Tutorial Report 37

Date: 27^th October 2014                              Tutor: Caroline Wright

_________________________________________________________________________________

Reflection on outcomes since last tutorial

This tutorial was about my Professional Practice Plan, Artist CV and also any dyslexia issues for assessment. Tracking the progress between the start of the MA and now at the point of leaving is recently different, as beyond the MA there will be new thoughts – I'm looking forward to all the projects to start up and follow through – I've really equipped myself with possibilities. My CV has been a bit stuffed with everything, and my artist CV too scattered – great point about leaving some space for new possibilities – at the moment it looks like I have no time and commitment for exhibitions, as it is not necessarily clear that all those roles and jobs I have built up can be dropped for flexibility. I don’t think I really knew what an artist CV should contain, and what it should omit.

After the tutorial I edited several one page CVs for various roles – artist, tutor, mentor, curator, workshop, notetaker, reviewer – I'm really happy to clarify them, and I think they make much more sense to a reader, and also to myself. Also wrote a research CV which I can build upon after recent intriguing ventures into the world of research possibilities.

Notes to self: The CV should show progression and build upon experiences to higher grade, higher quality roles. Too much on a CV can undermine the point – summarise, consolidate. Some things trump others, so don’t need to add everything. Highlight. Direct.

____________________________________________________________________________

Current projected aims and outcomes

I'm glad I mentioned to CW about another exhibition I was a bit torn about being involved in. The truth is I have felt I do not have the luxury of being selective – it’s either show work or not. CW just pointed out the questions I should ask of the organisers – they have been asking more and more of the artists, with too many unknown variables. I had a good phone call with them later, and it went well to ask some of those questions, from the point of view of actually being a professional artist and not someone too keen to throw my work away. The truth is that compromise is not always a bad work – it is negotiation, but the crunch issue to me that CW pointed out was that I could not be sure there would be an appropriate setting and context to my work. I felt I left it on very good terms with the organisers with a not so jokey idea about a paid commission at some point.

Very apposite that this issue should emerge just at this point, to give me a focus for reassessing my plans and strategies for exhibiting opportunities, and preparing what to question and what to ask for. Notes to self: Fee for work, for exhibition, who are the other artists, who will be invited, who can I invite, what is the context, will the work be shown in appropriate ways, etc.

CW suggested targeting certain opportunities and building up having the choices and selection. It’s true, I really could set up an exhibition and screening, perhaps apply for funding. This time I know how to invite the appropriate people and to follow through, unlike in my exhibition Viewer after my degree in 2007. Again, it’s about building up to higher, better quality, more selective – if at all possible.

________________________________________________________________________________

Discussion and recommendations

For assessment, I will basically follow the same model of previous years, including the folder of backup material – for me it’s a good way of collecting thoughts and making it coherent. I have seen MA shows where a couple of people have produced a printed book of their project – I always hoped if there was time I would do that – I certainly have the material and it would be appropriate to my practice – there’s still time, after more imperative issues have been dealt with. CW also cautioned about quality of said publications, and to employ what every graphic design skills or contacts I may have. Time will tell.

Remember to send the film file to CW as well as the assessment email to check.

The PPP page of assessment – condense to a series of aims, like an exit strategy from the MA towards the next couple of years. Perhaps add some key dates for a sense of a timed journey.

Reflection

Such a useful tutorial for me – sometimes you have to go through a few years to have a very valuable CV day. I have three weeks to get everything together now before I go to set up in Sheffield. I'm pretty sure I know what to do and what’s involved, and so now all I have to do it keep going, organise and prioritise tasks.

27th October 2014

Tutorial Report 36

Date:     8^th September 2014          Tutor: Angela Rogers

_________________________________________________________________________________

Reflection on outcomes since last tutorial

I had sent a couple of nearly there video samples, one of the old school photos, now called Class of Yesterday, and one layered with Found Paintings – Embedded, which will be the final piece. Also sound which I have identified but not worked on yet – Ellen singing. Also the paragraph outlines for the written contextual commentary which would leave only about 100 words apiece.

____________________________________________________________________________

Current projected aims and outcomes

I have been spending much time working on this – currently Class of Yesterday, and after waves of processing to give myself the palette, now piecing the images together, and checking against Found Paintings. It was great to hear Angela say, unprompted!, that the work is so full of references, with positive and negative, fading, masks, and so on. Of course that is what I have been aiming at and what I see. AR thought it was now all pulling together and that my attention to the process is bearing fruit. Meticulous is such an encouraging word – most of that work is volumatic (not sure if that is a word, but it should be – all about sheer volume), repetitive and mostly invisible. As I come to the stage in making the piece where I am aiming for a kind of perfection, or at least doing whatever the piece requires that I can possibly do, maintaining meticulousness whilst I have to make compromises and choices, is the arbiter of inner judgement.

The obvious reference to Boltanski. I am not signposting work, or labelling intention in his way. In fact, my work is not necessarily a memorial at all – that’s one of many possible interpretations. I could put it this way – in Embedded the positive and negative aspects are equal, as a literal metaphor. People fade away, but the fade in also, perhaps being remembered. We all fade away in time, but my feeling is that we all make a mark and our presence makes a difference in the world, no matter how short nor how remote in time. All these thoughts of mine have been embedded into the piece as I have been making it.

The layers add layers of thought – the paintings, colours, textures – an aesthetic and sensual experience, and adds more information and interpretations – emotional and conceptual. What makes the multiple layering work is rigorousness and thoroughness.

AR discussed more reflection upon my intentions for the piece as I complete – more integrated thoughts. The purpose and value – each work on its own – paintings and photos, but which more dominant, or where is the balance – that’s what I own and control. Apparent in the stills – the framed digital prints, shown in a variety of ways.

Positive and negative within the image stimulates associations – can’t determine people’s responses, perhaps psychological response. Warning of overwhelming with too much stimulation and information – be conscious of refinement. Keep it subtle – reached a fine balance – keep attention to aesthetics. Don’t be seduced into adding more, pull back, what can I take out in finishing?

________________________________________________________________________________

Discussion and recommendations

The projection – keep as unencumbered as possible – I had been thinking of projecting into a blank frame but that directs the interpretation too much – will use a blank board. The lack of physical presence is the impact of the piece. Has the quality of memory.

Also showing on a floor TV. The multiplicity of display – potential to mitigate a heavy emotional impact. I liked Angela’s description of the informality of display. Yes, I am showing in an informal way to show it is one of many possible ways to show, that it would be arranged differently, possibly different stills framed, etc, somewhat responding to the exhibition space. I want to make sure the focus is on the moving image although I am also showing stills. I am fascinated with the reflexive relationship between the stills and moving image.

The Old school photos – class of Yesterday, as I have been working on them, photographing them again and solarising, making them reflective and silvery, positive and negative at the same time, and further with the still I am producing, I am very aware of referencing the entire history of photography, back to glass and metal plates, and daguerreotypes, and want to reflect this further by possibly having one etched in metal. I have been reading/researching about this a bit but have a mountain of blogging to do.

