MA Week 5 - Thinking about printmaking

Creative thoughts!

Although there is little time left over from all the theoretical research to do anything creative, I’ve managed to fit in a little bit of printmaking. I’ve reflected on it in my creative journal but thought it deserved a mention here, too, since it constitutes research of a kind.

I had a go at linocutting earlier in the month and really enjoyed it. I like the way you kind of have to “think backwards” and work up from light to dark. My technique leaves a lot to be desired but I am going to get some cheap linocutting gear and have a go at home. This experimenting can be a form of action research.

Bricks & Brambles

I also wanted to have another go at drypoint so I treated myself to a half-day course at the West Yorkshire Print Workshop (WYPW). Again, the quality of what I produced left a lot to be desired, but I could immediately see how I could improve. The images show my reflection in my creative journal and the third proof (referred to as (3) in the reflection).

I set myself the professional goal of learning more about printmaking as part of this term’s objectives. Since the WYPW session I’ve had another go at drypoint in college. I can think of ways I could develop it – for example, printing the same image on top of each other in different colours, to represent the kind of distortion of normality that seems to be ever present in my life these days; obscuring part of the print – again a distortion; trying chine collé of some kind; printing non-related images over each other. I think these kind of ideas tie in with my generally “layered” approach to producing artwork. I suspect I will end up carrying forward my “printmaking” objective into the next module.

MA Week 4 - Theoretical Context Presentation

Presentation 1: Theoretical Context

 

 

 

I gave the first of my two presentations on 23^rd October, on the topic of “theoretical context".

I started out talking about how I work, particularly my copious notemaking as discussed in my week 2 blog post.  I also discussed how I use action research, and how I’d applied grounded theory to my practice to discern my main strands or meta-narratives – as discussed in my week 3 blog post.

Having seen the variety and quality of work produced by some of my classmates, I had felt quite diffident about presenting the main theme of my work as a narrative enquiry into my own lived experience. It suddenly felt quite uninspiring. However, I came across lovely quote in one of the set texts, in which the author encouraged his students to discover “the thesis you are living and cannot see”  (McNiff, 1998, p146). I quoted this and explained it had given me the confidence to carry on with that line of enquiry.

I then moved on to talk about my practice itself and the three meta-narratives I’d identified - heritage, identity and process theory. Once I’d concluded I was dealing with these three quite broad categories, I realised that I didn’t have the time to start to read and research widely into each. I therefore decided to relate a piece of my work in each category to a current artist.

In the “heritage” category, I related a piece of my work which comments on the de-industrialisation of the UK (Yorkshire in particular) to the current piece in the British Art Show 8, “the Kipper and the Corpse” by Stuart Whipps. This deals with the closure of the Longbridge motor works in Birmingham.  (Colin & Yee, 2015, p120)

In the “identity” category, I related a manipulated image of my face to the work of the German collage artist Annegret Soltau. Soltau also uses images of herself and her family and manipulates the features to explore how body and spirit connect (Butler & Mark, 2007, p306). I also explained here that I use my own image to avoid ethical issues.

In the “process theory” category, I discussed how repeated quadrilaterals repeatedly appear in my work. I put this down to spending 25 years working in IT, coding repeatable computer programs and defining repeatable processes. I related some work from my current investigation into bricks – repeated quadrilaterals – to the recent public art work by Simon Fujiwara, “Aspire”, which is based on a brick chimney and represents the heritage of Leeds (and of course thereby also relates back to the “heritage” category) (Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, 2015).

By working this way I hope to be able to access the theories I need by researching more into these three artists. I thought this could help identify new and interesting leads, and hopefully bring the theories to life a little.

I’ve presented many times before and standing up and talking doesn’t really worry me. That said, the presentation came in slightly short of the allocated ten minutes, I think, probably due to the adrenaline rush that always accompanies these occasions. I received good feedback, that the presentation was very measured and controlled, and that is thanks to learning this important transferable skill in my previous life. One learning point for next time, though, is that I didn't put a bibliography into the presentation. It had never occurred to me to do this, to be honest, as it seemed it would just be a lot of small text.

This was the first presentation I’d done where I focused on images on the slides, rather than text. In my previous business incarnations bullet points had always been the order of the day. This time I went for images of my work and the work of others. I wasn’t sure how this would work, but it went well as far as I was concerned. Other members of the class seemed to be able to relate to what I was discussing and commented on some of the images afterwards, which was a confidence boost. I will use this image-based approach for the next presentation, too.

