Villa Arson’s practice-based doctoral framework provides a concise institutional theory of artistic research. It defines the artistic project as a matrix for research structured through both analytical reflection and the production of works, refusing a hierarchy in which theory validates practice after the fact. The programme expects candidates to organise research through projects, situate it within an interdisciplinary environment, develop specific methodological tools and produce knowledge capable of transfer beyond the originating discipline. Its most consequential operation is the hybrid dissertation: works coexist with text, portfolio, logbook, sources and records of interactions with artistic and scientific practices. Publication, teaching, public restitution and participation in the institution’s research ecology are treated as constitutive parts of inquiry rather than dissemination added at the end. The document therefore bridges artistic research, pedagogy, curatorial practice and institutional knowledge production. It makes explicit that research can remain materially heterogeneous while still requiring argument, method, continuity and public legibility.