The sound – yet to really work on – have to keep it subtle, and not pull away attention form the work. Perhaps blend in, break it up with other music. The sound can’t be the experience of this work – don’t undermine it – consolidate and build it.(Note: AR emailed she did not understand this comment – what I meant was that the sound can't be the total experience of the work, meaning that it must not overwhelm the visual).

The contextual writing. AR’s earlier writing workshop was great about writing around a thing to get words and phrases out. I think I will write the paragraphs I have identified – very useful anyway. There are overlapping ideas. But AR said the writing is not an essay, so make it your own and satisfying – it can be lyrical, have character.

Reflection

It’s quite difficult to update colleagues of progress of piece as there is so much subtle processing, and not so subtle, so it was good to be able to get together a near sample to send, and hear AR say what I hoped and intended was in the piece. Anyway, compromises, in a positive sense of choice, now have to be made in completing the piece.  

10th September 2014                                                                  

Nick Bodimeade Lecture Commercial Art

Tutorial Report 35 Emily Richardson

Date:     21^st July 2014                                Tutor: Emily Richardson

_________________________________________________________________________________

Reflection on outcomes since last tutorial

I had sent Emily links to update work since previous tutorial in January. The final project is considerably more defined, so the tutorial was largely a discussion of progress towards completion.

____________________________________________________________________________

Current projected aims and outcomes

Talk about the aspect of the past and nostalgia, and how I have written in the blog about clarifying that the piece is not just about the past – however, it’s best not to resist the past, and embrace it, not excuse it. The past always is a critique of the present, and how we interpret it. In my work there is a mixture of analogue and digital processes, bringing the past to the present. I work with stills and video at different stages, in and out of the computer, printing, and so on. In a time of digital compositing, I do real rather than digital special effect, even though my darkroom is basically digital. Talked about how I have always wanted to avoid making work that can be easily aged – almost a futile pursuit (digital video, etc), and how I am more open to the idea now, especially in considering the sound.

Discussed the idea of having another layer, where I film a figure form the photo fluttering in the wind – added to the rest it is that original third idea of some other movement happening, a little towards the implied narrative. I’ve been wondering if this might fit or be too much, only trials will tell, but on talking about it, I have become more convinced about making it work. Another moving element like this could bring the work to life – if Emily says it will bring it to the next level, I’m going to go with that. Although the pace of the work so far becomes less regular because of the differences in visual tone in the images, and so they have different blending effects, they are almost rigidly uniform in making and processing. I like what happens when I put the images together, making the patterns of change more irregular, and adding the layer of wind movement allows me to add elements of seeming randomness which still retaining the integral codification. This movement is like breaking the surface of the work, giving the viewer something else to work out.

Having some focus in the one differently moving figure adds focus for the viewer, as if they are that voice which is singing, or has something to do with it. It potentially sets up a relationship between the singing voice, the image and the viewer. Talked through the sound and that relationship with times co-existing, my mother, myself, my son.

________________________________________________________________________________

Discussion and recommendations

Scale. I am thinking that I will not largely alter the scale, and that the projection and printed still will be towards the originals – fairly intimate.

We discussed technical difficulties – as I stretch the limitations of my computing equipment with large files, etc, and about giving time to plan, trial and rehearse all technical aspects of the installation, including sound and speakers. I have my own projector and so can set it up, but ensure to account for height and people’s heads, etc. It would be a good idea to set up in the same sized space as the gallery, to deal with any physical limitation.

Since I last talked to Emily I had the PhD interview. Talked about reapplying and having a break from the MA – I probably have at least a year’s worth of things to follow through after, especially in getting work seen. Using the momentum.

Reflection

I have had to make some early decisions about the final piece because of the size, but like in a big abstract painting, changes and touches are still very possible – I’m still making.

22nd July 2014

Angela Rogers & Caroline Wright Presentations

Angela Rogers

I was struck by the clarity of Angela's presentation. I am very aware Angela has a PhD on her Drawing Dialogues project, and that everything she mentions is backed up with research and all the fancy language you might like. Yet presentation is clear for artists and civilians alike, really engaging and understandable.

I think, without checking, that artist academics do not tend to have a separate artist and research statements, perhaps because their art activity tends to merge into their research.

27th August 2014

Tutorial Report 34 Sarah Lundy

Date:     16^th June 2014                              Tutor: Sarah Lundy

_________________________________________________________________________________

Reflection on outcomes since last tutorial

Sarah and I had recently worked together in the making day, so she had seen my latest version of final project progress, and what I had said about that.

____________________________________________________________________________

Current projected aims and outcomes

Talked about being currently a little tongue-tied about work in progress, words beyond what is going on in work. Sarah noted that contemporary art is based in theory, and so artists will always have to relate the theory to practice.

The video plays on the subconscious – always links to itself, always validation. Somehow want to grasp the source and origin, somehow want to grasp where the knowledge comes from.

The faces – talked about physiognomy and reading character and personality, what you think you can tell from facial features. Also noted some of the odd looking teachers and things that seem to get bred out over generations – aesthetic of the ‘20’s, 30’s. Transformational, generational. Modes of how to incorporate opposites in the work.

Talked about the neutrality of dealing with the images for more resonance – dealing  with a broader esoteric concept, and so a technical approach now. The narrative is inherent in the picture.

________________________________________________________________________________

Discussion and recommendations

Discussed the fact that the faces are all looking out at the viewer, and so it is the viewer being watched, feeling like a goldfish moment. Of course that is true, but I haven’t thought about that yet – relate to previous works with eyes.

Reflection

Sarah picks up the parts I want to talk about – the psychological reveal of the morphing facial features. We talked about how anyone can relate to images of the past – own family or not – we all have a certain relationship to the past, and lined-up school photos have been practically a universal experience in our culture for a couple of centuries. I note that this work is not all necessarily about the past – just because those photos are old.

14th July 2014

Tutorial Report 33 Les Bicknell

Date:     16^th June 2014                                Tutor: Les Bicknell

_________________________________________________________________________________

Reflection on outcomes since last tutorial

Had sent Les a few links, up to date with project including making day trials.

____________________________________________________________________________

Current projected aims and outcomes

Discussed issues of projection, and its mediating qualities. How to achieve moving image with the collateral damage of objectness. Since the piece works like a memory, Les imagined it with the projector  and cables, etc, out of sight. Suggested it happening in space – hanging thick paper or material by fishing wire in the middle of the gallery, and projecting each layer, so that the audience intervenes, but layers continue – floating in space, peeling of layers. Material with stiffened top, not sagging. Using two projectors, so combining image into one – could play infinite variations, showing layers separately.

