Since the 1960s artists have been using a range of media technologies to create art. Time-based media works of art are artworks where the primary medium is film, video, audio, 35mm slides, digital data, software-based art or performance. These artworks are dependent on these technologies and their associated networks of people, materials and skills, not only for their production but also for their on-going display and access. In this way the traditional museum model, based on collection knowledge and conservation capacities that is held within the museum, is challenged. Instead, we see the contemporary art museum as increasingly dependent on socio-material networks outside the museum which are beyond the museum’s direct control and which circulate in alternative economies, often dominated by different commercial concerns. Greater understanding of these networks is needed to inform and build upon methodologies such as risk assessment and other tools for imagining the future viability of particular works in contemporary art collections. This study will investigate these conceptual, theoretical and practical challenges of precarity.  

The doctoral candidate will identify in several cases from the Tate collection an artist’s work or body of works, which exhibit dependencies on one of three technologies (16mm film, Delphi programming language, Cathode Ray Tubes). Through the use of ethnographic methods and methods drawn from experimental archaeology, the candidate will explore the socio-material networks that constitute these works and their production and maintenance. 

The doctoral candidate will reside at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University in the Science, Technology and Society Studies research program, and will be able to benefit from the research activity conducted as part of the project Reshaping the Collectible: When Artworks Live in the Museum, including participation in selected workshops, contact with visiting scholars and the case study research. In addition, the doctoral candidate will spend three periods of three months hosted by Tate over the course of the four years. 

The research will be supervised by Prof. dr. Harro van Lente (Science and Technology Studies, FASoS), Prof. Pip Laurenson (Tate / Arts, Media and Culture, FASoS), Dr. Vivian van Saaze (Arts, Media and Culture, FASoS).

Candidates need to meet the following requirements: a relevant master’s degree (e.g. conservation, art sociology, museum studies, innovations studies, STS or related fields); proficiency in English including fluent academic writing skills; excellent scholarly abilities, as testified by their previous academic record, particularly by the quality of their master’s-level thesis; interest in museum practice and contemporary art. The successful candidate will be highly motivated and able to work both independently and creatively, and demonstrate an interest in and committed to transdisciplinary forms of research.

Fixed-term contract: 4 years.

We offer a dynamic and challenging job in an internationally-oriented organisation where students receive an advanced education and scholars conduct exciting research. The PhD candidate will have the unique opportunity to carry out research within one or more of the four themes within the research programme at FASoS and will contribute to the development and outreach of its interdisciplinary research centre the Maastricht Centre for Arts and Culture, Conservation and Heritage. The candidate will be part of an international network of top universities and renowned scholars within the field. 

We offer a 4 year full-time appointment as PhD student. The first year will be a probation period, after a positive assessment the position will be extended with another 3 years. Your workload will consist of 90% research activities and 10% teaching activities. 

Remuneration will be according to standard salary levels for PhD students starting with a salary of € 2.222,- with a yearly growth to € 2.840- gross a month (based on a full-time appointment.

Each year the standard salary is supplemented with a holiday allowance of 8% and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%. 

You have to be willing to move to (the vicinity of) Maastricht. If you do not already live in Maastricht (or its direct surroundings) you will be eligible for an allowance for moving costs. If you do not already live in Maastricht (or its direct surroundings) you might be eligible for an allowance for alternative housing.

Other secondary conditions include e.g. a pension scheme and partially paid parental leave. 

You will be provided with shared office space and a PC.

Maastricht University is renowned for its unique, innovative, problem-based learning system, which is characterized by a small-scale and student-oriented approach. Research at UM is characterized by a multidisciplinary and thematic approach, and is concentrated in research institutes and schools. Maastricht University has around 16,300 students and 4,300 employees. Reflecting the university's strong international profile, a fair amount of both students and staff are from abroad. The university hosts 6 faculties: Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Faculty of Law, School of Business and Economics, Faculty of Humanities and Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience.

http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS) has about 250 staff members, and about 1,600 students. More than 76% of the students are non-Dutch (64 different nationalities). All programmes are offered in English and some are also offered in Dutch. FASoS offers two 3-year bachelor’s programmes: Arts and Culture and European Studies. It also offers eight different 1-year Master’s programmes and two 2-year research master’s programmes. 

Research is organised around four programmes: Politics and Culture in Europe; Science, Technology and Society Studies; Arts, Media and Culture; and Globalisation, Transnationalism and Development. The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is housed in the historic city centre of Maastricht.

Graduate School
Our Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences offers the opportunity to pursue a PhD in the interdisciplinary field of arts and social sciences. You receive a coherent program of introductory courses, intensive supervision and frequent discussion with the senior researchers inside and outside the Faculty. The Programme can be characterized by its international and interdisciplinary nature and the emphasis on cultural and societal issues of the modern world. 

Tate
Tate’s mission is to increase public awareness, understanding and appreciation of British art from the 16th century to the present day, and of international modern and contemporary art. 

Tate is a British institution with an international outlook. Tate is recognised as one of the leading art organisations in the world, welcoming over 7 million visitors a year to its renowned programmes of exhibitions, displays and learning. Tate holds the national collection of British art from 1500 and the national collection of international modern and contemporary art from 1900, including works of art, library and archival material.  

At the heart of Tate is the collection, currently numbering over 70,000 works spanning five centuries and providing a magnificent resource for all four Tate galleries as well as for galleries and museums regionally, nationally and internationally. The collection is shared with as wide an audience as possible and is constantly being developed and added to, consolidating it historically and tracking contemporary art as it evolves. 

Tate Research
Tate Research is part of the Tate Learning and Research Directorate and is central to realising Tate’s research ambitions and works with all Tate divisions and galleries to create a vibrant and rigorous research infrastructure and programme of pioneering research. Established in 2006 following recognition of the museum as an Independent Research Organisation by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Tate is a leading centre for research in art history, curatorial practice, collection care, conservation, museology and learning. Tate Research acts as a hub to support research activity across all Tate sites, departments and divisions, working with a broad range of partners including practitioner researchers and academic scholars it arranges research events, projects and exchanges, and hosts Research Fellows and doctoral students. 

This position will form a part of the research team for a major Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded research project Reshaping the Collectible: When ArtworksLive in the Museum’. You can find further information about the project on our website: http://www.tate.org.uk/about-us/projects/reshaping-the-collectible