Radical Spaces of Making

This Research & Knowledge Exchange Doctoral Project brief summarises our priority areas of research interest under the heading of: Radical Spaces of Making.

We welcome all research degree applications aligned with and in response to this brief.

Spaces of making have the capacity to shape life-worlds, shift political, economic and material narratives, and generate creative outputs that strengthen social and environmental bonds (Adamson, 2018; Desilvey, 2017; Luckman & Thomas, 2018; Marchand, 2008; Shales, 2017). With specific attention paid to practices of making, this doctoral project proposal invites an exploration of the function of the studio (Buren, 1979) through active studio practice within the Falmouth School of Art, whilst also addressing the artists’ studio in its expanding socio-political forms beyond the campus (Thorne, 2012). As such, the research may attend to the capacity for shared places to foster new relations by ‘enabling and constraining the way in which people come together’ (Kohn, 2018), and where assemblages of matter, materiality and performativity might also be activated (Bennett, 2010). Here, there are opportunities for enquiry throughout Cornwall’s creative and heritage sectors; where consideration might be paid to how, why and where makers are working.  

Starting from a recognition that conceptualisations of space are now understood to encompass multiple intersections of human and non-human ecologies (Massey, 2005; Haraway, 1988; Sloterdijk, 2011), this doctoral proposal encourages an investigation and pursuance of the radical within the research narrative; thus opening up potential for the examination and contestation of spatial practice at a root level (Shaw and Humm, 2016).  

It is suggested that primary modes of practice-based research methodologies be drawn from, but are not limited to, sculpture, drawing, performance, craft as social practice, and audio-visual media. Other research methodologies might extend to the creative turn in the humanities framed by ethnography, anthropology, geography, archaeology, social science and experimental pedagogies.  

Projects deriving from this brief are expected to sit within the Research & Knowledge Exchange strategy and the following department.

All successful research degree project proposals must emphasise a clear alignment between the project idea and our Research & Knowledge Exchange strategy.