Looking at the bookness. The images could theoretically be shown or rearranged in any order. Les asked about the specificness of school/memory/change, and that the buildings are inhabited at that time. The paint is also specific of space and suggests schools, blackboards, coat pegs, chalk, etc – to his eye. I am not planning to further highlight or place the images, or to specify a school reference. Les asked about references to Botanski work. I clearly see the parallels, but the differences lie in labelling and neutrality – Botanski clearly directs and labels faces to be seen and interpreted in a certain way – memorial, tragedy, loss, etc, whereas now that I have my images, I am aiming for a neutrality in how I deal with them, not directing the interpretation. Because of the material, I am consciously avoiding a World At War treatment. The narrative is independent of school – I see the photos as very revealing of character, even though it is such a small moment of time.

Talked about the pace of transitions. Les imagines something incredibly slow where you are not sure of the changes – Fischli and Weiss. (That’s another piece). I think of the moment as fluttering, it comes and goes.

________________________________________________________________________________

Discussion and recommendations

Discussed what sound I propose – layered, high, alpine classical music, to start with. Grieg. I seem to know what I am doing!

Reflection

I was trying to scribble down as much as possible because Les uses phrases that are good to ponder and to steal for work! I could see that he was testing some concepts against my thinking, and I really value some of those new avenues. Some of the suggestions – ways of projecting, etc, have led me to my own and different decisions about how to show the finished work. I realised that my work is always exploring the relationships between still and moving images, all through the process of making. I always complete with producing stills as part of the work, but I have never come up with a good way of incorporating that, but this tutorial lead me to a brainwave, and so I will be showing types of stills alongside the projection.

Hi Eleanor
- the sound.... I think we will all be in tears - what a treasure - you are wise to of recorded it 
- the face with the drying is the beginning of something - I went straight to Becket but this is not necessarily right 
- with the projection - the multiple possibilities are further enhanced by the many reflections off every surface around the projection 
thanks for all this 
your written reflection on the tutorial was very thoughtful - all is well - I have passed it onto Caroline.
Les

14th July 2014

Tutorial Report 32 James Kowacz

Date:   15^th June 2014                Tutor: James Kowacz

_________________________________________________________________________________

Reflection on outcomes since last tutorial

Last worked with James during Task 4 Personal Practice and Career Development, and last talked about work quite a while ago. Had sent him a few links for current work, and also pertinent trials from recent making day.

____________________________________________________________________________

Current projected aims and outcomes

Discussed the found paintings – the variety of colours, patterns, textures, and how that made it possible to view them in different ways. James noted the slightly blurred bits in some and suggested they work less well (Blurring happens during merging). He asked did that matter to me – I have seen the overall effect, and like that variety, thinking also a shade of Gerhard Richter slightly blurred paintings. James could see other artists suggested in paintings, and that I have framed them to be like that – they could be independent artworks.

Talked about the white layer film sample – questions scale, if large, could get lost in a dream-like state, like staring at clouds. Induces a certain state of mindfulness – increasing awareness of textures, etc. Suggested slower transitions (!)

Asked about the colour ideas, I explained matching like with like, so roughly colour palettes together.

Looked at the photos clip – James found them creepy and disturbing, that he could not focus on a single person – not clear enough to convince himself he could see them. Ambiguous shapes, so don’t know what he is looking at – an uneasy ghostly feel – old photos/grandparents – familiar to all. Hovering within image- still/moving? Uncertain whether see image or shadow.

________________________________________________________________________________

Discussion and recommendations

Sound. Discussed sounds lower than the human ear can hear. Sarah Angliss, Roddy Skeaping http://www.sarahangliss.com/extras/Infrasonic/whoweare.htm Chapter from –Experiment: Conversations in Art and Science – another book to get. Psychological effects of infrasound. Soundless music. Church organs – 64’ – Liverpool? This subliminal sound is right up my street. Sound – it can split the video up, help the viewer’s attention, build and fall tension and emotion, divide into sections – it gives the video narrative.

Discussed my dilemmas about installation – don’t want to squander the opportunity by being too bare, but don’t want too elaborate a set up to take anything away from the moving image itself. No right answer. Issues of sound leakage in gallery choices. The work – hovering between reality and non reality – colours could be blood, holes could be from bullets, etc, but that narrative, interpretation is James’ imagination… Decided to try some contemporary school photos just to test effects/ contrasts, if it works and if the photos have to be drawn from the past.

Reflection

Great to talk over ideas with James, and that he could interpret the effects and suggestions I am after.  Some aspects of this final project are as yet difficult to put into words – I always had the found paintings and the school photos in mind, and knew that they would merge, and that process is still continuing, but I am still far from saying why I chose them and why they are together. As I make the work, I plan that it will inform me, as ideas mesh, and more themes and connections emerge. I guess it’s to and from between me and the work.

14th July 2014

Appropriation and Postroduction

Asynchronous Seminar June 2014

“Since the early nineties, an ever increasing number of artworks have been created on the basis of preexisting works; more and more artists interpret, reproduce, re-exhibit, or use works made by others or available cultural products. This art of postproduction seems to respond to the proliferating chaos of global culture in the information age, which is characterized by an increase in the supply of works and the art world’s annexation of forms ignored or disdained until now.”

Bourriaud N.(2002) Postproduction, Culture As Screenplay: How Art Reprograms the World, New York, Sternberg Press.

In the introduction to the small book Postproduction, Culture As Screenplay: How Art Reprograms the World, Nicholas Bourriaud asserts that the material used by artists is no longer primary, that it is not raw matter but instead there is a cultural market where objects are already pre-informed. We can claim that nothing is new but where does originality, creation and innovation and ethics sit in Bourriaud’s and our world? How much of this assertion is fuelled by the internet and has the mixing up of materials created a new space for art?

....

An interesting discussion and contributions from the group. This is my tuppenceworth:

I would say that nothing has been new for artists for a long time, and that since, say, the early 20th century, art has often been a comment to interpret, reproduce, re-exhibit, or use works made by others or available cultural products.
Although I admire much work which refers to others, the instinctive, uneducated part of me has always found that essentially rather boring, as if the artist has nothing to say for themselves, and can only quote and requote things said by others. Especially since the '90's, this reworking has been something of a shorthand to credibility.
In this strange artworld which seems so often seems to depend upon layers of dubious endorsement, the perceived cleverness of reworking and updating previous artists ideas seems to prove its value, worth and intellectual depth.
Since referencing and knowledge is unavoidable, and part of the cultural continuum, itis clearly a valid stream of practice to work this way, but I sometimes feel cheated by it, duped, as if I have to accept that it is brilliant because it is adding a comment to a novel by someone else. I'm thinking Chapman brothers.
We live with such cultural treasure, and appropriated work seems to me to be most successful in video, eg Christian Marclay The Clock or Elizabeth Price The Woolworths Choir of 1979.
Something about authenticity and integrity is the key.
…………………….

Artists imagine or reimagine.
Some artists seem to recycle others' thoughts and insights, because they get them or are into them - Jeremy Deller sometimes talks like that and comes across as a recycler of other ideas.
What of the artist's vision?
It's not exactly an artist's job to imagine something never imagined before, but perhaps to have a unique view or combination of thoughts, which manifest as a culturally rich idea.
Where do the ideas, images and thoughts come from?
There's nothing new in the world, and yet new interpretations spring up all the time.
I think it's all about that balance of reworking and reiterating other artists, or adding a completely new and individual interpretation.
…………………….

