end of module self evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Physically I have further developed my print making skills, specifically my mono printing skills and the brief gave me a good opportunity to be able to improve upon existing knowledge and practice and to then refine it. I also got the chance to really push my digital skills further which initially I wasn’t expecting but it was really helpful to work with illustrator and vectors after learning them in a previous module. The cop journal has given me the opportunity to try out practices I wasn’t as confident with and improve on them as well as applying learned skills to a specific cause. Some of the most important skills I have developed are academic skills, before the module I had never even attempted Harvard referencing and putting the information I had learned from studio into practice meant I had my first attempting at officially referencing work and learned a lot of things in the process. I think I applied this skill effectively, I definitely invested a lot of time into attempting to do it correctly. Another skill I have learned is how to paraphrase quotes from sources effectively, in my first essay drafts I was simply copying and pasting large quotes without demonstrating my understanding for them but with Pete’s feedback and help I have been able to improve the quotes in my essays and I have used paraphrasing more successfully.

2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your practical outcomes?

Reading the book inside the white cube was the biggest influence in the conclusion of my practical work as my final work focused on the transformative and controlling power of the gallery space. The theme of the gallery was prevalent through my entire sketchbook even though at some points other directions were explored, the first two pages comment on the nature of the gallery and the value of modern art by using receipts to represent how art has almost become a currency – a show of wealth. Colour also featured in most of my work white being linked to the gallery and in the early stages of the book a lot of gold was used in the work as a response to me watching the documentary a history of art in three colours. I didn’t end up continuing with the colour gold as I started focusing less on religious friezes and renaissance art and focused instead on commenting on modern art and the modern gallery space in which gold wasn’t relevant to the work I was creating. Early on in the journal I did start commenting on the value of art, a theme which was prevalent to the end of the work but is something I want to research and focus on in more depth next year. I also very briefly looked at creating work about ruling families in Italy in the time of the renaissance after my research into Michael Angelo’s David and the control families such as the Medichis had over art in initial at the time, but again this wasn’t work I wanted to develop after my initial experiments. After reading no logo, the book which the original quote I was working from came from, I started making some more brand based work using mainly collage and commenting on the nature of culture as controlled in the modern day by huge corporate identities and exploring the effect this had on us. Although I liked this work after having the class crits and feedback it was decided that out of all the initial exploratory work the ones focusing on modern abstract art were the most intriguing and successful.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

To me one of the strongest strengths in my work is the varied amount of sources I have looked into including scholarly articles, web articles, documentaries, lectures, books and websites. I think I was dedicated to research in the amount of books that I read and this proved to be so helpful and important in my work especially in the COP journal, without reading books such as the white cube my visual work wouldn’t have been as conceptually developed and followed in the same direction. Although not all the research I gathered had direct influence in essays or work I think it was all important to my overall understanding of the topic and my work for the module. I think another strength in my work was being able to identify and use relevant information from the lecture programme for my COP topic and I think next year I can capitalise on this by making more detailed notes and connections to my work.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

The main weakness of my work is the visual journal and next year I will improve on my physical work in a number of ways such as investing more time and effort into each individual page. Next year I also want to make my physical work synthesise a lot more smoothly with essay work and I should of pre-planned the journal before starting and figured out a more solid direction, that would have ensured that all the work was at a higher quality and I didn’t waste any pages. I also found it really difficult to keep to the word count and being able to make a point effectively and concisely is a problem I have encountered, I feel like I don’t always understand which points are the most important and sometimes feel I repeat myself, in the future I will try to work even harder on the structure of my essays and planning them specifically with the word count in mind. In the future I also definitely need to blog and explain the development of my journal work, I don’t feel like I did this nearly enough this year and it’s an easy thing to improve on as long as I put in the time next year, I think it’s very important for me to try to explain my work. Another weakness of my research is researching too many different topics in relation to the quote instead of doing the same amount of research in a more focused direction. Already creating the slideshow proposal for next year has helped me be more direct and planned in my research and I need to learn to be more direct next year and use my time efficiently.

5. Identify five things that you feel will benefit you during next year’s Context of Practice module?

·         Having learned and put into practice Harvard referencing ·         Pre-planning and having a longer period to figure out a solid direction for cop 2 ·         Having practice keeping to a low word count ·         Already having a body of relevant research to draw upon and inform my understanding of the theme ·         Having the experience of a cop and already understanding the general layout, workings and demands of the module rather than it being a fully new experience