Final summary and reflection

This post is a course requirement where I am obliged to create a 500 word post critically evaluating my practice and future development.

My practice
While I have produced two books, six videos, five websites (generally focused sites here, and MA focussed here (for provisional outputs) and here (for final outputs), and exhibition content during this MA, it is the book that offers the resolved body of work. I hope this to be original, articulate and interesting.

The research and practice undertaken has moved my knowledge and understanding of the re-presentation of disability forward and I hope it has also engaged others, whether or not they were interested in the subject previously.

The journey has been one where experimentation in subject matter, form and media has developed through research (233 posts – see categories: research) and experimentation categorised into 26 projects projects (163 posts) and a dedicated summary website that was then curated into the resolved body of work as a book and website.

Looking back I can see that over the period issues of originality, simulacrum, production values, curation and marketing have become more prominent as has clarity of purpose. One major issue I faced was how to keep a political and therapeutic focus without falling into a solipsistic trap. I hope you think I have been successful.

One of the biggest developments has been in the use of technology in my daily practice. My adoption of blogging has fundamentally altered the way I work and moved it from one carried out in isolation to a much more interactive process. Thus even now, when the final exhibition isn’t yet open my work has been viewed 15189 times by some 4620 people[1]. This is not finished work, but rather work engaged with at all stages of its development.

Moreover 1399 viewers took the trouble to say they “liked” posts 977 took even more trouble to comment on some of them, and 199 followed my work as it developed. Thus I may work alone in the physical sense, but there has been a whole network of people informing it in terms of practice. The completed products are the same book in two size formats and a range of imagery and sculptures, some of which has been exhibited.

My Future development
I feel that I have reached a key point in this journey with the publication of Paralysis Unseen and plan to use it as a tool for engaging with others in discussing art. This means that I expect much of the next year to be taken up with exploiting the work though entering it, or parts of it, in competitions, exhibitions and getting it published. For example, I spent an hour this morning being interviewed for GUP’s online magazine as they plan to feature Paralysis Unseen in the near future.

Looking ahead, I plan to focus on curation for the foreseeable medium term, focussing on my extended family and curating my late parents’ analogue photos into a digital online resource. Mum died just as I began this MA and dad passed away four weeks ago and so the time seems apt to look at their family albums afresh and curate them from this new vantage point. The work will involve selecting, scanning and posting images regularly and, will, I am sure, lead to other ideas. Of course, this is tentative save for one area: having a digital presence. I will continue with blogging as it has become central to my practice, but will extend my focus to other platforms as well.

So watch this space…..

---

[1] All figures as of 1.25pm, Thursday July 6th 2016

Advertisement