Like Jennifer I also look at my work as if it is found during certain stages of working and completing a piece. It's like that attempt to see it with fresh eyes, and to see it for what it is.
Amelia picks up the big danger of appropriated work - how to tell it apart from everything else, and how to guess the artist's intention. Sometimes it's new, sometimes it seems lazy or glib.
I rather like the layers of reinterpretations and additions which have been given to certain works, like the Mona Lisa having a moustache or smoking a pipe. When that first happened in the late 19th century (don't quote me!) it was radical and new, and now it is a bit of a joke, although a good one, to update or subvert the image. Equally, Duchamp's urinal has been made by other artists to new effect - in glass, in gold, and so on, adding layers of meaning.
It's easier to see why significant works must be reappropriated and reinterpreted by new generations when looking at literature, like all the spinoffs from Shakespeare which just add richness to the original - Rosencrantz and Gildernstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard, and Desdemona by Toni Morrison. We don't seem to do that in art so much, although surely we are dealing with the same big human themes.
……………………………..

I like the ideas in Amelia's post, about reusing some of Matisse's cut outs, and remaking other works. Intriguing proposition.
But of course, all art work degrades - paintings are not as they were when fresh, video, tape, and film degrade, digital media corrupts and loses its integrity.
Paper, textiles, fabrics, wood, paint surfaces, everything is subject to change over time.
Even recent works become yellowed.
All art is ephemeral in the end, the only difference is timescale.
Do we make work so that it might last forever, so that it might last as least as long as we live.
I'm reminded of engraved granite gravestones which look startlingly fresh, and will probably outlast all others as the stone fades over centuries.
Like everything else, we have to let our art go, and we can't determine its lifetime in any form.
………………………

14th July 2014

Research Process and Practice Les Bicknell

Seminar 10th February 2014

http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/research-process-and-practice-final-year-10-2-14-30842878

Reflective practice
Build reference point
Inform / support practice
Not work in vacuum
Ask a lot of questions
Exchange / people / values - choose carefully
Context
Why make work
Work / entertainment / understanding / money?
What is the work for - world
Questions - of work and of self
A practice is a hierarchy of ideas
Eg book, sequence - concentric circle of ideas
Where is work to go - galleries - where in public
Sense of intervention / politics?
Who are the audience?
Like-minded people?
Or changing / political / social tool?
Gallery?
Kind of work - conversations
Build connections
Art history / science / music / writing, etc
Doesn't have to be informed by other art
Impose other practices into art practice
Space informing making
Writers / novels, etc
Mapping ideas / diagram
Overlapping, Venn diagram
Some does /  does not inform practice
Map out influences
Actually different shapes - particular influences, different sizes
Contextual framework - own practice
Different factors intervene
People that relate to my work - what do they bring - context
Political. Advocacy / activist or subject matter
Actively using work?
personal - about you?
Drives - own audience - motives / skills
Critical / theoretical - explore particular idea - body of knowledge
Writer, philosopher, artist
Context or else vacuum
historical - related to history
what is our time?
Technical
Geographical
Where is work?
USP - what makes it you
Live local, work international
Place informs making - institutional
MA / family / backgrounds
Cultural, other categories
Mapping practice - other contexts
Wobbly map
Sometimes more or less current
Can identify what doing and perhaps gaps to do
If you don't know where you're going, how can you know when you get there.
Surround a problem in order to solve it
Reflect inwards into practice
Any road will get you there
Not answers but exploring the question
Martin Creed - Half the Space
Audience make space - slight participation
Look at from all those contexts
About the body?
Analyse and deconstruct each from various criteria / context
Highly aware
Artist Breath- Manzoni
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/manzoni-artists-breath-t07589
Louise Bourgeois - Insomnia Drawings
http://thisistomorrow.info/articles/louise-bourgeois
What links - by simple shape? Graphic? Sense of activity?
Or circuitous rout between A and B
View work - Social, Political, Geographical, Critical, Theoretical, Cultural, Economic, Personal, Historical

Conversation Eleanor, Jennifer, Sarah
Geographical
E -major city.access to exhibitions, libraries. making work in own space.
J - micro / macro, studio / space issues, shifting / storage, send work or self
S - important to practice, always rural - beginning to feature, setting up new structures,
Connections, relationships, mobile, opportunities to share work

Political
E - oblique, apolitical, related, indirect
J - not overtly political, interaction and consumption
S - Partly political / funding, opportunities, subliminal

If a different view, political agenda

Engaging with audience - show
Loss of quality - viral image online
Fit structure work in
Invite certain people - salon experience, particular audience
Interested in engaging with audience?
Gallery - exhibition audience
How exchange ideas - conduit
E - work is only completed when it is exhibited. It is finished when I have thought through the installation
Positive / negative responses - inhibit / reward
Not about judging work, but about response

Political - work more open ended, not told what to think
Medium for activism
Role
Other gaps?
Submission fees - economics, policies
Fees - small business, loss leaders, overheads
Position in market
Business concepts - art
Brand / money
Building project rather that open submissions - using skills
Having a plan - knowing why
Money and not money projects
Place where work makes most sense to most people

Geography - emotional / psycho geography
Physical space
Work compromised by space
Strengths and weaknesses in practice
Creative solutions
Not ideal work space - make it positive
Traditional studio? New ways - laptop, etc
A Room of One's Own, Virginia wolf - still relevant
Geography / physical space / economic
Generate £ for space?
Work for £ for space
Economics of space
Understand own need for space
Theoretical / critical thinking
How actually informed making work
Reading -
How important that audience knows those ideas?
Giving my ideas a language
titles - duality
Multi-layered meanings Damien Hirst
Cornelia Parker - role of title / duality
One illuminating the other
From writing / research / critical thinking
Role of audience in understanding
Many layers of interpretations, readings
Provide entry points
Opens up responses to work
This MA - meta thinking - Institution - how informed?
Metacognition is defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about knowing". It comes from the root word "meta", meaning beyond.It can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or for problem solving. There are generally two components of metacognition: knowledge about cognition, and regulation of cognition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metacognition
Blog, exposure, challenge of openness
Durational relationship - 4 years
Relationship with institutions

Reflection
Yet again a thorough and generous talk form Les Bicknell, and a great resource of notes.
Seems like a fruitful and essential exercise to do this, and repeat occasionally:

• Comment on and deconstruct my practice through those various criteria
• Describe my practice, my ideas, through these viewpoints

Social
Political
Geographical
Critical
Theoretical
Cultural
Economic
Personal
Historical

• Systems to find audiences, think through and put in place

• Define, map practice - blind spots

• Interconnectivity of all those elements

Produces text and language - prepared

16th April 2014

Tutorial Report 31

Date: 27th January 2014  Tutor:  Caroline Wright
_________________________________________________________________________________

Reflection on outcomes since last tutorial 

My updated final exhibition proposal is now much better – crossed referenced bibliography, towards a more seamless osmosis of visual / reading / making. It’s about linking ideas. Caroline suggests making the reading list wider, having the luxury of including other artforms, so novels, music, etc, perhaps the Sibelius Symphonies. Influence and material is wide.
____________________________________________________________________________

Current projected aims and outcomes

Discussed finding the inner coding or structure of each piece of work. Previous project The Future Past Tense especially, with discipline of one hour daily drawing to create piece – looking for something for current project. (MA James using Vine). Caroline said it disciplines the material, especially in potentially infinitely expanding project, collection of material, issues, etc. It gives a structure to work within.

