
p;ornlll>g I hope 10 Iohow N t GIn i'I a l"'!juiMly tMIght
an amalgam of lhe two. with, if anything. the Macdonald's WOfd). Yes, art and design have
proI...-; N I ~ i'I J6Mrfflc ~ well ~ jIOI!oc, emphasis on the thinking. TIme enough to been taught separately from the mainstream,
Ind IO Iohow by 1I«ong !htcoonect"'O IRs in \he implement the thoughts after leaving College, ever since 1837. But that is an institutional
hIs10ty ot ~ p;orn1ln9 !hi! no grM1 p;ornltl
_ _ S1eIf'\.lIJ!IhI . ' '''1In9i'1 . KJtII(t ,.-.d
it was thought. accident, not a conceptual statement.
VIooAd be pon.I(d illS . . 1nquoIy inlo lilt Itws 01 So, where does al this lead? Apart from to
...un. Why. then. ......, 1IOI ~ t. <omio<ItIm the important thought that 'research' is a
;os. bi..-.d"l 0I ...... ~. 0I.....t.h picI......
• To recapitulate: much less diffuse. much more convergent
.."tuI~l'
The popular image of the fine artist as activity than the terms 01 the recent debate
expressive lunatic does not allow sufficiently for would suggest. And that 'research' has been.
If the stereotype of the artist is fairty wide of
the cognitive tradition in art· a tradition which can be and will continue to be an important·
the mark. the recent image of the young
has in fact been called 'research', Nor does it perhaps the mosl important· nourishment for
designer - descended from the image of the art
allow for the fact that art happens in a social, the practice and teaching of art, craft and
student in general, which was in~nted as
technical and cultural WOfld. design.
recently as the 19505 · also needs substantial
The popular image of the designer as style There is a lot of common ground. There is
readjuSlment. Not just in the light of what we
warrior· superficial, trendy, obsessed with also a lot of private territory. I'd like to finish
know about design research, the design
surfaces and signs· does not allow sufficienlly with lhe three categories (derived from Herbert
methods movement, basic design, and the

•
 Read) with which I began, to make some from the gathering of reference materials. At the College. we give Higher Doctorates
practical suggestions as to the kinds of Kenneth Agnew has recently and wisely or Honorary Doctorates to individuals With a
research which might suit, ndeed grew out of, written that research through the design of distinguished body of exhibited and published
what we actually do; prodocts has been work - but we do not at present offer research
degrees entirely for work where the art IS said
• Research into art and deSIgn ~ by Ihf ....k 01 ony 1unG.men1M

• Research through art and design

600"••_.\1.._ 0I1hf dPwgn ptOCl1$ whdI product'd to 'speak for itself'. Rightly or wrongly, we
them. Tooo/tftl".t bnl. tt. odfevdence IS Ihf tend to feel the goal here is the an rather tllan
• Research for art and design ot¥ct otwIf • . . : I _ WI evdence IS ~ the knowledge and understanding. The PicaSSO
pP/oemef. Where, good wrr>PIt 01 the ongoNI
Research into art and deSlgfl is the most philosophy. Md we feel that we don't want to
on.n pr...... to be
straightfOlWard, and, according to the Allison ....... ~.
,
proclucl C¥I stil be found, "
be in a position where the entire history of art
inde;lt of research in art and design - as well as is eligible for a postgraduate research degree.
These types of research resemble Herbert
CNAA lists of the 19805 and early 1990s plus There must be some differentiatton.
Read's 'teaching through art' - so long as we're
my own e;ltperience at the Royal College of Art
clear about wha t is being achieved and • Research into art and design
- by far the most common:
communicated through the activities of art. • Research tlYough art and design
• Historical Research craft or design. At the Royal College ofArt, this • Research for art and design
• Aesthe tic or Perceptual Research kind of research, sometimes known as the
The novelist E.M. Forster's aunt once said to
• Research into a variety of theoretical degree by project· with a specific project
Forster:
perspectives on art and design - social. declared in advance of registration - involves
economic, political, ethical, cultural. for the MPhil studio work and a research
iconographic, technical. material, structural . repon, and for the PhD studio work plus a That seems to me to be very like the lit5t
,.. whatever. ca tegory. If modify this to
mOte extensive and substantial research report,
_an
'M!

