PhD PROGRAM

Credit and Degree Requirements

1. Prior to the General Examination which concludes Phase Two of the program, six quarters of full-time (minimum of 10 credits per quarter) study must be completed (It should be noted that this is the minimum requirement. Some students may require longer preparation before being approved to take the General Examination). Part-time (fewer than 10 credits) quarters may be added together to equal full-time quarters, but three out of four consecutive quarters must be full-time. None of the credits counted toward this requirement may be in DXARTS 800 (Final Doctoral Project) credits.
2. Complete 60 credits of DXARTS approved courses (not including the DXARTS 800 credits). At least 30 of the credits earned must be at the 500 level. At least 30 must be in graded 400 and 500 level courses.
3. Maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA in DXARTS courses. At the discretion of the Program Director in consultation with DXARTS faculty students who fall below a 3.0 GPA may be allowed a probationary period during which they must show improvement or be terminated from the program.
4. The student must pass the General Exam. Registration as a graduate student is required during the quarter the exam is taken.
5. The student must complete a Final Project that is a substantial and original contribution in both artistic and technical domains. The student must take at least 27 credits of DXARTS 800 (Final Doctoral Project) over a period of at least three quarters before taking the Final Doctoral Exam.
6. The student must pass the two-part Final Exam. Registration as a doctoral student is required during the quarter the exam is taken.

Degree Timeline

PHASE ONE

CCoursework in an interdisciplinary core curriculum chosen from DXARTS and partner departments. This will normally be a one to two-year period of study, depending on a student's previous training and accomplishments. Students will devise a course of study in this phase with advice and approval of the primary faculty advisor. Required courses may be waived if the student can demonstrate equivalent knowledge of the subject material.

Courses

Required every quarter during Phase One: Research Studio (DXARTS 500)
The Research Studio is a defining component of the Ph.D. program. It embodies innovative approaches to collaborative research and learning, and will create a dynamic Digital Arts convergence zone on campus. The Research Studio combines the venues of classroom, laboratory, symposium, think-tank, and artistÕs studio. Under the supervision of DXARTS faculty, the Research Studio brings all of the Ph.D. students together each week for several hours to explore, create, debate, problem solve and present their current research and artwork. The Research Studio will also be a venue for presentations by visiting artists, engineers, scientists, faculty and graduate students from across the University of Washington. Along with this broad range of scholarly and creative investigations, doctoral students will be encouraged to develop from these course discussions, independent public symposia and events that explore the emerging philosophical and scientific issues in digital and experimental arts discussed in the Research Studio.

Incoming students must demonstrate that they have equivalent knowledge in the courses listed below or they must take those courses where they are unable to demonstrate such knowledge. Admitted Ph.D. students will be expected to have some background in one or more of the areas covered by these courses, so is not expected that incoming students will need to take all or even most of them.

• Introduction to Experiments in Digital Video (DXARTS 450)
• Digital Sound (DXARTS 460)
• Algorithmic Processes in the Arts (DXARTS 430)
• Physical Computing (DXARTS 488)
• Digital Media Theory (DXARTS 412)
• Research Techniques in Digital Arts (DXARTS 505)

In addition, in Phase One students must take at least four courses from the list of 400 and 500 level DXARTS courses approved by faculty advisor.

Students will also be encouraged to choose electives from other departments. Total Credit Hours in Phase One: minimum 30.

Qualifying Exam and Critique

Upon completion of the above requirements and no later than the 6th quarter of study students will present a selection of their work done during Phase One to their Critique Committee in an oral exam format. This assessment point is designed to determine the readiness of the student to advance to Phase Two of the Ph.D. program and begin an agenda of more independent and focused work. Students will be expected to show evidence of having achieved broad and deep command of several of the fundamental areas of Digital Arts and Experimental Media. Their creative work should at this point demonstrate advanced use of technology and techniques, as well as showing an original and sophisticated aesthetic and theoretical framework. If the student is not deemed ready to proceed to Phase two, the committee can recommend further preparation leading to a second attempt or termination from the program.

Qualifying Examination Structure

•   Written Examination:

The Written portion of the Qualifying Examination is two short field essays (1000 words) designed in consultation with the students exam committee. The field essays are not designed to ask students to provide the answers to the question, or function as exhaustive stand-alone scholarly texts, but instead serve to directly provoke the speculative questions the student and committee will discuss in the oral critique section of the exam. The Committee defines and prepares two exam fields no earlier than two weeks before the Qualifying Examination and Critique.

The two written fields are generally configured as follows:

Field One, on the history and theory of the candidate's mediums of engagement.

Field Two, on the importance of their particular arts practice providing a brief comparative perspective between personal arts philosophy and a broader reflection of current invention, innovation, and experimentation in their areas of engagement. This essay punctuates -- from the point of view of the candidate -- what is enduring, potentially transformative and historical about the work they are preparing to undertake.

