Last month was a time for writing and for reflection and I have continued polishing my work to get it ready for assessment. I have been working on my literature review and adjusting this following feedback last month and my progress against learning outcomes related to my blog and my creative output.
One thought on the focus on assessment is that it gets in the way of my project. What a shame my research and project work doesn’t continue seamlessly into next year without having to worry about getting things ready for an assessment which, while important as it counts towards mark for degree, seems to me to be a diversion. The assessment has lots of time for reflection on my work and progress to date so am not saying it without any value just that it feels have come ashore from the river where my research been leading.
In addition I wrote a report following a collaborative exercise I took part in. I have also written some thoughts on work I came across relating to Susan Sontag and Annie Leibovitz and their attitudes to cancer and death and photography. I been attempting to understand how these people were impacted by these intense emotional episodes in their lives and how all this relates to my own project and my mindset. It is interesting to me as I look into this field how often death is a part of artists and academic’s lives. One other related thing which occurred to me as I was researching my own project area was the suicide of photographers. Francesca Woodman threw herself out of a window when she was aged 22, Diane Arbus slashed her wrists and Kevin Carter who gassed himself all come to mind. Is this a common thing I wonder? It might be interesting to look and see if I can understand if any of these deaths related to the work of these photograhers and if it in any way relates to my work.
As I was pulling together my creative works I was thinking about where I should take my project next. I have been thinking about this and have some pictures I want to capture over the next few months. I also found some packets of old photographs online which I bid on successfuly. One of these packets came with letters, medical cards and even an old driving license. I don’t know yet if I will make use of this extra material alongside images but it does present different opportunites. All in all, I feel I have some useful source material to expand on my project next year. Obviously this will depend on exact direction I take this project. I have also been wondering about different types of memorials whether formal statues or street art, stolpersteine which commemorate the lives lost in the holocaust, war memorials of which we have many in Scotland or I was also thinking about all the ruined houses which date from the times of the Highland Clearances. All would seem to have different opportunites and challenges. Maybe even finding benches which link these events and locations with my own project might make sense.