The thorny one is Research fat art and I ~I...twt I !honk \II I we....t..>t I rnal::t "'"
That is research into art and design. At the
design, research with a small 'r' in the dol'.
College, it involves PhD theses or MPhil
dissertattons. And it is straightfOlWard, because dictionary - what Picasso considered was the then we've covered the second category as
gathering of reference materials rather than well. But jf we modify it further to
there are countless models - and archives •
from which to derive its rules and procedures.
Research through art and design which
accounts for the next largest category (though
research proper. Research whete the end
product is an artefact - where the thinking is,
so to speak. embodied in the artefact, where
. ,.
.!'tow un I tel wtw I ;am til I we wtw I " ...h ..:I

it seems to me we have a fascinating dilemma

the goal is not primarily communicable
a small one) in the Allison ndex. the CNAA on our hands. As much about autobiography
documents, and my own experience of degrees knowledge in the sense of verbal
and personal development as communicable
by studio project at the College, is less straight- communication, but in the sense of visual or
knowledge. I can only add, that research for
iconic Ot imagistic communication, I've
forward. but still identifiable and visible. an. craft and design needs a great deal of
mentioned the cognitive tradition in fine art,
• materials research - such as the titanium further research. Once we get used to the idea
and that seems to me to be a tradition out of
sputtering or colorization of metals projects that we don't need to be scared of 'research'-
which much future research could grow: a
successfully completed in the metalwork and or in some strange way protected from it - the
tradition which stands outside the artefact at
jewellery departments at the College and debate can really begin.
the same time as standing within it. Where the
Camberwell, in association with Imperial expressive tradition is concerned, one
College of Science & Tedmoiogy (partner- interesting question is why people want to call
• ships are very useful. in this area of research). it research with a big 'r' at all. What'S the
• development work - for eJ\imple,customising motivation? True. research has become a Bibliography
a piece of technology to do something no- political or resource issue, as much as an
'Pablo l'Ic:oruo: an inleMeW' (fepnnted from The Arts.
one had considered before, and communi· academic one. And. as a slight digression, it New VOlt, May 1923. in Artists on Aft. ed, Raben
cating the results. A recent eJ\imple: the always amuses me to see the word 'academic' Goidwatl!f & Marco Treves. John Murray, london.
Canon colour photocopier at the Royal used as a pejorative - by people who 1985. pp.416-n
College of Art, successfully used by some thermelves earn their livings within the •John A. Walbr. Aft & AltlSfS on Screen (Mandp;tl!f
postgraduate illustration students, who have academy. Research has become a status issue, Un~ty Press. 1993. pA6),
both exhibited and written up the resUlts. as much as a conceptual or even practical one. 'Tom ione>s: Rtsearch in the Visual Fine Arts
• action research· where a research diary tells, And that - I must confess - worries me. (leonardo. 13. 1980 pp 89-93)
in a step-by-step way, of a practical There may well be opportunites for research ' John Corntab,e : Lecture notes. May 26 8. June 16
experiment in the studio>. and the resulting within the expressive tradition, but they need 1836 (in Afllm on Art. op .cit, pp,27G-273)
report aims to contextualise it. Both the diary dispassionate research rather than heated 'Kenneth Agnew: The Spitfire: Legend or History? An
and the report are there to communicate the discussion about status, class and reverse argument for ~ new research culture in design
results, which is what se:>arates research snobbery, (Journal of Design History. 6. 2. 1993, pp.121-130).

5
Ro~alColiege
of A rt Research Papers