In order to define the research methods specific to the scientific research in visual arts, it is appropriate to define the generic concept that lies at the foundation of this approach, namely: the need to adopt decisions regarding the chosen subject, the research strategy or strategies, the research question or questions being investigated. There are three main types of questions from which we intend to start: what, why, and how. The decision of the doctoral supervisor and the doctoral student to start with all three types of questions depends on the nature of the issue chosen and the level of knowledge in that field. Research strategies are therefore research rationales used for answering research questions, and their choice is the most important decision in any research project. They differ in their starting points, the steps they follow, the use of concepts, the style of explanation and the status of their products.

The specifics of research in the theoretical and practical sphere of the visual arts, which implies applicability to the two doctoral fields – scientific and professional – includes a set of objectives that derive from the specifics of the research topics and areas, increasingly diversified:

  • Emphasis on multidisciplinarity both in continuing the proposed research and in initiating new research. The organisation – in this context – of joint projects together with the Multidisciplinary Research Institute (ICMA) within UNAGE, by synchronizing the objectives and research areas of the two entities.
  • Joint artistic activities and scientific research, supervisors / doctoral students, interdisciplinarity and joint supervision in the coordination of doctoral theses by adapting to the European external space and to current trends in research
  • Identification of the target audience for the development and implementation of quality research applicable in real life, to current cultural trends.
  • Improvement in doctoral school research, on three directions: theoretical, practical and combined and sustained collaboration between the research centers of FAVD and the doctoral school, through sustainable joint projects.
  • Establishing a mutual information protocol for researchers and creators with elective affinities, regarding the development of research models or creative styles and technologies, which will contribute to improving the quality of projects carried out individually or collectively. Also, it is of utmost importance to clarify, in the experimental practice of research and creation, the reflective and productive qualities of artistic research understood as a new way of contributing to the production of knowledge.

Applying these research methods to the scientific and professional PhDs within the Doctoral School of Visual Arts is a dynamic process that evolves along with outlining the themes and research areas. Approaching the latter allows the development of complex scientific works with significant contributions for the artistic academic environment.

Topics and areas of research:

  • The ethics of representation in documentary photography
  • Researching the materiality of the medium of photography in post-photographic practices
  • The status of the document in contemporary art: between painting and photography
  • Photographic practices in the context of contemporary visual arts
  • Politics of representation in contemporary documentary photography
  • Studies on the dynamic image in New Media projects
  • Documentary and experimental video film: techniques and working methods, specific ideas and concepts
  • Symbol and visual representation
  • From project specifics in design to social innovation through design
  • Design in communication management: semiotic contributions
  • Synesthesia by design – multimedia facilities
  • Visualization as a method for knowledge discovery
  • Design research and practice reflection: facilitating design-oriented research to translate practitioners’ ideas into a new understanding of design
  • Design management in professional practice
  • Semiotics in communication management
  • Contemporary visual communication – new interpretive approaches
  • “Abstract expression”, a project dedicated to the Painting major (and not only), through which the expressive and conceptual possibilities of abstract expressionism (and the abstract genre, in general) are explored, in the defining cultural and aesthetic data of the current age
  • “Methods for promoting and building an artistic career through online communication”, a project to investigate the effective possibilities of disseminating artistic information and its potential, online
  • Novelty and continuity in the hermeneutics of visual language
  • Remixing concepts and technologies as a source of creativity in the visual arts
  • Unconventional artistic techniques, in contemporary visual-plastic expression
  • Research in the field of engraving (traditional and modern techniques, new artistic and technical directions)
  • The book as an art object and book illustration, elements of culture and civilization
  • Graphic language interference
  • Three-dimesionality in public space
  • Sculpture in contemporary space
  • Art and sacredness in images
  • Philosophy and art
  • Abstract art
  • Art and ideology
  • Contemporary Romanian medieval art
  • Contemporary restorative visual artists
  • Art and sacredness in contemporaneity
  • Religious art. Sacred art. Contemporary interferences. Mural art between tradition and modernity
  • Contemporary artistic practices based on research in socio-human sciences
  • The history of exhibitions and curatorial practices
  • Theories of image and visuality in contemporary media culture
  • Comparative study of contemporary art in post-socialism
  • Experimental artistic practices in Romania within the context of global modernity
  • The confluence of art and technology in the 21st century
  • Emotional expressiveness in art from an epistemological perspective
  • Animated images. Paradigms of realism and artistic dynamics
  • The new literacies and digital epistemologies. Energeia and Phantasia
  • Contents of contemporary visual experience. A poetic hermeneutics
  • The material culture of creation and knowledge in the 21st century
  • Artistic mapping and explorations of graphic phenomena towards the pluriverse/metaverse.

As far as providing the research infrastructure specific to the doctoral field of visual arts, the improvement of applied methods focuses on capitalizing on collaborations with other institutions and bodies. Identifying and attracting national and international funding sources is complemented by the broadening, diversification and strengthening of the material base. Ensuring the premises for good scientific and artistic documentation is necessary for the development of grants and research projects, both national and international.