MA Week 4 - Brick Rubbing (or not)

 



After discovering I’d been doing action research in week 3, I thought it would be a good idea to share a bit of this month’s action research. 

 

I’ve decided that I will start my MA investigations by looking into bricks. Long story, but everything I create seems to be either to do with industry (or lack of it) or my identity, particularly what I (we?) keep in and what I show. So bricks seem to span the two, so to speak; they can form a barrier, but they also form the built (industrial) environment. 

 

I had hoped to be able to print from some bricks, but it didn’t happen that way. However, I did spend a very happy afternoon experimenting (i.e. action researching) and recording the results in my creative journal, as pictured.  I learnt quite a lot, even if it wasn’t what I expected to learn. This is the best thing about creative art practice; you start out with an idea and thoughts on how you’re going to deliver it. The delivery never

works out in the way you expect and then you go on to deliver something else completely. I also love the way the experimenting absorbs you completely. An afternoon of fresh air and mindfulness! What more could any artist want!



MA week 3 - researching research methods

Research Methods – initial investigations

I was fortunate enough to find a book entitled “Research Methods in Education (Cohen et al) which introduces different methods in bite-size, digestible chapters. A quick browse through yielded two methods which I think are currently relevant: Grounded Theory and Action Research.

Action Research is described thus “ the combination of action and research render that action a form of disciplined, rigorous enquiry, in which a personal attempt is made to understand, improve and reform practice” This method involves problem-posing as well as problem-solving –so there has to be some definition of the problem beforehand.  (Cohen et al, 2011, pp 345-346). Approaches can vary from “scientific” to self-reflective enquiry; however, “The goal of action research is improvement” (ibid, p358).

 

Action (acrylic test piece, 2013)

Research

 

I understand this as follows: if I pose myself an investigative question – such as “how do acrylic media behave?”,  then I can undertake an action regarding this – paint a test piece – and then write a reflective summary – the research. My reflection then feeds what I do next, which may be further tests, or the question may be sufficiently answered that the practical experience gained can be used in a resolved piece.

Grounded Theory states that the theory emerges from the data, rather than vice versa. It holds that patterns and theories are implicit in the data, waiting to be discovered. The theory is emergent rather than pre-defined and tested. In rigorous use of grounded theory, data is coded and presently central themes (or codes) emerge. Presently a core variable or category emerges, which is one to which most categories are related. When using grounded theory, you have to be able to tolerate uncertainty and avoid premature conclusions (ibid, pp 598-603).

As I’ve been examining my practice ahead of giving my presentation on my theoretical context, I have effectively been using a version of this. If I consider that my pieces of work are my data, I have been informally reviewing them to group them together. I have identified three “meta-narratives” (heritage, identity and process theory) and these could effectively be classed as the “core categories” derived from the “data”.

 

Cohen, L., Manion, L.,& Morrison, K. (2011) Research Methods in Education. Abingdon, Routledge.

MA Week 3 - The curse of academic reading

Reflection on taught session, Friday 16th October 2015

Understanding and critically analysing academic papers

 

The afternoon was heavy going. We had been asked to read and annotate a paper by Peter Dallow regarding practice-based research in the creative arts. I’d dutifully done this and had nearly lost the will to live part way through. This is not a criticism aimed solely at Mr Dallow, should he ever read this. Rather it is a reaction to the fact that I find academic papers – particularly social science-type papers- very verbose. I am used to brief business documents and academic papers seem to repeat the same things again and again, although I acknowledge that that may be highlighting nuances beyond my grasp.

The nub of Dallow’s paper appears to me to be that practice-based research – as opposed to practice – has to have an element of considered, written introspection and reflection in order to demonstrate the originality of the way in which the artist has engaged with their materials and produced an outcome. To be honest, it made me ask the question, “why do we have to write in response to art?” Why can’t we produce another piece of art, or a song? Why can’t we, for example, make a series of images that show development of thought/technique prompted by the article? However, the article contained an interesting quote (which cites Frayling, (1993, p5)) that “creative work is ‘as much about autobiography and personal development’ as it is” (Dallow, 2003, p60).