I always think of this as an equation, and solving it is making and resolving the work. This is what I am considering now – the initial decision about numbers, time, contents, quantity – perhaps dictated by the numbers in the school groups, etc. Related to the minutes, seconds. So many children lost, lives lost – link to missing persons now? Something like that. It’s the next thing to consider. Then the project can get deeper.
http://eleanormacfarlane.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/codification.html

________________________________________________________________________________

Discussion and recommendations

Discussed uncovering the ideas about why particular pieces of music are chosen, eg the Sibelius. Sure enough, there is a lot I can write about that, and I see the point – where does it come from, why this piece, what are the connections, links, etc.
http://eleanormacfarlane.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/where-music-comes-from.html

Elizabeth Price piece on at the moment at the Whitechapel Gallery – AT THE HOUSE OF MR X.
http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/artists-film-international-elizabeth-price

Complex choral music – sounds / words – perhaps uneven? Earlier work 2007.
Update exhibition proposal with wider references, music, novels, etc, by 31st Jan – ie soon.

Reflection

I know my MA proposal benefited from the process of writing the PhD proposal. I am getting to the process of uncovering and unpacking where my ideas come from, and then locating them somehow in literature. Summarising the literature, even a little, helps. A few words describing them in my bibliography helps me to link the ideas, and create a web or framework of the project. Also helps to see gaps to fill, to explore further, or to rebalance into what I intend. It also helps to solidify and identify my ideas for myself, so that I can look at them more objectively.

30th January 2014

Writing Seminar

27th January 2014

Angela led this very creative writing seminar.
Started with guessing estimates of writing 4,000 - 6,000 words in pages - 11 pages - @ 10 pt / 1.5 sp.
It's a pragmatic approach - add illustrations, biography, etc, but gives a feel for the project.

Writing exercises, a few minutes to scribble:

Metaphors

Car
I am a car, a classic toy car. Dinky, if you will. Probably crafted in some golden toytown age of Janet and John, with proper materials and colours that don't exist any more - tin green, sky blue.

Cake
I am a cake I once saw in a children's book, about to be devoured by friendly, hungry bears. I am an impossible construction, all layers of fun.

House
I am a secret house with hidden passageways, open to those who seek. I build myself over years and centuries.

Holiday
Seagulls in an unfeasible seaside, like a Poirot set.

Working with metaphors - generating ideas.
New ways to describe artworks, etc.

Transposing Style

Dear John / Limerick

You once were a wonderful lover
But now you're a bore and a bother
It never was true
It's not me, it's you
I'm leaving you now for your brother

Livening up language.
Writing for different purposes.
Adapt different styles - flexibility.

Venn diagrams - planning writing - including/excluding subjects.

MA/PhD
moving image - history artists bibliography novels music composers gavin bryars sibelius phase music abstract minimalism painters archive barthes elkins lost found photograph philosophy making sontag ideas culture science

Gives clarity of not dealing  with some aspects - having a space for them.
Could actually cut out confusing things - rearrange.
Repeat Venn diagram at different points.
Use for small details of a project.

Structure - Hooks and Pegs

13th March 2014

.........................................

Structure - Hooks and Pegs.
Hierarchy - key ideas, images
Vertical view
Birdseye view
Mindmap
Key idea
Phase music/video
Supporting ideas
My idea of / use / aim
Minimalism - Gavin Bryars, John Cage, Steve Reich
Women musicians
What is: definitions
Moving image artists, phase-like work - examples?

Key idea
Video projection
Supporting ideas
Screen, projection
More extreme examples
Artists
My take
Subverting screen - Flexibility, Subtelty
Sense of space creation
Philosophy of curation, etc

Date, keep and repeat these at different times.

Rather than what do I already know about it - what comes to mind.
Where does this idea come from
This helps me unpacking ideas much more!

Phase - 60 words
Repetition and repeating, like a loop and yet it cycles and spirals. It's actually different, it gradually becomes less the same, until it shows you every shade of it.
Familiar, each time sounding a little different, and the noises are music. Each frame a new shadow, not like before, but it draws you in to thinking this familiar, place sounds new, looks tonal.

Dividing up word count.
Aid / strategy
Keep in mind structure rather than massive word count to edit.
Build up notes to explain writing- contain.

Introduction - a context - set up what will say
Current position - theories
Current work - saying what not dealing with, showing limits of research
Explain why taking an approach
A rationale, where coming from
Why chose themes and ideas
Sense of the critique - let people know motivations
Signpost for reader

Relational aesthetics

Relational art or relational aesthetics is a mode or tendency in fine art practice originally observed and highlighted by French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud. Bourriaud defined the approach as "a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space."The artist can be more accurately viewed as the "catalyst" in relational art, rather than being at the centre.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_art

Intention
What do you want to do when you write.
For reader - offer:
intrigue justify seduce digress guide delight
Get rigorous with this
Style, intention → purpose
Agenda →
Sometimes what we are naturally drawn to does not fit purpose - have to discipline to purpose, and not seduce self with writing.

Metaphor
Writing - journey / dinner party - approaches
Helps to own the writing

Writer's voice

Joanne Harris
Carol Shields - both very skilled in changing entire book retrospectively just at the end, subtlety
John Buchan - straightforward, exciting
James Elkins
Roland Barthes - both personable thinking of art concepts
Amy Tan - relating worlds together
Daphne Du Maurier - skilled.

Reveals how would like to write - aspirational
Strategy - write in their voice / own voice

I picked up a piece of paper
The letter had been

Roland Barthesesque:
When I look at this photograph now, I am again that little girl, sun in her eyes, squinting at the box camera my father is holding. He makes me wait for a moment, holding me in that time. Then the world was a big place, as big as my child's book of knowledge, and time was forever. Now that moment in time, suspended forever in my smile, is far away in an untouchable past.

Abstract
Perhaps the abstract is always like the far end of a sculpture, the dark side of the moon. We think we know, but we are imagining. Further, we are imagining as sculpture or moon which has no shape or form. A colour we invent in between purple and green. the feeling of creamy cloud. the abstract is a passageway into the unfamiliar through the vaguely familiar.

Flowing informed identity voice
Personality communicating ideas.

Reading / rewriting
Quotation - has to make a contribution - related.
Writing by hand - quality of thinking, speed and flexibility.
Writing for artists, writing your art.

