Articulate your progress clearly and concisely against each of these headings. Reflect on any challenges and action areas.
Record your findings in your learning log.
This aspect of my final project has been one of most challenging for me and there is much still to be done in this area.
On the positive side
I have looked at external opportunities such as joining a professional organisation based in the field of death studies and have engaged with them regarding my dissertation and a potential interview.
I have applied and been accepted for an artist’s residency.
I am investigating funding with Creative Scotland and will also look at the OCA Enterprise funding.
On the negative side
I have not submitted any work for Open Calls or competitions.
I have not yet engaged with gallery spaces.
I realise that I need more engagement with others to help build my practice. I need to engage with the wider world to help build my experience and confidence and to help build networks.
Some of the interaction I am looking for will come from my artist’s residency and with engaging with curators and other participants. The same applies to me joining the Association for the Study of Death and Society but there is more I can do.
I have started to investigate digital exhibition spaces such as Kunstmatrix, Artsteps and Artplacer. I will use these tools to develop an online exhibition test space where I can explore how an exhibition will look and feel and which will offer some public shop window for my work.
My biggest challenge is with physical exhibition spaces. Initially I wondered about gallery space in local hospitals having seen other artworks displayed in the corridors. I had some feedback that my work represents a challenging sense of life and death and that hospitals might not be the best place to display such work. Should my audience be able to stumble across my work by accident as they are sick or are visiting their sick relatives or friends? It also might be the case that hospitals would be reluctant to have such work on show. As I thought about this, I pushed my own thoughts of where to display my work onto a back burner requiring more thought. I am conscious that gallery space is booked up, sometimes a year or more in advance, so it is possible that I won’t be able to display my work in a real gallery setting within the confines of my 3.3 unit. I will give this aspect of my exhibition much more thought and will try and search out suitable spaces, perhaps not for my whole concept but instead for smaller aspects of my work. This might also tie in with submissions for open calls or competitions.
Review material and spatial aspects of your working practices. Are your working conditions supporting you as best as they can be? Do you have the resources, access to time, materials, peer support and external engagement that you and your projects need to creatively progress?
Articulate your progress clearly and concisely including any obstacles, areas needing action and strategies to help overcome these.
Record your findings in your learning log.
This exercise poses interesting questions thinking of any obstacles, areas which need actions and strategies I might use to overcome these areas of concern. It is something I will return to in the coming weeks and months.
My working conditions seem to me to be fine although of course time is always an issue. I am building a collection of artworks which are meaningful to me and which could be used in my final submission. There is more work to be done especially as regards the see-saw which imagine at the centre of my exhibition and I need to consider which materials and processes to use for the wooden board. I bought this piece of scaffold to use to test my ideas. I had hoped to start my tests in the past few weeks but there has been a succession of yellow warnings for heavy rain and so I have yet to start my tests.
At the start of this unit, I marked down in my list of new skills to develop, sound and video production. As my work in 3.3 has been progressing I have not added either of these aspects to my practice, not because I am not interested in these areas, but because this didn’t feel right for me at this time and for this iteration of my project. However, having said that, I have been investigating applying for a grant for my artist’s residency in Italy to help cover my travel, accommodation and time costs. I have made contact with Creative Scotland who have provided very helpful advice and have confirmed that as a part-time student, I am eligible to apply for funding provided the proposed activity is unrelated to my academic studies. It might be that when I put in a funding request that sound comes back to the fore to introduce some separation between my academic studies and my major project and with my continues interest in death studies and in the investigation of memorial and attitudes towards death in another country.
The title of this month’s project 4 of First Edit, initially had me worried. My work is progressing but am I ready to produce an initial edit at point 4 of 10? My answer was initially no although after some thought and reflection I changed this to yes, I can produce an ‘initial’ edit. In summary then I can say that my planning is progressing well but not without challenges. The tempo and pace of my Major Project is much more dependent on external factors than I initially envisioned at the start of the 3.3 unit. I have been working on making and refining my images so that when I come to a final selection, I will have a good number of quality images which mean something to me and yet will not immediately or obviously show my audience a final intention or design. I have been utilising peer feedback to help me refine these images. This part of my project feels under control. To act as a fulcrum for my images I have been thinking of an installation of a see-saw at the heart of my project. This will act as a centrepiece around which my images will be shown. I asked for some initial feedback on this idea from peers and from my tutor just to test my thinking about this and to see if I am barking up the wrong tree as regards a final project for a photography degree. I have to be careful as the installation is not designed to be a greater part of my project than my images but I see it as another way to explore the liminal threshold. The see-saw will provide a link to children and will show the balance at the liminal threshold of death. I have purchased some old scaffold board which is 2.5m long.
