Exploratory Project 1:4 Evaluation & Assessment

Assessment Exploratory Project 1:4  - mark 59

 

Well done, you have clearly made an effort to move away from obscurity and suggestiveness, to be more structured and open with your exploration. With a range of media and content you have produced a resource of lens based images for a series of future explorations. At the moment most of these explorations are at the ideas stage waiting to be fully explored. The video-material-projection-trials, selection of old movie photos, V&A ghost objects and antiquated/contemporary objects from the making day clearly have potential to be refined and realised. To some extent it is a shame that you did not take one of these further during the project to make a moving image piece, rather than starting on something new. In the film credits video you have attempted to realise something elusive about imagination and expectation. This is at a very early stage and it is hard to tell what kind of potential it has. You know your materials and techniques and have no shortage of ideas, which you articulate well in writing, however you appear to have difficulty in pushing an idea forward after the initial exploration. 

You have also made experiments with material objects and processes, integrating the used and the antique with the contemporary. These remain nascent and may feed into the lens based and moving image work which seems to be where your energy lies.

You have made good use of this unit to examine your own process and recognise the value of being more explicit, Moving from idea to idea may be related to your preference to pursue things in a linear fashion. I hope the mind mapping techniques introduced in your dyslexia assessment, will support you to follow through your ideas in more depth.

You show good critical reflection on your thinking and making processes in your evaluation and your MA Journal. Throughout the unit you have been generous in your insightful contributions on the work of other students.

Angela Rogers

Making connections between different activities is constructive for your practice.

What is ‘taking risks’ for you?

Glad you have learnt to be more open about process and seeing the point about being open about process and research.

It is positive that you are working more deeply into old material as I think there is some that could do with stronger resolution and realisation.

You are clearly very articulate in terms of art theory; I think this might hinder your working process. I wonder if you should try a new approach that is driven by materials and a specific process.

Emma Bulley

Mark: 59

Reflection

Rounding up for 2012 and year 2 MA, I realise I had not fully put online previous project evaluation, etc. It is my intention to keep practically everything MA in this blog, and so...

What went well

Progressing from one thing to another, and realising the connections between different activities was constructive. I had different things going on – taking museum photographs, old movie photographs, video projection trials and tin can/material experiments.

Capacity to take risks

I allowed myself to follow ideas and change direction into different ways of exploring my desire to work with old and new materials and ideas together. I am not exactly dealing with memories, but ideas about the past and where it exists, and still exists in the present time.

What did not go so well

I felt a little disconnected at times during the project, that my activities were quite scattered and disjointed, and that I was undertaking several projects rather than one.

Coping with problems

The group communication was patchy, but the organised tutorials and group crits were timely and valuable. Towards the end of the project I was much more aware of the connections rather than the disconnections between my activities.

What learned

I have learned to trust my making process, that although it may seem I am working in different and opposing directions, it leads me to interconnectiveness or integration.

Making process

I am beginning to learn how to be more open about process, and more, am beginning to see the point of being open about process and also research – that it does not necessarily detract from an intended ambiguity, but allows more points of entry and interpretation.

Use of resources

I used and added to my range of available resources – the old movies photos are a continually growing potential. I have viable ideas to develop into practice and pieces, and a stronger resolve and realisation about using old and new material together. I feel this is a significant aspect which, although I have enacted before, have not explained or reasoned in depth.

Personal challenge

My initial challenge had been to finish a piece of work in the project time. I was happy to amend this, as I could see the value of continuing to explore without a deadline. However, as things have turned out, I have now made a piece of moving image using the movie titles, and feel I will seamlessly move in the next project, Studio Practice, using the old movie photos, reconnecting with older work of mine, adding a soundtrack, and being more explicit about sharing a broader range of references and research.

Learned for the future

I hope to remember the value of working without deadline or with a specific piece in mind. Not everything has to be resolved in an artwork – it all feeds in positively and adds to the richness when work is actually produced.

I feel a change coming in the way I organise and order information. Working has lead to research to follow through in more depth – other artists using found footage, Gerhard Richter and other defocused paintings and images, and scientific and optical research on vision and perception.

May 2012