As emphasised above, the thesis cannot simply be an autobiographical piece of work. It requires a research approach, as do the various artistic parts of the process. But what does this actually mean in practice?
Planning
Research Task
Creating New Knowledge and Understanding
Shareability
For your research to produce qualified results, it needs to be backed up by structured, independent thinking and planning. This reveals itself in many ways throughout the research process, but the most visible and dynamic example of it is a concrete plan for your doctoral studies, part of which (called “plan for the research section”) you will already have drawn up according to the guidelines of the MuTri Handbook (so far only available in Finnish). This will henceforth be referred to as the “research plan”.
For all doctoral candidates, the study plan (including research plan) is the cornerstone for the whole degree. When preparing this plan, it is important to work out and take note of just how the thesis relates to your degree as a whole, and your supervisor or advisory group will help you in this. The next section of the guide on Research Task also looks at the planning process and how to present it.
The perspective of creating art is built into an artistic doctoral degree with the help of the supervisor or advisory group. This is one of the most crucial differences between an artistic and a scientific doctoral degree.
When writing the doctoral study plan, the project must also be assessed from an ethical point of view. This assessment should include: (a) a report on how the research material has been obtained; (b) information on how and under what conditions the material is to be kept and used (especially with projects including field work); and (c) a summary of the kind of ethical ramifications the project might have. For doctoral arts dissertations in particular, special attention should be paid to matters of copyright. The ethical guidelines for the University of the Arts Helsinki can be found in the intranet Artsi, at https://artsi.uniarts.fi/en/web/guest/ethical-conduct.
A doctoral arts degree consists of artistic work and a thesis (5 + 1). These are connected in the research task(s) of your doctoral study plan. This means that, among other things, any new knowledge and perspectives that have been gained during the artistic process can then be included in your doctoral arts thesis. This could take the form of an analysis of the artistic process, for example, even if that is not the main focus of the thesis – either way, it should clarify to the reader how the artistic work relates to the research task. This is done by interpreting every part of the degree in relation to the research task – that is, not just the approaches used in the artistic work, but also the ‘results’ obtained.
In short, the thesis should help the reader understand how artistic work in the degree differs from just any series of concerts and/or recordings (no matter how first-rate).
Creating New Knowledge and Understanding
A doctoral arts degree should bring a new understanding to a topic. This might, for instance, be in terms of new knowledge, new methods, new perspectives, or ways of making art ever more accessible. Indeed, when planning and writing your thesis it is important to consider, as a researcher, what your work might bring not only to those inside the art community, but also the wider audience outside.
Gaining a doctoral arts degree should allow you to work in the academic world as an artistic researcher. It is also why a good doctoral thesis should, among other qualities, also reflect your ability to make your thinking clear and understandable through linguistic expression. It should demonstrate:
One of the main functions of a thesis is to demonstrate the writer’s expertise on a national and international level. Indeed, this should be borne in mind with everything you write. Presentations and articles based on your research should also be written in languages other than that of the actual thesis, and for members of other artistic and research communities. To make yourself understood in these situations, you need to find common ground shared between you and your various audiences. This can be done by referring to generally accepted earlier research, and by using a clearly laid out methodology. This also applies to popularising your work. You could make it accessible to a wider range of people, for example, in a blog format. When you popularise your research, you should focus on getting the impact and current relevance of your work across even more than when you communicate to professionals.
This impact is measured in terms of how widely your research is referred to and talked about, and it is crucial in getting the new knowledge you have created out to those who need it. If the new knowledge goes no further than your own CV, then the work is having no real impact. That is why it is so important to keep in mind all possible readerships. Think with your supervisor about who would most benefit from understanding the artistic process. For example, a work looking at jazz-improvisation should not be written with only academic world in mind, but also, for instance, those who are interested in improvisation as a general method of creating art.
For more on the impact of research, see, for example http://www.aka.fi/en/research-and-science-policy/effects-and-impact-of-research/