PhD studentship at the Edinburgh College of Art

Announcing an  opportunity for an electronic lit-related Ph.D. in Scotland!
eca
edinburgh college of art

PhD Studentship.
£13,290 per annum maintenance will be provided, and course fees will be paid for three years.

Research proposals are invited from applicants who wish to undertake a practice-based PhD researching networked, distributed and collaborative authorship in electronic arts and literature practices and the subsequent implications for how creative communities form and creative practice emerges. The PhD research project will explore questions through employing theoretical and practical methods within the context of a larger European wide research project.

Developing a Network-Based Creative Community: Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice is a 1 million Euro, three year research project funded by the Humanities in the European Research Area Joint Research Programme. The project involves an academic consortium, including Edinburgh College of Art, University of Bergen (Norway), Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden), University of Amsterdam (Nederlands), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), University of Jyväskylä (Finland) and University College Falmouth (England). Focusing on a particular creative community, of electronic literature practitioners, the project inquires into how creative communities of practitioners form within transnational and transcultural contexts, within a globalised and distributed communications environment, seeking to gain insight into and understanding of the social effects and manifestations of creativity. Creative communities can be regarded as microcosms of larger communities. Within networked culture creative communities tend to be international and yet reflective of cultural specificity, acting as a lens through which social change can be observed. Such communities exist as local and global phenomena, in ‘creative cities’ and ‘global networks’, and appear to draw value from this conjunction of opposites. Whilst creativity is often perceived as the product of the individual artist, or creative ensemble, it can also be considered an emergent phenomenon of communities, driving change and facilitating individual or ensemble creativity. Creativity can be a performative activity released when engaged through and by a community and can thus be considered an activity of exchange that enables (creates) people and communities. Understanding creativity as emergent from and innate to the interactions of people facilitates a non-instrumentalist analysis.

The successful candidate will work with Principal Investigator Professor Simon Biggs, Co-Investigator Dr. Penny Travlou and Dr. Scott Rettberg (University of Bergen, Project Leader), producing a body of their own creative work, a thesis, assisting with ethnographic fieldwork, associated research, publications, the project conference and exhibition. They will liaise with project partners, particularly the University of Bergen and Blekinge Institute of Technology (Maria Engberg and Talan Memmott), on the design and development of the project website and DVD anthology of artists’ networked practice, as well as University College Falmouth (Jerome Fletcher) and New Media Scotland, preparing a programme of performance based electronic literature as part of the final exhibition and conference.

Candidates should possess either a Masters or a 1st or 2:1 degree in a relevant digital and creative arts, design or computing discipline, or have equivalent experience and skills, and be a practising artist or author in the field of electronic arts and literature. Skills in digital media design will be advantageous. The studentship will begin in September 2010 for a period of three years. For UK and EU students, the remuneration will be at the Arts and Humanities Research Council studentship rate and all fees will be paid. For non-EU students the remuneration will cover approximately 1/3 of the annual student fees. Students on programmes at eca graduate with an award from the University of Edinburgh.

Further details on the project can be found at: http://www.elmcip.net/

Informal enquiries should be addressed to: Professor Simon Biggs. +44 (0)131 221 6084 s.biggs@eca.ac.uk

To apply please send a proposal and an application form to the Academic Registry, Edinburgh College of Art, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9DF UK. Tel: +44(0)131 221 6291. Guidelines and forms are available at: http://www.eca.ac.uk/index.php?id=379

Closing date for applications: 5pm on Friday May 14, 2010. Shortlisted applicants will be informed via email by May 20 and interviews will be held on Friday May 28, 2010.

For further information on eca, please visit: http://www.eca.ac.uk

For further information about the studentship please see:
http://www.eca.ac.uk/index.php?id=1041

eca is an accredited institution of the University of Edinburgh and a charity registered in Scotland No: SC009021.