•   Research Tools:

The Research Tool Examination briefly covers the evolution of the student's new technical knowledge and virtuosity gained since entering the program. It also looks directly at the appetite for invention, technological risk-taking, and successful integration and adaptation of new tools in their arts practice since entering the program.

•   The Qualifying Critique Structure:

The Qualifying Critique is a preliminary oral examination conducted by the studentÕs graduate committee, and constituted by the student in conjunction with the programÕs Directors. While all components of the Qualifying exams should be taken seriously, the Qualifying Critique is the defining moment in the graduate student's advancement to Ph.D. candidacy. The substance of the oral exam depends on the student's particular research and teaching interests, and the student has an important role in determining exam areas. In delineating those areas in collaboration with her or his committee, the student is in many ways defining or inventing her or his new intellectual and professional arenas. This self-definition is carried out in the previous two related stages (written and research tools) of preparation for the examination. The Qualifying Critique committee then reviews the student's programmatic contribution and progress to that point and then confers with the student in a 90-minute discussion. 45 minutes are covered by the exposition, and the rest by rigorous open discussion, allowing the student the opportunity to communicate directly and openly with the committee, and for the committee to assess the student preparedness to advance toward dissertation work. The substance of the meeting is both retrospective and prospective. It includes discussion both of the student's work at DXARTS to that point and of conceptualizations and plans for future directions. The latter should be taken seriously as a preliminary view into the student's dissertation research.

PHASE TWO

Coursework with increasing focus on a small number of specific areas accompanied by significant semi-independent research and creative work. This will normally be a one to two-year period of continued study and artistic production which begins after successfully passing the Qualifying Critique.

Required every quarter during Phase Two: Research Studio (DXARTS 500)

Before the General Exam will be administered students must have accumulated at least 60 credit hours of DXARTS-approved courses, 30 of which must be at or above the 500 level.

General Exam

The General Examination for Doctoral Candidacy is administered after the student has passed the Qualifying Critique, usually by the end of the student's third year. The purpose of this examination is:

• To determine whether the student has acquired the necessary background in at least two major areas of Digital and Experimental Arts as well as background appropriate for his/her proposed research.
• To determine whether the student is able to draw on this background to continue to progress in their research and creative work in a primarily independent manner.
• To determine whether the proposed area of research and creative work have the potential of leading to an original and substantial work of art which explores new aesthetic domains based on the invention of new and advanced technical means.

The General Examination has two components:

This part of the exam will take place over a four-day period. The student will be given a project to accomplish within their primary areas of focus. The student will be assigned the exam project at 9am of the first day and must have completed it by 5pm of the fourth day. If the project requires materials, those will be provided at the time the assignment is received at the beginning of the exam period.

If the student's Supervisory Committee has decided that the Application of Technique part of the exam was completed successfully, the student will take the Oral Exam no less than 1 and no more than 2 weeks afterwards. This part of the General Exam is approximately 1.5 hours. The student may be questioned about their carrying out of the application component of the exam as well as a range of technical and creative subjects pertinent to Digital Arts.

PHASE THREE

Proposal, production, and completion of the Final Doctoral Project. This will be a work of substantial scale, depth, and originality.

The ability to write a detailed and compelling proposal is an essential skill for an artist. By the end of the quarter following the General Exam the student must submit a formal proposal for the Final Doctoral Project. The project proposal will state the theoretical and practical problems the student will explore, as well as the research methods and technologies that the student will develop and employ. The proposal will show how the project will constitute original aesthetic and conceptual explorations as well as embracing innovative approaches to the use and development of technology and/or science in the Arts. The submission of the formal proposal and its subsequent formal approval by the studentÕs Reading Committee will ensure that both the student and the committee agree upon the scope and feasibility of the project.

The precise nature of the Final Project will depend on the nature of problems and the focus areas which the student proposes to investigate. The Final Project will be comprised of a major work of art and/or a consequential theoretical work representing an important advance in the field. Art works must be accompanied by thorough documentation describing the processes, technologies, techniques, and conceptual frameworks. In all cases, the Final Project must constitute an original contribution to methods, applied techniques and theories of the generative arts.

The Final Examination has two components:

The penultimate requirement of the Ph.D. Program is the public presentation of the Final Project. The nature of this presentation will vary widely depending upon the nature of the work. For example the public presentation could be a showing of the work in a gallery or museum setting, a concert or theatrical presentation, a public space setting, or some other non-traditional and experimental venue designed by the candidate. This presentation is the concrete expression of the studentsÕ individual research goals, intellectual investigation, technical skill and artistic vision assembled during their tenure as a DXARTS doctoral student. The student must have written approval by the Supervisory Committee that the actual presentation qualifies as the formal Final Project Presentation.

This will be public presentation in the form of an Oral Exam of approximately 1.5 hours during which the candidate will give a professional level presentation about all aspects of the Final Project. The Exam will include questions from the Supervisory Committee and Oral Defense attendees present during the presentation of the Final Project. Successful completion of the Oral Exam results in conferral of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Digital Arts and Experimental Media.