Some fellow students and I analysed one quote from the article regarding the differences between practice and practice-based research (Dallow, 2003, p53). We concluded that supplying a product to a client constitutes practice. Even if you have to learn something new along the way – for example, a new software package – this is not really research, more a means to an end of getting a tool for the job. This, though, raised the question of whether something might be known to others in the world, but might be ground-breaking for you personally. Also, you might do something within your comfort zone, but that might push others’ boundaries. In that case it could be classed as practice-based research (in our opinion).

I told my classmates that the article had got me quite mad with its excessive verbiage, so they suggested I should cut it up and put it together in a different way so it made totally random verbiage.  This then led us to all get a bit edgy about how we felt about cutting up books… earlier that day I’d been pondering the idea of the tension between archive (keeping stuff) and declutter(being able to move in your own house), and now another tension. Here’s me thinking creatives are not academics, then none of us were totally comfortable with the desecration of a book. We need to push our boundaries big-style.

Some general conclusions from the session: 

        

·         Practice-based research should be innovative, risk-taking, and push you out of your comfort zone.
·         Practice-based research must disseminate information/processes as well as producing a finished product (this is repeatedly stressed as important)
·         The audience and context are part of the research, not just the end product
·         Practice-based research is cyclical and reveals something new to you, possibly about yourself

 

MA Week 3 - Heritage, Memory and all sorts of interesting stuff

Reflection on taught session, Friday 16th October 2015

Creative Practitioner Presentation

Today it was Sharon’s turn to take the first session. I found more in common with her practice than with Annabeth’s from last week. Sharon is a milliner, which I’ll never be, but she is very interested in textiles, and with that, the “heritage” or “memory” aspect. Sharon also has a background which encompasses subjects other than art, and she described how she had sometimes felt “on the outside”, which I’ve felt a few times already during this course (but am working to overcome).

Sharon introduced the idea of using archives and museum resources to investigate narratives from the past. She illustrated that different views (lives) can give rise to different narratives, e.g. millworker vs millowner. This highlighted to me the difference between my narrative of de-industrialisation and Simon Fujiwara’s narrative for his “Aspire” piece produced this year (on display outside the new University library). According to the information board in the University Art Gallery, he views the de-industrialisation as a positive move, moving Leeds away from its dirty past into the “new, post-globalised urbanism”.

Sharon also indicated the importance of considering how your practice relates to that of any given institution – or indeed, how you make it relate – and how that could give rise to opportunities for collaboration. She presented information about students going into a mill, and how eventually students and millworkers began to educate and inform each other. The collaboration helped both groups. Again I need to let this play over in my mind. If I am producing pieces that relate to heritage, is there some opportunity here?

We viewed a film about the pioneering art educator, Tom Hudson, who went to Brazil where he tried to help people express themselves through art when they were suffering from the repression of the political situation there in the 1970s. The film was made by his estranged son using archive material from the NAEA – so once again an illustration of different narratives.

I hadn’t thought of accessing archives (e.g. Yorkshire Archive Service perhaps?) as part of my project, as I feel my own lived experience keeps providing me with enough source material to keep me going, but now I need to let the question of expanding my practice into enquiring into others’ lives play over in my mind. This also raised the ongoing issue of the narrative of your own memory. If you create works from your own past, whether from objects or simply from your own memories, does this start to create another narrative as you re-examine your memories? I think it probably does, and on top of that there is going to be plenty of potential for other narratives if people view and react/respond to your work.

Finally we examined some museum artefacts that had come from the Whitworth Museum in Manchester. They had come without any documentation as to their provenance. We examined some babies’ bonnets and a beautiful embroidered scarf and tried to identify any clues about where/why/for whom they might have been made. The idea of different narratives was underlined when I said I thought the exotic church, birds and houses on the scarf might indicate it was (from? a representation of?) Mexico, and my classmate thought it was from Turkey. We are, I suppose, constantly reimagining our past, and probably our present too. We assign new perspectives to old objects. We look at ads from the 1970s and think they are ridiculously outdated in their portrayal of women. We watch old 1970s comedies and can’t believe how politically incorrect they are. But life wasn’t bad then. Did we just take ourselves less seriously? Perhaps a little of that, although I know I have a feminist streak from growing up at that time and the dominance of the male world-view.

The more I write here, the more interested I am in all this about memory and reimagining and narratives. I think it already appears in my practice and probably will do so more strongly in future (if I ever stop writing and do something creative).

