Eirin Marie Solheim Pedersen

Artist/researcher

Between drawing and writing. What is there to gain by doing an academic thesis in art

Abstract for presentation of Ph.D thesis in research in art (kunstfag):
“Om teckning, tecken, text och teori; aktteckning i ett kontextuellt, diskursivt och paradigmatiskt perspektiv”.
Avhandling 16 i Arkitektur- og designhøgskolen i Oslos serie “Con-text”. For electronic copy see: www.aho.no/publikasjoner

The purpose with the presentation is to present some of the main points in my doctorial thesis (presentedin Dec. 2004) and to address some problems connected to this kind of work. The presentation will consist of digital images of quotations and drawings and a spoken text.

The thesis has drawing from the nude model as its central point of departure. The three most important reasons why this subject was chosen were, one, because I wanted to understand why drawing and working with the model, no longer is important in the education of artists and in art. Two, because of my discomfort with the way the female body was understood in art history. And three, and in a way the most important reason, was that I wanted to find out if the genre “akttegning” (nude) in any way could have a potential in the field of art for myself.

The goalwith the thesis came to be two folded. One was to achieve basic scientific skills and to be able to convey that in writing; the other to exploreif research in art through the genre “thesis” could be turned into a work of art. The first goal meant clarifying and choosing an epistemological stance (communication theory/semiotics) and to understand and use theoretical concepts (context, discourse, paradigm) and methods for investigation and analysis (participant observation, deconstruction of text and use of historical data). The other goal was dealt with by choosing an explicit subjective position in the text and to expand the concept of text to include drawn images.

In doing an academic thesis in art I had to question what there was to be gained/not gained, for myself as an artist, by learning academic research and to use academic discourse. As I see it, the concept “research in art” (forskningsrelaterad kunst) is challenging conventional perceptions of both science and art. It is truly a hybrid field. In my text I proclaim my thesis to be understood as a work of art and by doing so I want to challenge the perception of genres and to expand the field of art.

The greatest challenge in my work has been how to deal with the restraints set by the regulations of the doctorial programme which I attended. It did not allow a work-based thesis, which was what I wanted to do. In my presentation I will address how that restraint influenced my work, what strategy I chose and how I now, within a year’s retrospective perspective, see my work.