Review and Outline Study Plan

Reflective Practice 2:1

I feel that reflecting over the MA so far could take almost as long to do, but I had been thinking anyway of rereading all notes and tutorials, embedding further points I had made, and also trawling together things still to follow through. Equally, I feel the need to look back further, to previous preMA work. I had a thought, still for me to explore fully, that my recent moving image piece, The Past Future Tense, made more sense of earlier moving image. Through the filter of that piece, I am clearer about understanding and iterating what directions my practice has been travelling for some time.

It’s a sense of deepening, and unpeeling layers of intention.

I recognise the need for timing and pacing of reflection. I know I need to almost take a back seat in my thinking sometimes, get on with other things, allowing thoughts and connections to occur, and allotting time to actively consider and think through conclusions only after time has passed.

I also recognise the value of continuous practice in some areas, but am very aware of my need for variety, and a dislike of resolutions that are embedded with failure – eg, drawing daily is a revealing and productive discipline, but for me must be finite – one month, or for a certain project. Allowing for life, and tending towards drawing every day for a certain time, avoids the immobility of failure, and creates a structure around intention.

Study/Practice Plan

I am drawn this year to make another large scale piece of moving image, using a drawing discipline, layers of media, and sound. More than a variation of the last piece, I will examine or subvert some of the ideas underpinning previous work. I may combine drawing and video footage. This piece will take several months to complete, and encompass several media. I work better in having a focus to my practice and a complex puzzle to solve.

I am going to deepen areas of research from MA year 2 in drawing, drawing practice and creativity. I have an involvement growing with a dyslexic writers’ publisher, RASP, http://r-a-s-p.co.uk/ , who are also doing research into creativity, especially with the dyslexic mind. I have the opportunity to develop workshops and add my involvement to their research.

I am especially drawn to making and exploring sound pieces at the moment. I have ideas clarifying about minimalist music which I will research further as I also make work. I have started making a piece, which I would like to develop through to exhibition and research along the way. It is 24 hour Sibelius, where I have playing all seven symphonies of Sibelius over 24 hours. There are many technical decisions to be explored about pitch, silences, reverberations, etc. Of course it strongly references Douglas Gordon’s 24 Hour Psycho, and briefly, my idea is that it does to music what Gordon’s piece did for film – isolating and abstracting the elements. Also Christian Marclay’s The Clock. There is other technical and cultural research involved – Sibelius is a composer often used as something of convention amongst classical musicians.

Research about music and acoustics. I am able to get past my background as a musician which inhibits me a little in feeling that such knowledge should be proper and accurate. I am allowing myself to glean the sense and utilise my instinct in isolating meaningful parts of music, without fully grasping and analysing the musical theory.

Reflection

My overall reflection of the MA so far is that I have become much more involved in different areas of the artworld, and I have a much better idea of how it all works and how to find a place within it. In my practice I now totally see the point of sharing where my ideas have come from. I also have a much better idea about what research actually is – that it does not necessarily have to be dry and ultra accurate, but it is a civilisation built up around ideas, and is all about how I put it together and what connections I make.

Strategy for Reflective Practice 2:1

It will take me a while to read through and reflect on previous MA, but something I will do as I move forward. Reflecting gets embedded by summarising and distilling points until they are principles that can be applied to an approach to work. I feel I have taken on many lessons in this way over years, and is a productive method for me.

I think a constructive way of exploring this is to continue working on my personal art manifesto. It’s both serious and ironic, movable and a discovery of what my intentions are. I find it an effective way of forming ideas into thoughts, and then further clarifying them into words.

I am also going to work through this unit by starting upon a piece of work, and, extending  the methodology of the last Studio Practice unit, reflect and research as I go along, as part of the working process. I feel I can make more direct connections in this method of working now, and that the practice is completely engaging and gives even more opportunities for the work to evolve rather than purely making-led.

27th February 2013