MA Week 2 - Notes on notes....

One of the things I need to get my head round PDQ is how to make notes on lectures, notes on books and papers I’m reading, and how to keep a Research Methods Journal. 

I am a maker of copious written notes. I already have multiple notebooks on the go for this MA course, which makes me feel mighty happy as I love notebooks. I love the blank pages, the joy of the lovely paper, the ability to write in them in my small, black writing, the physical action of writing. It helps me think. There are lots of arrows and bullet points and exclamations. I think in words and my thoughts transfer seamlessly to the paper. It’s a technique honed via many a lecture and meeting over the past whatever number of years. 

Writing notes in the taught sessions is fine, and I can review them at leisure and make connections and conclusions. Mind maps and ruminations about the presentations I need to do are also good in the notebook. However, I have been struggling a little with notes from textbooks. With the need to be able to quote and to give page numbers, I wondered about going straight into a word processor. The recommended text by Blaxter et al (2010, p. 121) suggests doing this. I gave it a go but it took far more time than handwriting (above)! Using the computer seemed to make me go into overdrive with detailed quotes, rather than my usual annotated scribbles. I also found, perversely, that I remembered less of what I’d read – presumably because I hadn’t physically written it. So, I’ve now reverted to my hand-written notes and hand-written quotes. I’ve introduced a new tactic of writing a short summary, a few sentences, at the end of each piece of reading. This seems to be working well for now.

 

I’ve decided I have to give blogging a try for the Research Methods Journal…. so here we are. This seems to be the best way to deal with being able to keep up the journal whilst having to have it “handed in” at the same time. It also makes it easier to insert images, rather than having to print them and physically cut and paste.

 

There are pros and cons though. I seem to associate using the computer with work- business- rather than anything for pleasure. On the other hand I can edit my past entries if I so desire, rewrite history, in a way that would be obvious in a written notebook. This could be useful in a positive way if I want to add something new to a previous post on a particular topic.

Let’s see how it goes.

 

MA Week 2 - Research Methods are not quite as scary as I'd thought

Reflection on taught session, Friday 9th October 2015

Research Methods introduction

 

In the afternoon we had an introduction to Research Methods with Sam . I was relieved to find that I was undertaking some of the methods already, but didn’t know they had defined names.  Research concerns itself with discovering something in a systematic way, and crucially, disseminating the new knowledge. The steps can be defined as: identify problem, observation, enquiry, experimentation, reflection, solving, making the solution public. So obviously one way I could make the “solution” public would be by exhibiting my artwork. This ties in with my thoughts on “where I fit in”, as mentioned above. Arts-based research is considered to be a different approach to either traditional social science qualitative and quantitative methods, and can be divided  into: Research into arts practice –history, theory; Research through arts practice – studio projects plus supporting documentation; Research for arts practice – media experimentation etc. Rather than gathering data, the primary research activity can be something such as drawing or producing technical diagrams.

Having pondered on my notes from Sam’s session, I can see that I am doing a lot of research into practice at the moment. To a certain extent I find this limiting and frustrating, but the research through and for practice will definitely follow next year once these first two modules are delivered. I also concluded that my practice has elements of narrative enquiry – not least into myself. By using my own story and image, I avoid a lot of ethical issues (and this is why I do use my own image). I undertake lots of action research, or experimentation – which tied in with Annabeth’s idea of “playing” from the morning session. I usually produce drawings or images of one sort or another as my primary research. I have tended to work “bottom-up” or in an inductive manner, building up small pieces of visual information, but I am now using these pieces of work to find my “frameworks”, or “meta-narratives” (“top down” approach). So far I am thinking of my meta-narratives as: socialism/anti-Thatcherism, feminism, repeatable forms/patterns/processes…. but watch this space!

 

MA Week 2 - Playing as learning

Reflection on taught session, Friday 9th October 2015

Creative Practitioner Presentation

 

Annabeth took the first session today and talked about her practice. It’s very different to mine – she is an animator – but there was still lots to take out of it. One important thing I took out of this was Annabeth’s desire to learn through play, or experimentation. It made me realise that it’s OK to investigate for its own sake, as long as you have the time, because you never know when you will need to apply that knowledge. Another important point was the idea of working with others. Annabeth had worked with a traditional Indian dancer to produce a “digital cloth” with moving images, which the dancer choreographed. She had also developed a virtual field trip for geologists, working with geologists at the University of Leeds.  These were very strong ways of demonstrating the importance of developing a community of practice. Annabeth also listed her networks and links. A third important point was taking time to evaluate and reflect. Finally Annabeth touched on a discussion of “craft” vs. “commerce” as drivers. Discuss!!

