Seminar:
In the start of the session, we had a bit of a show and tell with how our projects are getting along. It was an informal group crit, so I showed everyone pieces of my work in progress. Some very useful things were said: I had good feedback on the use of block colour on the background for the writing. As for the writing itself, people said that it was quite impactful, honest and could tell I had a particular voice. I want the pieces to connect with the audience in that way, so I am happy with that. I need to consider further how I use this voice, how ambiguous or metaphorical I want to be and how raw to be in the artwork. I am mostly happy, but as mentioned I do need to find a direction with it. Am I creating a book, installation, 2D piece etc..
The other part of the day was dedicated to gathering ideas for the student-led group workshop in a couple of weeks’ time. The idea has to be able to be linked to site-specific art or sound art in some way. The idea I started to develop was around a 3D sculpture, mainly as it is something I would like to do experiment with as I’ve done very little 3D work. The inspiration to this work would be thinking about creating an animal caricature or daemon of yourself, based on how you feel. People would then create this creature using clay, wire, cardboard, sticks, glue and any other scraps. The part of the activity that is site-specific is that everyone is making a 3D installation that is made at a particular time for a particular place.
My project:
As far as my own project is going, I have taken a bit of an enforced break the last week so that I could finish the majority of the other two modules, as one of them the teaching ends for the semester after week 5. I have already started the pecha kucha presentation for the workshop pitch, so I have reading week to catch up with my own IP project as I have a lot more time now. I do find it useful sometimes to come back to something and maybe look at it in a different way. My to do list is below, but immediately I need to do some more secondary research.
Hi Janoš, great to see you’re up to speed with your online notebook posts. Well done. So, weeks 3 – 5 are looking good, and you’re developing your creative project idea well. I think the hanging large scale texts and working to find your topic and voice seem to be coming through well, and you’re clearly experimenting with form, voice, and content. To develop your creative project, think about what your topic is – what part of your experience do you want to focus on why. Leave time to contextualise your practice. How does the work of Emin and Warhol shape your own visual language? What are the strengths and weaknesses of their work. Leave time to discuss and analyse their work in detail and relate their work to your own. Make sure you cite your sources. Your summaries of the weekly seminars are good, and you show very good engagement with the seminar activities. Moving forwards, reflect on what you’ve learnt, how and why, and perhaps reflect on what you’re gaining from the activities we do in session. Lean into reflective and analytic writing in more depth. You have a clear creative project idea – the thing to focus on now is making it. Leave enough time to play, experiment and document your experiments, and then focus on producing an installation of these texts that are meaningful to you. Your writerly voice is strong, but be clear with what this voice is, why you are writing the things you are, and what’s motivating you to use an automatic, auto-biographic first-person voice. Looking forward to seeing more next week!