Reflection

This was a remarkable and enjoyable workshop, and one to revisit many times. There are very useful exercises about focussing upon various thoughts and points, expanding and unpacking them. It's a method of discovering what is really within thoughts, giving them a form, and a language.

16th April 2014

................................................................................

Angela's Workshop Notes

Writing Workshop 50/50 option

Contextual Study of 4000 – 6000 words

Explores a subject connected to your practical work that brings a new depth of thinking to your area of study.

How many pages are 4000-6000 words?

Practical workshop

Metaphor

Write what you would be like if you were something else, e.g a cheese, coffee, cat.

Cheese - crumbly, white, smelly, runny, expensive.

Coffee – large and milky, hot, small and black in an espresso cup, with sugar, cream and whiskey.

Cat – fluffy,  Siamese, a witch’s black cat , a good mouser, fat and lazy, wearing boots.

Try two car, cake, house or holiday.

Transposing style

One thing in the style of another

A lonely hearts advert in the style of map directions.

A Dear John letter as a limerick.

Obituary as an alphabet.

Scientific experiment report as melodrama.

Something worth thinking about

When selecting what you want to write about and the way you want to write, you should make sure you choose a subject that will keep you interested, engaged and committed.  Remember you will be carrying these ideas and images around with your for a period of time. Imagine how you’ll feel spending time with them regularly, sometimes daily. 

Preparing to write – each exercise is a slice in time. It’s useful to repeat them as you build up your writing

Outline your territory

Before you start writing you it is helpful to outline your territory. Think about the areas and boundaries - what you will definitely include, might include and what you will leave out. Think about the larger themes how do these overlap.

Do this with a venn diagram or several lists or another visual device.

Mark Rathmell’s  blog Friends and Enemies

http://markrathmell.wordpress.com/postcards/pictuggre-5082/

Write a sentence that tells someone at an arts event what your research is about.

Structure your ideas: Writing needs hooks and pegs

What are the key triggers/starting places at the moment? What pegs will you begin to hang your writing on? (A hierarchical view)

M.L.Swift’s blog post – a mind map about writing a blog post about mind mapping. (A non-hierarchical bird’s eye view)

http://mlswift.me/tag/mind-map/

Get writing:  Writing is like a muscle it responds well to exercise.

Pencil or pen on paper

1. Take a peg and write 60 words on it. Active voice.

2. Take another peg and write 60 words on it. Active voice.

3. Take another peg and write 60 words on it. Active voice.

Loosely link the three pieces together so you have in 180 words in total.

Using these three pieces as your text write one or two sentences as an outline conclusion and an outline title.

Structuring your essay or dissertation

Think about your introduction, your 3 sections and your conclusion as the beginning of a piece of writing.

Intention: What do want to do when you write?

                                                           Compare  Analyse   

                   

     Contrast      Unpick    Synthesise

              Inform       

     Seduce             Delight       Entice                 

          Analyse       Simplify      Encourage

               Interest           Lead

             

          Link      Relate   Interrogate

  

     Define        Introduce           Present

Describe               

                        Signpost            Discuss

          Announce      Attack

 

              Guide              Digress       Illustrate

Intrigue                Please Reveal

            

              Shock   Impress    Outrage

     Defend        Justify            Examine

                             Explain               Evaluate

                        Declaim

A dinner party or a walk through the woods?

Think about the experience you want to offer.

Find a metaphor.

Whose voices do you admire?

Hemmingway or Collette? Will Self or Jeannette Winterson?

Write down the writers you admire. What is it that engages you or makes you want to read them?

With the above in mind review your 60 word pieces.

Feedback

Analyse their writing. What are they doing?

Write about something you did today in their voice.

Adopt that voice to write about something more important.

Reading, writing and rewriting is how you think, sharpen up your ideas and communicate more clearly.

Don’t rush at a piece of writing all at once, Build up your writing bit by bit, it’s incremental. Remember writing is a craft, you will rework most of what you write, cutting and pasting as you become clearer.

At the start – Flow and expansion

Think about a set up for writing. Explore what materials and methods help you relax and let your thoughts flow.

Soft pencil, pen, lap top.

Plain paper, lined paper.

Single sided.

Spaces for notes, in margin.

Spaces or symbols for words that you can’t think of.

Don’t worry about spelling.

Just make notes of references you want to use, don’t spend a lot of time copying them out at this stage. Also you can become attached to a reference and it can limit your exploration. Don’t fit your writing around a reference.

Transpose on to lap top.

Make only a few changes.

Big line spaces and margins for notes.

Print it out, read and make notes.

Rewrite incorporating your notes.

Review your quotes and references.

Near the end – Refinement.

Rereading to edit, read out loud, it may help to print it out.

Edit 1         Cut out waffle, tighten up parts that are clumsy

Rewriting

Edit 2         Check grammar and spelling

                    Notice repeats of words and use a thesaurus to find alternatives

Rewriting

Edit 3          Be objective, look out for colloquialisms or tub-thumping

                     Refine your writing, where do you need to be more clear or subtle?

Rewriting

Give it to someone else to read. 

Tutorial Report 30 Emily Richardson

Date:     10^th January 2014                             Tutor:  Emily Richardson

_________________________________________________________________________________

Reflection on outcomes since last tutorial

It felt like a privilege to have a whole hour tutorial, to talk about work, study, moving image and exhibition and project issues. Emily is doing a PhD at the RCA, so we talked a bit about that and my PhD proposal, about the difficulty of articulating those ideas into words - in fact, my initial proposal was going to about that - artists writing and translating their thoughts into words as well as art - it has refined into something more specific. We start off in the wordless places. Discussed doing a PhD as a way into becoming a practising artist with funded projects in archives, residencies, etc.

Discussed my work - Construction, The Future Past Tense, 24 Hour Sibelius, final project found paintings and layers of people. Construction - trapped and claustrophobic, muffled sound as if on the periphery, separated from the world. Like being confined underwater - an intense experience. Discussed how making work within the MA is like going down particular pathways of work very far, so not necessarily representative of entire practice. Her MA gave her years of material to work through - I can understand that. 24 Hour Sibelius - intense experience, the music shifting and changing - constantly shifting from expectations - also sound in The Future Past Tense - mesmeric. The experience of the viewer having their own thoughts during the abstract shifts in TFPT - thinking of the sea, space, etc.

Making work - the internal structure or form emerges during the making process, and then you have to obey it! By following the internal rationale while making, the viewer is given a structure against their expectations, and is free to employ their imagination while also experiencing something which follows its own logic.