I have some photographs I took in Skye on St Columba’s Island which is burial site for the Bishops of the Isles. I mention this site as it contains some interesting effigies carved onto slabs which lie on the ground. The effigies show warriors in armour and helmet with sword. I was drawn to these slabs and the pictures I took popped into my mind as I thought of decoration for the see-saw. A more detailed description of this site can be found on the Journal of the Clan MacNicol of North America. (Nickelson, 2015, pp. 14–16) I can experiment with maybe using cyanotype impressions onto the wood or perhaps laser transfers or wraps. The feedback on this idea from my tutor was that while idea is very interesting this came with a warning about not forcing my ideas. With this in mind, I have also approached my local council to see if they have any old see-saws which have been removed from play parks. Using such a piece of play equipment might be more effective in representing my ideas rather than building something new. I was able to speak with someone on local council and they happy to supply such equipment as long as I agree not to raise health and safety concerns by actually using this as a piece of play equipment. When I said this would be for an art exhibition this seemed to settle any nerves. While there is nothing currently in stock, they expect to have some equipment later in the summer.
I have also been looking at two pieces of work to support my own project which again need external input. I joined the Association for the Study of Death and Society as a way of growing my network on contacts with an interest in death studies. I was discussing my work and one aspect of discussion was in how many people are drawn into this field having experienced loss. I have been asked to submit my dissertation with a view to possible inclusion in their journal called Mortality. I have also been asked if I would like to be interviewed for a podcast. I mentioned this in my last feedback session with my tutor. An interesting thought is that such an interview walks a tightrope between my personal experience of why I started work in this field, namely the death of my daughter and the work which has grown from this starting point. Such an interview needs to keep in mind that Rebecca was my starting point and not the whole of my experience with my research and creative works which dissect the loss I have experienced and present a wider body of work.
Finally, I found a place which shares many similarities with my own work and experiences which offers residencies. The Museum of Loss and Renewal has a site in Orkney and in Italy and in their own words, “provide space and contexts for making and sharing, nurtured by artists and curators Tracy Mackenna and Edwin Janssen. I have applied for a 2-week residency during which I want to explore how my experiences influenced by the loss of my daughter feels in another land with different attitudes to death and memorial. While death itself is a universal constant, such a residency would give scope to explore this topic from a different angle. I have made early contact with Creative Scotland about the potential for a grant so when I hear back on my application, I can then pursue this financial aspect.
Post script – as I write this an email arrived and I have been accepted for this residency for the first two weeks in July. Some interesting feedback given from the curator Tracy Mackenna who is also Professor Emerita at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design; “Your work is highly engaging, as is the way that you describe it. Your motivation for wishing to undertake a period in residence is compelling and relevant, and I thank you for sharing your personal experience of loss.” An exciting development which I will need to think of in regards to my plan. For example, as the residency is in rural Italy, should I attempt to learn some basic Italian so I can interact with locals? Should I approach this residency with an open page and mind and with no preconceptions as I immerse myself in a new location and experience? Or should I form looser detailed plans on how to spend my time? I think I will do some research on other artists and their approach to residencies. I will also look at whether there is a local teacher of Italian or if I can do this online. An interesting, if unrelated aside is that before Alzheimer’s my mother was learning Italian.
References
Nickelson, J. (2015) ‘A Brief History and Archaeology of St. Columba’s Isle at Skeabost’, Scorrybreac: The Journal of Clan MacNicol of North America, 31(1), pp. 14–17.
During this part of the course we suggest you reach out to your peers through stage 3 forums and familiarise yourself with existing tutor-led and student-led live sessions in photography stage 3 and wider OCA.
You may also wish to consider any external peer groups, locally and/or online that you may already be engaged with or have ideas about developing. Take a moment to consider peer support structures, and how these may help support you.
I have several pathways I can use with different groups and individuals to ask for feedback on my work. There is a group of Scottish colleagues I have worked with for a number of years. Pre-Covid pandemic, we used to meet regularly for gallery visits and workshops led by OCA tutor Wendy McMurdo. There is also the Level 3 Critique session which runs monthly. The 3.3 student group is limited because at the present time there are only 3 of us on 3.3 but this group can and does provide feedback when asked. My tutor provides another source of feedback.
External to these OCA based groups, I have joined an association who run regular support groups for post-graduate students and who publish their own journal. This is a relationship I will explore during this year.
Use this exercise to define and plan a Major Project that explores and develops your emerging practice.
We may want to start by exploring what your personal goals might be for this unit and beyond. These could be long term ambitions that brought you to study photography in the first place or recently discovered passions. Combine this with what you learnt during the exercise above to form an understanding of the direction you want to travel with your Major Project.
