Each month Transart provides an online intensive for its students. The subject of the workshop varies monthly, and may or may not seem have anything to do with what each particular student is researching. Therein lies the magic. Not matter what is presented, there is always a thread, a take away, a little smackeral of insight, that will influence how each students is approaching their research.

This online time together is also a way for students to get to know each other's work. We meet in person a few times a year, but mostly we are on our own, so these monthly classes are invaluable for so many reasons.

Our February intensive, led by Caroline Rito, Professor of Creative Practice Research at the Research Centre of Arts, Memory and Communities at Coventry University. (Clearly I'm in catch up mode as it's currently May 13th). This intensive focused on how artists research differently than other disciplines. Some of the questions posed were:

1. How do we make our artistic research public?

2. How do we disseminate our research efficiently?

Practice alone is not the same as artistic research. Practice is what is driving the research. Methodology is how it is made. Field of investigation is where it sits within the field of study. Contribution is how I will be contributing to the field of knowledge. Analysis is reviewing and analising all that I have learned. Exhibition is not the same is exposition of research. Exposition is looking at and articulating our artistic research journey.

We were asked to think about artistic research curatorialy. There is a shift that happens from the documentation to curation. How do we bring our physical work to the PdD program? Documentation is the answer. Now I must consider how I want to curate my practice within the constraints of the PhD dissertation.

We were asked to read the LJMU guidelines for submission of dissertation, located in the Transart Student Section. The text required is 40,000 words plus practice work. 3000-5000 words are required for confirmation of registration.

For the written component, the text must talk about research that already exists, include a detailed methodology to address the research question and present results and analysis of results to show what the work is doing. The written thesis summarizes outcomes of work into a coherent conclusion.

The practice based component includes creative work, writing about the work and why that work is relavent. Research and documentation of the practical component is also submitted at the same time. Exhibition, models, sketchbooks etc, should be presented prior to the viva voce. Thesis submissions can combine words, documentation of the installation, tech specs and other artwork that relates my field of study. I need to create a landscape to show that I am not alone in doing this research, and also show what new contributions I am making.

We were asked to think about what is the practice element of our work so far and how to document and merge the art/visual presentation and words. Making a separate website could compliment the work.