Painting your PhD: can art be science?

Writing a dissertation is not the only way to obtain a PhD degree in the Netherlands. At the universities of Leiden and Amsterdam, it’s possible to paint, sculpt or compose your PhD. Artists complete their doctorate by conducting scientific research ‘in and through’ their own art-making. Not everyone agrees.

The possibility for ‘artist researchers’ to do a PhD on their own work is facing growing criticism. According to renowned academics of Leiden University and the University of Amsterdam, artistic practice is not science.

Doctorate in the arts

At the Academy for Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA), a research institute of Leiden University, artists can obtain a PhD degree by conducting research ‘in and through’ their own work. Since 2004, the institute has received 100 applications and awarded 42 doctoral titles. Artists without a university degree are also welcome to apply. “The aim of the artistic research is to deepen and broaden the vision of its own artistic practice”, the website reads.

The University of Amsterdam and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam jointly launched a similar program last spring. At the Amsterdam Research Institute of the Arts and Sciences (ARIAS), artists can obtain a ‘doctorate in the arts’ without submitting a traditional written dissertation.

Criticism

Earlier this week, newspaper NRC reported that professor of literary studies Ernst van Alphen removed himself from the doctoral committee of a musician. The candidate’s dissertation consisted of a number of ‘meditations’, examining ‘the pathways of thought underlying the creative process of music making’. “Reflection can be useful for one’s own musical practice, but it’s not a scientific activity”, Van Alphen said.

Henkjan Honing, professor in music cognition at the University of Amsterdam, also voiced his objections. NRC reports that Honing recently stated that, as an artist, “one should not aspire to be a scientist”. Unlike scientists, artists are not bound to objectivity and principles of falsification. “Science is very methodical. You have to follow a great number of rules, and you are constantly being monitored. For knowledge-building, that’s necessary. But I wouldn’t recommend it for the arts.”

Maxim Februari

Tilburg University does not have a research institute comparable to ACPA in Leiden and ARIAS in Amsterdam. However, there are some instances of highly creative and non-traditional TiU dissertations. In 2000, writer Maxim Februari published his dissertation on economics and ethics. Part novel and part science, his work is a strange merger between the literary and the scientific. Upon completion of his book, Maxim Februari – a pseudonym for Maximiliaan Drenth – was not only awarded a doctoral degree. His dissertation also earned him the Frans Kellendonk prize, an important Dutch literary award.

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