Please find here a full breakdown of each of the sections of the
Learning Objectives and grading matrix with direct links to
demonstrative areas of my practice for this unit as examples of exactly
where I have fulfilled the marking criteria. However I was also granted an extension on my 10,000 word research report and therefore have not included it in this section but will provide a seperate evaluation of the dissesertation by itself.
LO1:
The
most prominent example of exploration through making in this unit has
been the initiation of an ambitious project surrounding puppetry and
animal experience. I made the decision to put these explorations on hold
until BA3B as it would give m e the proper opportunity to focus on this
development properly and really do my ideas justice, however although
this is still a work in progress, I had no prior experience with
puppetry and therefore had to build up prototypes entirely based on
experimentation alone. Buying a premade marionette allowed me to build
upon the basic design and test more complicated designs concepts such as
four legged marionettes. The use of moldable and cheap materials such
as plastecine and tinfoil allowed me to work on rapid prototyping to
make and unmake experimental design decisions easily. This
experimentation was both hugely enjoyable and fulfilling and really
improved my puppetmaking skills even over the three examples I
attempted, and is something I am hugely excited to pick up again in the
next unit.
Puppet Experimentation: 1 2 3
Another
key area of experimentation was through the developing of my practice
as a professional printmaker. My hands on approach to this learning has
allowed me to learn through the process itself, such as during the Pablo
Dallas print where I realised important techniques surrounding the
order in which I print each layer, by avoiding printing over black where
possible to minimise the visibility of multiple tonal values with a
translucent top layer of pigment.
Printmaking Practice: 1
LO2:
Through
my work I have been constantly building an exploration of the complex
place of the animal and nature in our culture, and exactly how
problematic this relationship has developed to be. One of the recurrent
observations I have witnessed during this, is that true acknowledgement
and encounter with nature is what is drastically lacking manifesting in
the knock on effects in a lack of stewardship and accountability. In my
work I have been trying to break this dynamic down by re-integrating the
animal back into the lives of people in the urban sphere with street
art interventions. However my objective has developed with my 'argument'
to become more focussed and urgent in attempts to unsettle the modern
urbanites worldview surrounding their place in ecology. Not only in the
plans for a full animal puppetry concept, I have also began to explore
ideas of the archival and museums as a way of proposing new versions of
'truths' and incorporating pre-established conventions to assert radical
and different ideas in my piece 'Surface Tensions'.
By
focussing on the same area of interest throughout the entirety of my
degree, it has really allowed me to strengthen and develop my faith in
the point I am making. By reading large compilations produced by
thinkers and makers from all areas of the discourse, and absorbing large
amounts of text from a variety of sources, I feel like I have really
reinforced the depth of my discoveries and awareness of my topic. This
is now starting to appear in the development of more and more
imaginative strategies to get my ideas across and further my discursive
surrounding environmental stewardship.
LO3:
As
well as an ongoing focus of scholarly reading around my subject focus, I
have also been attending meetings for the ecological protest group
'Extinction Rebellion' which has allowed me to get an inside look at one
of the new snowballing social movements attempting to tackle and raise
awareness for the ongoing ecological disaster we are facing. This first
hand involvement with directly targetted activism has been very thought
provoking and enlightening as to how others are engaging with the issue,
and also given me aspects of hope that the message is starting to get
across to the wider populous and inspire people to take action. However
it has also shown me the importance of clear strategy and aim when
trying to co-ordinate a powerful and unified message.
In
addition to this I have also engaged with primary industry based
research collated for the initiation of my puppetry project and a visit to the
Norwich puppet museum with Molly Taylor and hands on experience with
the highly complex professional puppets used there. This then manifested
as new ideas in my exploration through making, with new designs for
operating mechanisms which I implemented to great effectivenss in the
final velociraptor puppet I created, allowing its head to move
seperately from the rest of the body, which hugely increased the
authenticity and audience ability to emotionally connect with the
character. Zara, the creative outreach director, also recommeded a great
selection of books which were used by the theatre in their puppet
production, and had a huge number of technical diagrams explaining
further ways to achieve different effects. She also suggested other
companies in Norwich who could be of interest for us to work with when
we take the project further in BA3B, including Tin House productions who
had created the elephants for the Lord Mayors Procession in Norwich.
LO4:
In
this unit I have really began to push my practice in new directions as I
took a willing step away from the street art focus which has dominated
my work until now. Although I think these have been effective in the past, I felt the need to discover new strategies to fully express the immediacy and significance of the events at play, and also began to recognise the problematic nature of further reproduction of images of animals.
I initiated the puppets project as the new solution
to the problem of raising awareness and bringing animal encounter to
unsuspecting audiences. The motive of this new strategy was supported by
my growing research and aimed at stopping animals from just being
static images which are subjugated and re-appropriated by humans and
allegory, instead arming them as subjects which are fluid, autonomous
and exist in their own essence. However because of the strength of my
belief and excitement surrounding this new direction, I wanted to ensure
I could focus 100% of my energy into making it absolutely perfect, so
made the informed decision to postpone further development until after
my dissertation. I also worked on the 'Surface Tensions' piece which appropriated themes of museum and display inspired by the work of Mark Dion, which I found interacted with the gallery space in a uniquely powerful way in comparison to street pieces I had exhibited in the gallery before.
LO5:
One of the most creative
examples of audience communication was implemented in my artistic
practice presentation because of the strategies I implemented as a way
of integrating my imperative ecological beliefs in the most effective
way. To do this I carefully considered the way my presentation was
structured, beginning with a very image focussed retrospective of my
exploration of street art. This was designed to prepare the audience in a
very specific way, and heighten their receptiveness to my all important
message in an unintimidating way. By using the poetic device of a
'volta' or rhetoric shift, it allowed me to radically alter the
direction of the presentation in a way which was all the more powerful
because of gradual buildup. After this volta the change in visual styles
from image based, to factual/text based, also helped drive the severity
of my message, and pitching my language personally at the demographic
of my student audience allowed me to attempt to directly reach them as
induviduals to place responsibility and understanding of the issue
forthrightly into their hands.
I believe I have also greatly considered the communication of my ideas in this unit with the exploration of new creative strategies as mentioned in LO4. The interactive elements of puppetry is an entirely different and greatly effective way of staging interaction with audiences, and the 'Surface Tensions' piece used pedagogical visual conventions of display and colonisation to communicate my ideas very differently in the gallery space to the way I had become accustomed to working in second year, but also still maintained aspects of my typical visual styles.
LO6:
I believe
that not only this year, but also visibly in both years 1 & 2, I
have demonstrated a sustained and pragmatic approach to the planning and
development of my professional practice and pursuit of a career in the
creative industries. By maintaining a sustained involvement with Moosey
art gallery and making myself indispensible to the company I have become
the sole employee and maintain a large proportion of the visual
operations of the business. Alongside this, I was also busily improving
my printmaking skills by producing large numbers of the same prints for
my street works, inadvertantly also increasing my productivity and
operating skill at the same time.
These two things came
together fortuitously in this unit as I began to initiate a new angle of
combined practice as a professional printmaker for the business.
Although at first I was uncertain that I was able to transition from
artistic printmaker into a professional practice, and the degree of
perfection and control which is required at this higher level. However
just as I had reflected on before during printmaking, I actually found
the focus required for this level of care and precision a meditative
experience. It made me seriously think about this as an enjoyable and
viable future career progression for me. Due to the level of hands on
experience provided by my position at Moosey I believe this will allow
me to progress my professional printing practice faster than if I was to
begin training as a printmaking intern or apprentice elsewhere.
