FAD3101 Rethinking Research Practices in Art, Technology and Design 10.0 credits

In providing a platform for exploring practices, techniques, materials and methods pertaining to research in art, technology and design, the course serves to develop and strengthen the subject area. Primarily focussing on the practices of research candidates, the course also includes presentations by senior researchers and invited scholars within a higher seminar format. The course allows participants to deepen their knowledge on research in art, technology and design. The subject is addressed as an active, multi- and transdisciplinary field characterised by criticality and practices of ’making’ with an explicit relevance for society. The course engages with the material and performative aspects of research – in terms of aesthetics, ethics, the technical and socio-political context – by discussing individual research projects in relation to relevant examples and key writings within the subject area. Designed as a series of critical encounters with specific practices and materials, the course provides a setting for a continued and broadened discussion on matters pertaining to the discursive and methological aspects of research.

On completion of the course, the student should be well-oriented in the diversity of research practices in art, technology and design; have the ability to account for this diversity by analysing the discursive, political, aesthetic, practical and theoretical implications of different research practices; have skills in presenting his/her research in an academic format based on informed choices as regards to topic, materials and methods; have skills in responding to research presentations by raising constructive questions and offer valuable comments; have skills in contributing to a productive academic conversation; understand and be able to discuss the relation between different forms of investigating, documenting, representing and disseminating research results in art, technology and design.

To be eligible for the course, students must have completed a masters’ degree or have an equivalent level of education in technology, art or design (such as architecture, planning, civil engineering, design, arts and crafts, or fine arts) or affiliated subjects within the humanities and social sciences. The course is mandatory for doctoral candidates within the Art, Technology and Design programme and caters for the needs of students pursuing research in the subject area.

If the course is discontinued, students may request to be examined during the following two academic years.

• DEL1 - Participation, 5.0 credits, grading scale: P, F
• SEM1 - Seminars, 5.0 credits, grading scale: P, F

Based on recommendation from KTH’s coordinator for disabilities, the examiner will decide how to adapt an examination for students with documented disability.

The examiner may apply another examination format when re-examining individual students.

The course runs over a period of two academic years with approximately 10 seminars each year. To pass the course and be awarded credits, students must attend a minimum of 8 times, and fulfill requirements of one individual presentation and one assignment as commenter/opponent, yearly. Students are expected to come well prepared to seminars and to participtate actively in discussions at an academically advanced level. Results and discussions generated by the course are documented in a digital archive, which may include additional assignments set by the course leader.

Katja Tollmar Grillner

• All members of a group are responsible for the group's work.
• In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used.
• In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.

The course is mandatory for research candidates in the programme Art, Technology and Design. The structure of the course is as a higher seminar series open to the public.