About This Course
Artistic research is an important part of the activity of higher education institutions in film and media arts. Whether practice-led, practice-informed or practice-based, researchers are exploring cultural, societal and technological challenges through their work. This course introduces you – perhaps an early-stage researcher working on a Masters or Doctoral project, or an experienced teacher or practitioner seeking to learn more about your role as a researcher – to the main concepts of artistic research. You can also explore some advice on the design and management of artistic research projects and how this can support the development of your own practice as a researcher.
Content
- Topic 1: Introduction
- Topic 2: Research Types: What kind of research am I undertaking? And what is Artistic Research?
- Topic 3: The Scope of Research: Mapping the Territory
- Topic 4: Establishing Methods and Conceptual Frames for Research Inquiry
- Topic 5: Managing Your Research Work
Struture
Within each module sections are constructed in the following structure: Video and slides by a subject expert, taking you through the material and the relevant concepts Online resources e.g. readings, exemplars
Grading and Certificate
Students must complete the quiz with a minimum grade of 70%
Institutions
IADT, the Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland, is a founding member of FilmEU and home to Ireland’s National Film School. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in areas including art, design, film, media, animation, psychology, business, and the humanities, and participates in a range of research projects funded by the Irish Research Council, Science Foundation Ireland, and various EU programmes.
Course Staff
Sherra Murphy
Dr Sherra Murphy is Senior Lecturer in Critical and Cultural Studies, teaching visual and material culture in the Faculty of Film, Art, and Creative Technologies at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design, and Technology. Her PhD at University College, Dublin (2015), examined the formation of the Natural History Museum Dublin as an interlocking set of historical, scientific, social, and visual frameworks. The resulting monograph, ‘The First National Museum’: Dublin’s Natural History Museum in the mid-nineteenth century, is published by Cork University Press. Dr Murphy was the 2019 recipient of the Royal Dublin Society Library and Archives Bursary for conducting research in the Society’s equestrian archive, examining the origins of the Dublin Horse Show in the mid-Victorian period through the lens of Irish cultural history, leisure, and social change. Her research areas centre around cultural history, museums, visual culture, the cultural history of nineteenth-century Ireland, the history of natural history, and the history of equestrian sport in Ireland. She also currently represents IADT on the Academic Development Group of the Creative Futures Academy, an innovative collaborative venture between IADT, NCAD, and UCD’s College of Arts and Humanities.
Deirdre O’Toole
Dr Deirdre O’Toole is a lecturer in the National Film School of Ireland, IADT. She lectures on the BA (Hons) Film and Television Production, BA (Hons) New Media Studies and the Erasmus+ MA Kino Eyes. Deirdre has a practice-based PhD in Film and Visual Studies from Queen’s University Belfast, where she made documentaries collaborating with storytellers who had experienced trauma. Deirdre is a filmmaker who has worked for many years as a cinematographer where she filmed documentaries, music videos and dramas. Deirdre has directed three documentaries which have been shown extensively in film festivals and galleries around the world including Chagrin Documentary Festival, Ohio, Red Rock Film Festival, Utah, Docs Ireland, Belfast, Aspen Mountain Film Festival, Colorado, On Art Film Festival, Poland, Kinosmena Festival, Minsk, Irish Film Institute Documentary Festival, and Europa Documentary Festival, Egypt. Her work was showcased for four months in the Turchin Centre for the Arts, North Carolina in 2019, twice in the Saranac Gallery in Washington and twice in CIACLA, USA.
Fiona Snow
Fiona Snow is a studio-based lecturer, practitioner and researcher of Art & Design education. An expert in creative arts pedagogies, Fiona is a co-recipient of a Disciplinary Excellence in Teaching and Learning (DELTA) award and has consulted as an Art and Design subject matter expert for QQI, Ireland’s academic quality and standards organisation. Fiona is a practitioner in her own right and teaches practice-based methods across IADT’s Faculty of Film, Art and Creative Technologies. Since 2021 Fiona has been a member of IADT’s Creative Futures Academy (CFA) team, where her expertise plays a crucial role in the development of modules, interrogating the CFA’s Creative Attributes Framework and embedding essential creative arts pedagogies across the CFA. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Education at Trinity College Dublin, with a focus on studio-based creative arts pedagogies
Daithí Mac Síthigh
Daithí Mac Síthigh is the former Head of Research at IADT and previously an academic director of the Northern Bridge Arts & Humanities Doctoral Training Partnership. He has experience of teaching, research, and doctoral supervision across areas including media policy and intellectual property law.
