Chinouk Filique de Miranda first Professional Doctorate at ArtEZ
- Fashion
- Research
Higher professional education has gained a new learning track: alongside associate degrees, bachelor's and master’s courses, there is now also the Professional Doctorate (PD) – abbreviated to PD. A Professional Doctorate is of an equivalent level to a university PhD. At ArtEZ, Chinouk Filique de Miranda will start as the first Professional Doctorate at ArtEZ on September 1, 2023. During the PD programme, De Miranda will conduct research on the various ways in which we experience fashion in the online landscape.
Fashion as a digital experience
With the rise of digital platforms like social media, web shops, virtual reality and games, the way in which we experience fashion and clothing has changed radically. Much of the clothing we buy we have only seen on our screens in web shops, and we are influenced to purchase clothing by social media on a daily basis. Big fashion houses are even creating exclusive digital clothing lines, and brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci are designing virtual garments specifically for popular games like League of Legends. Meta, Google and Microsoft are also investing in new technologies that will enable brands to organise digital fashion shows, for example. So it is no surprise that this shift in the fashion industry is often dubbed fashion for the metaverse.
While the big fashion houses and multibillion-dollar companies are eagerly responding to this digital dimension of fashion, many small, local and critical fashion designers are being left behind. They don't have the digital skills, or don't (yet) know how they can adapt to the digital dimension of fashion. For this reason, during the four-year PD track, De Miranda will research, catalogue and ultimately strengthen digital literacy among these critical fashion makers. De Miranda: "For the first three years of my research, I will be focusing on bringing together existing digital counter-movements – i.e. hackers and programmers who are pushing back against the big players like Meta and Louis Vuitton – with critical fashion designers. I am curious to see what happens when you bring those two worlds together. For example, I want to ask them to work together to create a hacking tool for their own fashion practices." For much of her research, De Miranda will be working with master's students from Critical Fashion Practices, and she will be developing a new part of the curriculum with and for them focused on promoting digital literacy among critical fashion designers.
Want to read more about De Miranda's research and her views on digital fashion? Read this story about De Miranda's research and her PD: "The fashion designer as maker, researcher and digital whizzkid"
Fashion research at ArtEZ
During the four-year PD programme, De Miranda will have supervisors from both within and outside ArtEZ. At ArtEZ, she will be supervised by Daniëlle Bruggeman (Professorship Fashion). Bruggeman is proud that De Miranda has been chosen as the first PD candidate. "Chinouk is strong on practice-based design research into complex digital structures and making them accessible, enabling her to develop new methods, tools, tactics and strategies to stimulate digital literacy."
Tamara Rumiantsev, director of Research and Valorisation, concurs. She also notes that Chinouk – in her research and focus – is a perfect match for ArtEZ as the leading location for fashion education and fashion research. Rumiantsev: “On the one hand, Chinouk's research represents a good fit with the leading fashion courses at ArtEZ; on the other hand, it links in well with research projects into the role of fashion in society and around solidarity and sustainability in the fashion chain."
About the Professional Doctorate programme
The Professional Doctorate is equivalent to a university PhD but has a different character and a different internationally recognised title: PD. Whereas a PhD track at a university is aimed at developing professional researchers, the aim of the PD programme in higher professional education is to train researching professionals. The PD programme is closely linked to higher professional education, so that bachelor's and master's students can benefit from the research into the latest developments in professional practice conducted by PD candidates. This means that the PD programme is also an investment in strengthening the connection between HBO and the labour market.
Peter Sonderen, professor of Theory in the Arts and project leader of the pilot for the PD programme at ArtEZ, describes it as an important step. "With the PD, ArtEZ is taking a big step in strengthening research and education at the highest level in higher professional education. In contrast to a university PhD, the PD really offers room for artists who want to continue their (artistic) research after completing a master's degree, with artistic practice functioning as research or research functioning as artistic practice."