PhD: Rejected

Although all the independent readers felt my proposal was very strong, neither Chelsea nor Central Saint Martins could offer me a place in their research degree programmes because they couldn’t find supervisors.

This is the feedback they gave me:

- I should consider doing a thesis only PhD, which, in my opinion, would go against my project as one of the problems with the field is the fact that it is so heavily theorised

- Because it is interdisciplinary neither art nor design want to own it: designers feel it is difficult for them to work with fine artists, fine artists feel threatened by the use of design methodologies

- The relevant visual work presented is not current. During the last 5 years, my practice has taken a more conceptual turn, focusing on sound installations and the spoken word. I decided to take a step back and revisit older works that dealt with seductive qualities of objects, as this new practice I was doing was unsuitable to explore the field

I was particularly interested in the second one as it denotes a problem, a gap in the field: if art and design is a subject area, why do artists and designers not work across disciplines?

CSM suggested that, as I mentioned I thought my proposal could be linked to the Design Against Crime project and this was currently undergoing centre designation, I could try to speak to the project leader in order to develop the proposal to be submitted for next academic year. I am disappointed because I won’t be able to start my project in October, as previously planned.

When I asked Malcolm what he thought about this feedback, he said, as he already had done before, he thought my research would be better placed in the Product Design department of the Royal College of Art. I have been very shy in associated my proposal with designers, even though it is the underpinning methodology. However, I am going to try to speak to the RCA and have already had a look at the Sheffield Hallam University programmes (they have an art and design research centre), which would make my commuting from Glasgow a lot easier...