____________________________________________________________________________

Current projected aims and outcomes

Discussed using appropriated imagery. I discussed what I am aiming for in moving image, especially in the final project and what work I hope to make once I am "free" of the MA, and making work using all elements of practice. The imagined narrative - or implied narrative. Discussed the works I admire using this - The Clock, earlier works by Matthias Muller, etc, also work of Elizabeth Price. Yes, that's it exactly - eg in Woolworth film, Price uses the gesture as the link between clips. In a way I want to make the layers of work, and then link them together as if they were found footage or appropriated imagery, and find a gesture, an object, a concept or something to link them together so that they form a new construct, not how they were originally conceived or made. I think this sideways views creates the imagined narrative I'm thinking of. For example - currently I'm thinking of linking the people in my old school photos through eye contact they seem to make with each other through different photographs. Or their boots. Something like that. Creating a structured serendipity.

http://eleanormacfarlane.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/old-school-photos.html

Came onto talking about the ethics of using appropriated imagery, or ideas in archive photographs for other more abstract purposes. For example, recently I did some research in the Weiner Library, making abstract links between my photographs and sensitive material. Of course it's valid but it has to be done with integrity and thought through.

http://eleanormacfarlane.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/the-weiner-library-archive.html

http://eleanormacfarlane.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/ethics-of-archive-material.html

________________________________________________________________________________

Discussion and recommendations

Moving image artist Stan Brakhage - painting and found materials directly onto film. Direct link to the subconscious through peripheral vision. Non narrative - film as art form.

http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/272-by-brakhage-the-act-of-seeing

Ubuweb

http://www.ubuweb.tv/

LUX, of course.

http://lux.org.uk/

British Artists Film and Video Collection

http://www.studycollection.org.uk/

In fact I was there the other night for a book launch and got to go into the archive.

http://www.studycollection.org.uk/content/2013/12/16/open-evening-and-a-history-of-video-art-book-launch

Basically it's time to go to these archives and explore them more.There's nothing like browsing shelves to make discoveries. Discussed that disadvantage of distance learning - access to browsing library shelves.

Showing work - mine hard to place, showing less. Luck and persistence in applying. Looking for context to fit - galleries, curators etc. Beyond the MA. Selling prints and DVDs - Emily had a grant to print and commission an essay - worked with LUX. Now changing, more streaming, etc.

Reflection

It's not that I'm basically paranoid, but in other more academic tutorials, responses can be challenging, omissions pointed out, suggestions made - I don't mind that, but throughout talking to Emily I was aware how great it was to have someone who believed what I was saying to them!

Funny how artists and people do so many things different ways round - when to have children, study, do PhDs, get married, and so on. It constantly feels like being at the beginning of something.

19th January 2014

Tutorial Report 29

Date: 9th December 2013            Tutor:  Angela Rogers
_________________________________________________________________________________

Reflection on outcomes since last tutorial

Looking over the draft final exhibition proposal. Still allowing more and new things to emerge.  Working at the Weiner library archive and making conceptual connection with images and the old photos I have – finding that very fruitful. Currently pursuing several parallel bodies of work – how to bring all together – abstracting the elements, simplifying and picking out. Angela reminded that it will be inarticulate if there is too much redundant material – there is still a long way to go before all that. I don’t know yet how things will merge together, but it will.
____________________________________________________________________________

Current projected aims and outcomes

Still to add to research context of other artists, and especially books and texts. Narrow the reading list – not just contemporary.
Extend artists contexts – ask questions as – why this artist, what similar content, different aims and concerns, make comparisons, make clear what it is between them and my practice, why, recognise what it is.
Discussed the implied narrative, perhaps making a visual connection between the characters – with clothing or implied eye contact, etc.  and my belief that my work is better with a human element – it’s a grounding or connection. Brings a dimension of feeling, heart – not too clunky or obvious, but I have found people relate to the human element – almost subliminally, even quite a transparent layer.
The final exhibition – having too much installation? Set up the encounter, the exhibition environment. The nature of the encounter. I think this means I should really consider this and go for it if appropriate. It’s the chance to.
________________________________________________________________________________

Discussion and recommendations

Simon Watney – writer, aids, art and culture.

http://archives.lse.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=HCA%2FWATNEY

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi

Creativity – shift between emotional/ rational. Sensitive. All oppositional factors. Successful very well versed in domain, but respond / robust. The paradoxical traits of successful creative people.
Towards PhD – Angela may host a session. Thinking about areas of critique, the nature of creativity. Art education – nobody is a good fit, but retrospectively reflecting on experiences thought reading, Q-Art, etc. Most critique during student time, but still needed after.
Talked about I have decided to be more open with work in progress to MA colleagues – beginning to get that now!

Reflection

I felt this was an important tutorial as planning final project. It’s vital I incorporate the research within the project, and Angela clarified for me about other artists –identifying elements I share or differ in practice and content. When it comes to that, it’s straightforward and simple, and always through the focus of my work and aims.

16th December 2013

Unpicking and Rebinding. Les Bicknell

Research, Process and Practice seminar
11th November 2013

http://lesbicknell.blogspot.co.uk/

http://unpickingandrebinding.blogspot.co.uk/

Anatomy of an artist project
Les Bicknell took us through an illustrated tour of his project, from initial ideas and influence through to all the processes in making it happen. What he noticed, was drawn to, linked together.

Commentary and writing on the subject can be a way in.
Funding - making new work in response to objects / archives / collections.
Process, mix of strategy and chance.
Key moments - threshold concepts, metaphors
Defining the project - making specific / diversions - which is the project?
At any moment a diversion can become the work
Connection - theory - categorisation
Working with archivists who think through categorisation - use their structures
When does an object become itself? diff methods
Each object has own unique story - changes with each view
Book changes according to reader
Categorising from '70's less archetypal -
Pitt Rivers - evolution of objects by similarity
Slowly evolving objects
Lessons - you don't know what you don't know -
time to discover, talk to experts, knowledgeable people
A thing is just a thing without a story
Change of materials informs practice
Shift between ways and materials
Conversation with makers of objects through time
Diff spaces - opportunities to show
Institutions may be interested in extending the possibilities
Large interventions
Objects informed by original - shown with new - feed off each other - not pastiche
Sense of order - objects measure lives
Depth of information relating to practice
Sometimes not the work but how artist thinks and works
Define in advance to attract funding - how not to know
Mapping of process through archives
Don't have to say what will be made
But whatever is made will be exhibited, etc
Also workshops, teaching prog etc
Can really do anything, as those working with are not artists

Creating an archive - think of the use of object
Alternative narratives
Step outside of self
Use random systems
Brian Eno Oblique Strategy cards
http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/
Finding text - searching libraries, librarians
Do you know anything about this
Who influenced?
Use bibliographies
There will be seminal text - wade through to find
Scan text - shorter versions to grasp concepts and ideas and for interest
what level of debate
Melvyn Bragg In Our Time - great accessible archive of science, ideas,etc, with experts
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl
If you had to find your project on the internet - what 4 words?
Ernst van Alphen - research in visual arts
http://www.hum.leiden.edu/lucas/organisation/members/alphenejvan.html
Time Ingold - Lines, a brief history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Ingold

Transubstantiation - transforming
Belief in art / objects
Specific reading to a moment in time
Real object in moving image - eg a pixilated tree

The whole process if quite sculptural, like carving a giant block and leaving the interesting bits

Reflection

A very extensive and detailed lecture, specific to one project. Plenty of general principles to apply to others. At once revealing, encouraging and daunting. The process of funding and organising in order to be let free to discover and make work, still seems like a series of hoops.

