Category Archives: Project 7

Tutor feedback #7

Tutor feedback for my assignment 7 took the form of a video chat. This feedback was a little delayed because I was away with little in way of a phone signal.

This month I spent a lot of my time working on creative works which in themselves are based on previous test pieces. This isn’t so much what I might term a production line approach producing a series of similar pieces with the same starting point but instead is iterative with each review and reconsideration of my creative test pieces being less broad or unfocussed and going into greater death for a narrower chosen target.

I was surprised by comments from my tutor this month that she saw how I was writing and thinking about my work was more knowledgeable and reflective. I find this sort of feedback invaluable and I often cannot see such shifts from my own perspective. Have I expanded on my knowledge due to my research allied with what I want to achieve from my creative works? Maybe, on reflection the answer is yes but as the shift is gradual, when in middle of project work it can be hard to detach myself and offer up such an overview. I will go back in my notes and look to see if how I write has shifted from when I started on this unit to now.

Another very useful piece of feedback was asking what or rather who, my work is for. Is this just for myself in which case could my work stay on my computer unseen by anyone other than myself? If this is the case then why am I doing this course? If my visual work has at its heart, the communication of ideas for whatever the reason this might be, then this relationship between the creator of the work, why I create it, what I want to communicate and to what audience is important. My own work is for the purpose of learning and understanding and self-healing. Indeed, is all visual art based around this idea of the communication of ideas or of emotions? Even as am aware that in the future I need to consider my audienceat the same time, right now, it is relevant to consider that photography as a visual medium has communication at it’s foundation. Communication implies a message from one person to a recipient or audience. As my own project deals with a fundamental fact of death which we will all face, this communication of my ideas to my audience feels crucial to my work. So, how I present works at this stage in my 3.1 study which involves preliminary test pieces and research, is a core factor even if it is too early to target a specific audience at this moment.

We discussed my practical works. As I write about these, I wonder if I made too many? It didn’t feel like that at the time to me, it these tests were, in a way to me, different facets of the same idea. I specifically mentioned that I had tried to take on board comment from last month about the literality of some of my works which and I will quote here from my tutor as this seems very important, “work is literal because it begins and ends with the description of the idea. Other work is much more philosophical; it is the latter that should always be the focus.”

We started by considering a piece I created using an island on which Princess Diana is buried. I wanted to explore the idea of the changing use of the space through time with this becoming a water park. Feedback was that this piece wasn’t effective as once again was too literal although it had elements which could be developed such as the whirlpool which I saw perhaps as a 3-dimensional form into which time and memory drops. One comment which stuck with me was question of whether my image was specifically about death or remembrance. Maybe too much going on. Helpful for me to consider the simplicity, or apparent simplicity, of my photography here.

Next, we spoke about a work which was more successful in the communication of ideas, a memorial bench with figures from a found photograph placed as a transparency behind the bench. Interesting to consider the placement and presentation of ideas on the photographic page and how the elements of an idea work in a visual sense. My tutor suggested this is an idea I could expand upon with thought that it almost touched upon idea of ‘ghost’ photography.

I produced some photographs which I didn’t develop into concrete ideas. One of these was a found photograph I found on Instagram of figures posing beside an open grave with emojis and text across the page. I thought image was interesting as it seemed to make little sense to me and this tension attracted my attention. My tutor mentioned the social phenomenon of how we commemorate loss and of the performative element of why some images are made. I was interested if I could make use of such an image without changing it. If this was used as part of typological works of similar pieces then yes as long as any distinguishing names or usernames were removed. Another image I didn’t use was that of a ground radar scan of a graveyard showing unmarked graves. This had potential although perhaps once again in typological form showing other such images.

Last month I produced a work based on the grave of Karl Marx. I developed this idea considering the grave of another famous person, Conrad Roentgen who discovered x-rays. I had worried that this piece was too simplistic but was interested to hear my tutor suggest, stripping even more from image so it becomes a series on x-rays of plants and that the references to Roentgen not required and even an x-ray viewer not needed. Flowers and plants have an association with death and the death imagery of skills and bones on graves always reminded me of medical scans, where my research first started. Interesting then this idea of stripping image making back to a simpler form that asks questions.

My final image this month, I constructed using a mirror and a grave and introduced a shadow of myself as I took the photograph which acted as a pseudo body underneath the turf. My tutor thought this idea had merit and could be developed further.

The general feedback was positive and in particular my image of the bench and of the image using the mirror. I will think some more on these before I produce works next month.

Feedback based on Learning Outcomes

There was a further workshop on learning outcomes when I was on holiday so will watch the recording of this session and produce an update on my progress against the learning outcomes for this unit for next month.