Draft your Project Plan (max 1,200 words) and consider it in as much detail as possible. This document should include:
practice and research aims and outcomes
a detailed timeframe of proposed activities in order to execute and complete your Major Project, within the framework of the unit
a detailed breakdown of any costs and funding routes
ethical considerations
a plan of promotion (at least in terms of networks).
Resources that might be useful at this stage are:
Reflect, Propose and Plan – will help you reflect on your current position, propose new projects, and plan ahead.
Locating Your Practice – provides ways to help you deepen your awareness of your discipline and its subject boundaries.
Creative Strategies– offers different creative strategies to help you consider, develop and extend your creative process.
Engagement and External Projects – offers starting points to help frame your research, practical project work, and your overall position to outward-facing creative opportunities.
Synthesis of Practice and Research (3.2 Resource section) – encourages you to explore these connections through testing and interpreting.
Aspects of the Enterprise Hub, in particular the section on Ethics.
Project Plan Draft
This exercise asks for a draft project plan expressed in 1,200 words. It feels very early to produce such a plan including things such as a detailed breakdown of costs and a plan of promotion but I will start with what I know with an awareness that my plan is likely to develop and change. One aspect of my plan is that even at this early stage, I think that the plan needs to serve different aspects of my major project and my learning; using the 1,200 words to provide some depth and background to my thoughts and to explain myself is a good idea and is distant from tradition Project Management planning with which I am very comfortable., In addition to the words, I think it is a very good idea to have a visual representation of my plan to sit alongside my words. Within this visual representation of my plan, I can break this down into two parts. Firstly, a plan which shows the coursework against time. Secondly, a plan to show the gaps in which I try to show what I think I might need but at this stage am uncertain about. I could summarise this as what I know and what I don’t. I can easily imagine further planning will develop from my unknowns such as what my final output looks like, whether a book, an exhibition whether digital or real and so on. Each of these choices needs research and planning.
Practice and Research Aims and Outcomes.
This final year of my degree asks me to use the skills learned and the experiences I have gained and to supplement this knowledge as required to construct my major project and to consider how and why this work should be displayed.
My art practice has grown from my experience of traumatic grief after the death of a loved one. I investigate loss, and memory, trying to imagine the liminal threshold between life and death. I am finding my place within the field of death studies and am striving to push the boundaries of my work and to see how my work and myself as an artist, integrate with other artists and academics.
My outcome was initially about producing work, whether creative pieces or research which would help me understand my own place in loss and how we remember our dead. This final unit on the major project, has introduced a different feeling less about internalising my own emotions and more about producing work for others which might help them in their own experiences of grief or maybe open their minds to different ways of thinking.
These aims and potential outcomes are tied in with my planning, the skills I think I will need and the testing of my ideas through asking for, and giving, feedback and in expanding my network of contacts.
Detailed timeframe
I have drawn up early visual indicators of where I am and where I think I need to be at the end of this unit.
These indicators can be found at the following links:
The initial skills I have listed that I think I might need to work on include skills related to sound and video recording and editing, business writing for proposals, grant applications, exhibition entries, residencies etc., promotion, marketing and building my network of contacts and skills around the planning and construction of an exhibition. To help me develop these skills, I will focus on preparing works for submission to open calls and will also look into artist residencies. I am specifically interested in seeking out opportunities with artists who are working in my own field. Earlier in my studies, my collaborations have been with other artists who have their own interests and whose projects are distant from my own work. I think it would be an interesting experience to share work with others interested in loss. Who share a close relationship with my own interests. I will look at other artists who have produced and exhibited works in this area and how they went about their tasks.
In this year, I will continue to build and add to my body of work, concentrating on the production of mature pieces and always keeping in mind the space my audience needs to get the most from my work without me leading them by the nose. Early on this year, I have been investigating computer glitches, what these do to the visual image and how it feels to have accidental input to my work. As a counterpoint, I have also been looking at more deliberate corruption in my work.
Costs
Costs for my project at this stage are not well understood. Do I need help with large scale printing for an exhibition or for creating a book for example or with exhibition space? Is such funding available? Who would I approach? These questions and the answers are part of my list of unknowns which I think will crystalise as I get deeper into this unit.
Ethical considerations
The ethics of working around loss are right there, large and unavoidable at the very forefront of my work. How do I show my work without causing pain or distress in others? How much consideration should I give to my audience and whether they might ‘like’ or be ‘disturbed’ by my work? Do I just accept that what I do won’t appeal to everyone? Is this an important part of my creative process that I shouldn’t try to please everyone? How do I create my work and maintain my mental health? I don’t have answers to all of these questions at this stage. It is something I will return to as my plan develops.
Plan of promotion
This is another aspect which is on my list of unknowns. How my Major Project develops would seem to come before how and where I promote this. Maybe if I had been through this process before, ideally more than once, my approach to planning would be different but I see no way at this point in time to avoid pitfalls and potential false starts.
