Intellect

Authors:  Sarah O'Brien 
DOI: 10.1386/stap.27.1.73_3

Keywords
practice-as-research, written thesis, reflective judgement, Kant, Eco, schema/schemata

Abstract
This article examines ‘reflective schema’ within the context of its original study by Kant and Umberto Eco, and from the perspective of my own performance making as a recent practice-as-research (P-a-R) PhD candidate. This is in response to an article by Susan Melrose, where she suggests that it is through a ‘reflective schema’ that we can view performance in order to judge its value as P-a-R (2002). Melrose claims that in using such a schema we no longer need to rely on the ‘traditional thesis’ as the ‘material support’ of performance. I argue that if we include the ‘traditional thesis’ under this model of thought, then it is not simply a material support; it is seen to be essential to the creative process. Therefore, while both acknowledging it as only one possible method and pointing towards its limitations, I also argue that it is useful to understand P-a-R following a ‘reflective schema’ as it demonstrates an alternate relation between the traditional written thesis and the performance.