My coursework this month asks me to seek out support by posting a summary of progress for peer and tutor review and then to write a reflective account of how feedback can help me reconsider my work.

I posted a summary of progress for review and comment. I did not  attach any part of my dissertation to the review but instead left it up to my peer group saying that if any interested to read part of my essay and perhaps have some time for feedback this would be welcome but that I was aware of the time pressures of our study so if no takers that is perfectly understandable.

As I move through this course, my perspectives change. I initially thought of the end of 3.1 as a way marker on the path and that 3.2 would be a continuation of 3.1 but at the same level. As I move along this path it has become clear that 3.2 is actually a step up from 3.1. Or to use my analogy of a path, in 3.2 the path is less straight with rocks and puddles underfoot. I expect 3.3 will add in some hills and rockfalls. My work on 3.2 does not involve an increased amount of work in terms of the volume of output but instead, the work I do needs more thought and is done to a greater depth. The path is more challenging so I must put in more effort. It is the idea of working slower but harder.

As with all of us, demands in our lives away from study come into play. Our research and creative works never sit in a vacuum. Am certain that all students and practitioners have challenges going on in their lives.

As is normal for me, I spend time worrying. I worry if my written work not good enough and if I have fallen behind, I worry about my creative works and what others might think. I worry about my work and how these sit within the demands of learning outcomes. I worry if am busy and don’t always dial into our calls and can’t commit to providing feedback each time this is asked for. When I am asked for feedback, and have the time to respond, I worry about how my comments received and how much value I offer. The feedback also offers opportunities to look at the work of others and for self-judgement and comparison against my own work. This sense of doubting myself seems so ingrained that it has almost become a part of my practice. This self-questioning is a useful thing and is normal. I used to imagine artists would create work easily and without doubts almost as if works would appear if by magic on the canvas fully formed from day one. I wrote previously that none of our work exists in isolation. To this I would add that the creation of written and artistic works is sometimes a struggle. That we currently in a safe learning environment and can reach for support and feedback and words of encouragement is a good thing. After our undergraduate study comes to an end, there are people who will still happily support us. Alongside these are some who will be less supportive. This seems a fact of life. So, the self-reflection I speak of is key to this process as we discover what we want to do in the future and how our studies give us a foundation upon which we can build.

This month I have been predominantly working on my dissertation following my last feedback meeting and referring to the detailed notes given in feedback by my tutor. I have also been doing a little work on my collaboration projects although sometimes this involves thinking about directions and choices rather than making new works.

Dissertation is a big part of 3.2 and I can’t lie, for me it been a time-consuming and, at times, frustrating exercise. I imagine for some, who are better at writing that I am, this will maybe be less of a struggle. How I envy such people.

I mentioned my collaborations. I been working with several people and the development of work and ideas is not always fast. I have to take into account that any sense of urgency on my part is not always shared by my other partners. This is equally true of their demands of me. Again, this is a fact of life. I am at assignment point 8 and some collaboration work barely started. In a project management sense, if there are elements of our own project which rely on others, this is called an external dependency. We cannot always control these external elements so have to factor in delays. A simple example might be if we send off to have some prints made or to have book published and find there been issue at their end and what we expect to arrive doesn’t arrive. This is all part of learning how we build our own practice around others on whom we rely. I love the idea of collaborations and how one idea changes as it bounces off another and how new works can emerge. In my own practice I can see endless possibilities for working in this way in the future so I don’t feel that delays are huge issue for me but instead I see them as part of the process.