15th November 2013

Research Sketches Task 1 Seminar

http://eleanormacfarlane.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/task-1-outline-research.html

Some thoughts from the MA group:

Becoming the artist by reframing and reappropriating other people's paintings - by seeing them
What I state for these is that the original is the reproduction, the digital image
The digital process - still painting
Documentation of found paintings?
The choices of framing - art - conceptual control
Interesting debate
Make painterly
Rename - new existence
Definition of a painting being pigment or pigmentation on a surface?
An expanded definition of painting
Something familiar for people to connect to - abstract markings of pigment
Emphasising the eye of the painter, not hand of the painter
Doesn't matter whose hand
Eye in editor and selector
Rauchenberg
Force people to look
Is a painting really its function?
they do everything that an abstract painting does
what is painterly?
Ways of seeing
Texture - always implied
Only ever going to see as I show - untextured
Digital / flat / no scale - a barrier?
An imagined painting
Link - reproduction - Vermeers
Massive or no value
Interesting narrative about it as a fragment.

Reflection

Great to share and glean ideas from the group. After last assessment and other stuff, I am a bit more determined to share work and ideas in progress this year. Raised interesting issues, and actually articulated for me some of the thoughts I'm getting to - especially about making these found paintings through the artists seeing rather than the artist painting. All about seeing, recognising, framing, taking, processing.
My big thought about this is that the original is not the found painting itself, but my image of it. I would not cut the walls and put those parts on display. It's the very lack of texture and substance, and those ideas about the original and reproduction which intrigue me, as well as finding hidden treasures in plain sight.

Amelia
Colour diaries paintings. Different flatness, depth - light to same range
Titles - sayings
Horizontal / vertical - show together? So different!
Following the order - allowing from within.

Sarah
Lines, empty signboards, grids, semiotics
Mushrooms - Heather Barnett - kinetic, mute

Jennifer
Audience invent the film from props, etc.
Mirror audience
Gaming narrative - myth - oral tradition
Always slightly different
Reward based - dripping addiction

Alexa
Recipe book
Image scraps
Figures in space - Bacon - same context
Bookness - relate to narrative but not comprehensive
Process of making images - static / spontaneous
Interchangeable paintings - sequence - structure
stripping away to reveal
So light yet so dark.

Reflection

After three years together, it's great to see everyone's work developing, and to know so well where those ideas have come from, and how they have been formed. Everyone's work is becoming deeper and more interesting, and often still surprising.

14th November 2013

PhD Research - Anna Fox

28th October 2013

Anna Fox
Professor at UCA - photographer.
http://www.research.ucreative.ac.uk/profile/421
Back to the Village - view of Thatcher's Britain, work stations.
Books. publication part of process - design, structure, etc.
Practice-led PhD
Mystery & myth of PhD
Different to grad and postgrad
Strong ides based proposal - can evolve
What the idea is, and why original and timely
Doesn't have to be greatly original - but must be timely
Interpretation of practice led PhD
Practice complements area of enquiry
EG, previously lost archive - make new work in response to, or new method of work
Context of research
What is going on in the field
Other people's work - what is missing - what needs to be done
Must be passionate
Who, where, why PhD
Funding - some insts more than others
1 or 2, poss 3 supervisors
Can choose supervisors from diff institutions
They choose who to spend time with
*Need a research question
First 6 months of PhD- refine and develop the proposal
Consider anticipated applications, potential benefits, impact of your research
Priority will be given to enquiries that transcend individual practices and concerns.
Max 300 words
Why - timing? Tough to go straight from MA to PhD
Better time in between?
Material and commitment
Question - raise questions
Original contribution to knowledge
Question up front - confidence - may evolve
Usually play around with practice
Shock diff between MA and Phd study
Have to be defined
Experimental practice
But writing - about 40,000 words
So quickly define areas, texts, artists, etc, to explore
Already have about 20 relevant writings books, can evolve, but
Informed about area, articulate c. 3 or 4 reasonably well known practitioners
How your work contributes to context
PhD panel - made up of research experts
Not necessarily in your field
Up to 8 people on panel - c. 6 from 6 areas
Therefore must be very clear and not assume knowledge
Special, new innovative
Research context
Precedent - taken further, new ways
New contribution to knowledge
Can be simple. confidence
Introduce context
Introduce research
Clear. Not own work - other practitioners, contemporary and historical, writing - PhD level
Probably very wide frame of references
Very specific issues
Focus on key people to make the point
Rather than plethora of art based responses
The PhD research journey
A struggle - structure, but rewarding
Identify why research relevant now
Why valid, useful, interesting?
Start writing conference papers, proposals
Why intellectual community interested?
Have to be confident about main proposal area
Key areas - starts as list - titles, headings, expand each
Libraries, research, etc
Record process - everything is recorded in PhD
How everything is constructed - even photos
Potentially part of practice
Record the methods of recording
Identify cultural approached
List what and how
Speculation for proposal - a bit ambiguous
Key books and essays - be precise - max 20 titles
Key texts - the most relevant
CV - at least a year
Useful, part of conferences
Submitted proposals even if not yet accepted
Shows aiming for context of PhD work
Exhibitions, etc
Journals, articles, etc
Articulate technical content of image making and thinking
MPhil c. 18 months of PhD
Structure of PhD
Simplest - outlining potential chapter headings
Into - context of study
Subject matter
Case studies
Primary research
Interviews
Own practice - mapping, testing and exploration
Summing up
Thesis
Keeping up with all processes
Enrol PhD - en route pass MPhil - goes through MPhil panel
Documented exploration
Funding
How to identify and approach supervisors
University - someone in research centre
Apply to more than one - competitive
How closely relate to area of research
Contribute to research endeavour of university
Where is there research already in your line of practice
Comment on their research culture
Call research office - check person supervising PhD
How to match up - not person
Research page profile of university
Poss not precise match
Most established in field
Supervisors - have to be academic?
Have to be established as supervisor at the university
Could bring in external specialist to final panel
PhD - difficult to get on with art practice
Online arts practice-led PhD - University of Hertfordshire
Have subject of enquiry which will benefit from PhD enquiry - not just to get on
Good idea - academic framework of practice
Get to nub of practice
Investigate something new
Goldsmiths - prePhD research year
Full time 3 years, part 3 - 6 years
AHRC Masters - PhD
Poss 2/3 years after Masters
Part time and distance PhD - possible
Not rules, but take part in research community
Usually research methods course to start - also online
More than profile as artist - develop research and context
Look up universities' research pages

Reflection 
Rather full notes so I can recall all those details. What a PhD actually is is becoming a little clearer. We are all MA students with a lot of commitment already - 4 years online. I still need to know more about the practical benefits and reasons for doing a PhD. It almost seems like an altruistic act to do it purely for the sake of the research.

14th November 2013