Developing a researcher perspective during the course of a fine art research degree: issues relating to supervision

For more than a decade the unique challenges facing Visual Arts researchers have been the subject of debate. Creative practice-based research challenges conventional and presumed ways to legitimately construct knowledge and the clash in paradigms is pronounced in deliberations on funding; research quality; and research degrees. As the language of creativity collides with that of established scientific discourse, research students have been the forefront and it is through the growth in these degrees that the position of creative research is being advanced. Students are faced with the complex demands of candidature while also negotiating the shifting sands of a new and evolving research discourse.