Action points

Produce this summary of feedback meeting.

Continue my work on practical pieces spending time to consider analysis of my image around why I find this worth presenting and how it related to the themes of my project.

A further draft of my literature review.

In addition to continued work on:

Review of my project plan.

Review recording of workshop for learning outcomes workshop part ii.

Work on reviewing my continued progress against the unit’s learning outcomes.

Progress review against learning outcomes #7

I started to review my progress against learning outcomes last month and so will continue this so as to map progress from now until end of unit.

Photography 3.1: Practice and Research (PH6PAR) Learning Outcomes

LO1 – Examine your emerging practice through a considered body of self-directed work

Last month I stated that my research, written works and creative test pieces were developing in pace with my emerging practice. I said that my work wasn’t polished at this stage.

All I would add to what I said last month is that I have spent time creating further test pieces and writing on my motivations and creative choices. This continues to build my body of self-directed creative pieces and the writing which goes along with these works adds to my sense of trying to better understand my emerging practice.

LO2 – Apply relevant research methods and subject knowledge to test, inform, and develop your work.

Last month I stated that I wasn’t trying to force the direction of my research and was allowing the different strands to pull me in whatever direction matched with my interests. I continue with this same approach.

LO3 – Present informed connections between your research and practice interests.

Last month I mentioned that I felt there was a gap or mismatch between my research and practice interests. I have made a conscious effort this month to try and record more of my thoughts around my creative works. At this stage I didn’t attempt to link these thoughts with detailed research outcomes.

LO4 Articulate your creative ideas and critical thinking using suitable communication methods.

Last month I commented that I was comfortable with articulating areas of interest, ideas that interest me from my research and creative works and with interpreting my creative impulses. As I said, I have made more of a conscious effort to write about my creative choices. More detailed methods of articulating such thoughts likely to be made in form of a video presentation which I will prepare before the end of this unit.

Reflective commentary #7

This month my time was spent in designing and creating several test pieces building on previous creative works and the feedback given on these.

I want to pen a few thoughts on what motivates me to create my works. In part this is due to a cathartic sense where I try to understand myself better and work through the strong emotions related to death and loss. I wouldn’t describe this necessarily as a healing process but would call it an understanding process. I don’t believe people are healed from the experience of mourning but instead learn to accept and cope with this. Mourning in a way is learning about death and loss. More specifically related to my own personal experience of loss, my work contextualises my own sense of loss set against societal systems and norms surrounding memory, death, loss and remembrance. I would like to go to heart of this sense and look at death in childhood but I know that the closer I get to heart of my own sense of loss, the more painful this will be. As I work through this learning and developmental process, I have thought and discussed with my tutor about how others might view my work and how painful it might be for an audience. Am also conscious of whether I wanted to tell my story for the benefit of others or whether my work is purely for myself. This seems an appropriate question at this stage given the feedback on literal or philosphical work and how others might view a piece. Is my work for myself or for others? I think for me, as a photographer and artist, the stories I try and tell and the questions I ask through my visual imagery are expanded by the interaction with an audience. The audience has the breadth and capacity to take my work in unexpected directions as each person might think or react differently. The bond between the artist and the audience has the potential to create waves that resonate out from the centre. I do not know how much time I should spend considering the audience at this stage in my research and in creation of test pieces. Maybe there is no right answer but if this bond is a part of my creative practice, then awareness is no bad thing as long as I don’t allow myself to be too influenced by it at this time.

One theme which cropped up in my test pieces this month as I was thinking about literal and more philosphical work was the simplicity or complexity of my work. Not just in terms of meaning but, as this is a photography degree, also in terms of the visual choices I make. I have a sense that a more simplistic visual piece has, or can have, a stronger impact but at same time does the message it conveys work the same as a visually more complex and intricate work? Beyond this idea of complex, simple, literal and philosphical is a sense that my work will deal with emotionally challenging subject matter and maybe it is that I should focus on instead of worrying too much about audience reactions. The subject matter and research drives the creative choices and the audience are something very distant.

I don’t want to be too dismissive of my work but I feel a little dispirited about my test pieces this month. I feel they are interesting but they have a limited emotional challenge to them. I have a strong negative feeling right now around my chosen area of study and my response to this. Having said this, such feelings are normal for me within my creative process although maybe this project produces bigger peaks. Periods of doubting myself, negativity and producing ideas which I think are lacking in value are opposed at other times with positivity and a sense of purpose. Maybe embarking on such a potentially dark project which so tightly connects with personal feelings of loss and doubt and questions of my own worth, then such extreme feelings can be understood.