PhD Research

At MaHKU artistic PhD Research is not a goal in itself. It is an activity that can contribute to the stimulation of the general research climate of the the Graduate School. For that reason we work, in collaboration with external partners, on individual doctoral trajectories, that focus on the central question of the Fine Art programme: the question into the position of the artistic image in current visual culture. The researchers are temporarily part of the MA Fine Art staff and contribute to the curriculum.


PhD Research Projects

1. Irene Kopelman The Molyneux Problem, 2007-2011, Accomplished (September 3, 2011)

The Molyneux Problem focuses on the role of drawing as a tool and method for artistic thinking and research and conceives itself as an invitation to consider the ideas of observation, respresentation, visualization, perception, discovery and re-discovery.

Funding: Sia-Raak

Supervisors: Mika Hannula (MaHKU/ University of Gothenburg), Jan Kaila (Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki) and Henk Slager (MaHKU, Utrecht)

Examination: September 3, Utrecht. Examiners: Magnus Bartus (Stockholm) and Anke Bangma (Amsterdam/Bergen)

Degree: Doctor in Fine Art (in collaboration with Finnish Academy of Fine Arts). 

Exhibition: August 20 - September 25, 2011. BAK, Basis voor Actuele Kunst, Utrecht. More info here.



2. Jeremiah Day A kind of imagination that has nothing to do with fiction, Allan Kaprow and Hannah Arendt and a practice for a new publicness of art, 2010-2014.

Can contemporary art contribute to the political debate? How can current art practise realize its ambition to play a significant role in public life? Can the new field of research in the arts be used as a renewal of the content of visual arts, or will it turn out to be just another form of instrumentalization of the arts? With Kaprow and Ahrendt as examples and guides, this research project will develop through concrete artistic and discursive projects in the public realm: speculative insights will lead to practical experiments that in turn will form the basis of a new way of thinking.

Funding: Fonds BKVB/NWO

Supervisors: Wouter Davidts (Free University, Amsterdam), Henk Slager (MaHKU, Utrecht).

Degree: PhD (in collaboration with the Free University Amsterdam)