So yesterday’s symposium was the last of this third term and involved looking at some of the students’ work on show and feeding back our thoughts so I have incorporated that into this term review.
Looking back
I am now exactly half way through the course (and three quarters of the way through unit 1 Research, Development and Practice) and so have taken a little time to look back and assess where I am. The headline issues seem to come under the following five categories so I will explore each one in turn.
- Practice
- Seminars, tutorials and artists talks
- Research paper
- Interim show
- Blog
Practice
My practice breaks down into two main parts: project work in building up a body of work and non project work practice such as documenting dad, family life and some of the experiences and trips made. I explored imagery in two projects this term, signs and injecting landscapes with a sense of disability as well as documenting my dad as he “getting on”. I am happy with the progress of these projects and aim to continue to concentrate on creating different perspectives around disability and impairment for the rest of Unit 1 – that is one more term – and then move to reflect, formulate and construct the final completed products in the last two terms.
Seminars, tutorials, artists’ talks and an electronic network
I think that some of the key differences between a self sustaining practice and working within the MA structure are to be found in the community of interest the latter provides. For example, this term we enjoyed symposiums focussed on the nature of digital and approaches and ideas around our research; artists’ talks from Emily Allchurch and preparatory work ready for Paul Goodwin, as well as tutorials looking at where we all are in our particular journeys.
Research paper
I rather let my enthusiasm take hold in regard of the research paper and rather that submit a 1000 draft gave Gareth a paper much nearer to being a final draft. I mentioned the specific feedback in my last post and so will not repeat that here. Rather I will just note that the research and writing of the paper has sharpened my intension in regard of my artistic practice in that I know where I am going.
Interim and MA final shows
Our online critique allowed us to see some of the work on show via Google Hangouts…
Qianru
Huijun
Yizhou
Lionel
Sila
Emily
Andy
Jake
This little visual summary only gives an tiny indication of the exhibition as it fails to provide sounds or other features such as mist, or provide a comprehensive oversight. For that you needed to attend in person. But it does offer viewers an idea about the range of approaches and act as a reference point.
One key difference between my work and all of the other exhibitors is the absence of any physical craft input into the final product by me. I think all my colleagues’ work that involved some physical element eg, sculpting, casting, printing and mounting, and they produced that themselves, whereas I did not. The craft in my work has been limited to the digital where I created the digital version of my work and determined the form of the physical output but then contracted that work to a commercial supplier. I would have liked to print and mount my work myself but recognise this was not to be given the limitations of access to equipment that would produce the sort of quality I would expect.
Yet I think I got a lot out of the process of exhibiting. The production and administration including being present for the curation was interesting and useful and built on last year’s experience at Bank Street Arts. It was useful to visit and be physically present and see the different approaches to it. For example, some people came with tape measures and an exact approach while others tackled the work with a more intuitive mind set.
Blog
One very valuable thing has been working as an individual within a cohort and reading and exploring other’s blogs in regard of their preparation and work toward the Interim and Final shows. This has helped me in all sorts of ways such as questioning the nature of the art presented and thinking about what I want to say and why. The other thing a blog helps with is in seeing who and how many visits ones work gets. For example my blog was viewed a total of 471 times between May 1 and yesterday and welcomed 254 visitors who left 50 comments and 83 likes. I am pleased with that.
Conclusion
So it’s been a good term. Different from the others because the work broadened and deepened from the visual project work to include the research and Interim show. I have one more term of exploration before I turn toward reflection and presentation and the timing feels about right.
anomiepete 