 

I felt very comfortable with Annabeth’s idea of playing and the way it can lead to mastery. I also identified with her point about evaluating, reflecting, and feeding that back into your work. I’ve done a lot of this in my practice and felt very comfortable with the idea of trying to continually improve. Posing a problem to yourself, coming up with potential solutions, working them through, reflecting, choosing how to go forward – I think this is one of the most important ways you can grow as an artist.

However...who is my community of practice? At the moment probably my fellow students and students from previous courses. I am also trying to develop my networks and contacts by attending events, seeing what’s out there, and where I (might!) fit into the Leeds Art Scene. This is something I’m very aware I need to work on. I’ve identified some events between now and Christmas and they are part of my plan to deliver the two modules that need to be completed by December.

 

MA week 1 - Starting out

Reflection on first taught session, Friday 2^nd October 2015

Show & Tell followed by group discussion

 

  

Memory Cubes: an investigation into Therapy, 2013

The first part of the session was a “Show & Tell” and I was in a group with Pamela (painter), Sally (surface pattern designer) and Larissa (musician/performer). I took my “Memory Cubes” and I went first. The others in the group understood what I’d been trying to achieve (depicting what we keep inside and what we show to the world). However, I controlled the demonstration and in retrospect I wish I’d just given the others the cubes to explore! Why do I need to protect them? They have been finished to a quality so that they can be handled. I need to think about other people touching, as well as viewing, my work. Sally referred to the cubes as “bricks”. I hadn’t even thought of that link to my current investigation as housebricks are a different shape. Thanks for the link, Sally! I think it shows that certain themes come out again and again in different ways. I need to remember this and use it to help me identify new threads to my work.

Despite having very different practices, we found some common threads. One was “control”. My work dealt with controlling what you show to the world and what you keep inside – a form of control. Sally was using different printing techniques to demonstrate chaos and control. Pamela made very symmetrical and geometric paintings which were very controlled in their execution. Both Sally and Pamela has used repeat patterns in different ways. We also had some colour palettes in common. Pamela uses a lot of red, black and white, as I do. Larissa had also used black, white, red and pink paint to cover her body in her music video. Sally, on the other hand, had used blues, greens and earth tones.

Something we all used was layering. Pamela uses egg tempera and acrylic media and uses many layers. Sally had layered screen prints on a garment and also used photoshop layers in digital printing. Larissa’s sound was very layered and she uses her voice as another sound layer, rather than trying to enunciate her lyrics distinctly. And of course I love my layering for the complexity it brings to my work. I found identifying these common threads really helpful as I felt it helped validate my work as genuinely creative.

 

Each small group fed back their thoughts into a plenary with the whole group. This revealed some interesting points. One was around “who is the audience”. Quite a few students felt that their professional and personal practices (“free practice”) were different. There was also a feeling that we are trying to please some amorphous mass of people out there by doing pieces that “they” will want – but do “they”?

Curiosity was identified as important. Experimentation, playing and discovery were also identified as important but thought also needs to be given to resolving and “finishing”, not just playing.

Thinking about changes to your process or the medium you work in can change your practice and the message you are giving. However, change of any kind may be forced upon you, may be evolutionary (“natural development”) or may come through choice. Biographical work will naturally change with time because you as a person change. Ethical considerations are also important. Do you need to reveal all your work to everyone? (this question is, of course, of particular interest to me).

An important point that arose for me today was “what is my practice”? I struggled to answer succinctly when Sally asked me. But I have to accept I have now left Access level behind and I need a clear answer. I like the use of the word “biographical” because that is what my practice is –autobiographical, really, quite often. It is, at the moment at least, also collage-based, although not in the sense of using found images like Richard Hamilton or Kurt Schwitters – it uses images I create. So for now I will describe my practice as a biographical, collage-based practice. This brings into play the question of “who is the audience”? I keep thinking that I want to produce lovely watercolours or drawings or prints – but this is not what I pursue! I need to consider and resolve this as I move on with the course.