Reflection
on the past two weeks – 11th July 2016:
Etching and
a different kind of abstract (2)
The other thing I’ve
been working on this past fortnight is my first ever conference abstract. I’d
heard about a symposium called “Grim up North” via social media. Its topic is
Northern heritage and identity, which I have of course been researching. It’s
aimed at MA and PhD students and postdocs, so it was a foregone conclusion that
I should have a go at submitting an abstract.
Preparing the
abstract was quite challenging but interesting. I followed my usual approach of
reading the question (i.e. the call for papers (CFP)) and working up a
response. I had enough confidence in my writing ability to know that if I kept
drafting, something would eventually appear. It took a lot of grouping my
thoughts, though, and to get out those 250 words I had two or three lots of
initial scribbles plus six or seven drafts.
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| How to write an abstract - the long way |
One of the initial
hurdles was trying to focus in on what I wanted to say. It took a while for me
to realise that I didn’t need to submit an account of everything I’ve been
doing, but rather focus on just those bits that overlapped with the CFP. To
help strengthen my submission, I read back over this blog, in particular the
posts on heritage as a critical perspective from Harrison’s book .
I’ve also got some part-formed notes about identity from Bathmaker’s book, Exploring Learning, Identity & Power
through Life History & Narrative Research, that helped.
I’ve also recently
read a really relevant paper by Annemarie Murland, Migration and Sense of Place: re-contextualising felt experience
through creative practice. (Edit: now discussed in this Week 36 post).The gist of this paper is about translating the
embodied experience of a place into visual form. Murland talks about the
feeling translating itself into the marks she is making. This was something I
think I would have eventually arrived at, with my deep, black, scratchy marks,
but Murland articulated this hitherto half-formed thought. This unlocked the final piece of the jigsaw,
namely the fact that you can depict a lived (felt/embodied) experience in a
non-figurative way and the marks can say more than a figurative depiction could
do.
The next bit of
editing was the style. I’d written in the first person, but thought that wasn’t
right. I read Murland’s abstract of her own paper plus the abstracts of a
couple of others I had previously printed off, and suddenly the style came to
me, and this strengthened the text a good deal.
Finally I sought
the opinion of three people whose views I respect; my colleague Jenny, who
teaches skills including academic writing to PhD students and postdocs; my
colleague Liz, who is also a lecturer in Fine Art; and my long-suffering tutor,
Sharon. Each of them gave me some useful insights. Jenny pointed out that I had
a disconnect in one paragraph – easy to do when you’ve done so much editing.
Liz gave me some deeper insights into my comments about use of colour and also
some useful references about that topic. Sharon pointed out some repetitions
and advised me to read the abstract out loud to myself. I edited it then read
it in my head, and thought it sounded OK. When I did finally read it out loud,
I was amazed to find repetitions I’d missed. I’d never heard of this technique
before and it is so simple and useful.
The abstract is
reproduced below, and was submitted yesterday. I don’t know if it will be
accepted or not. Whatever the outcome, I think it has been a really useful
exercise for me. It’s helped me to hone in a little further on what I’m doing
and how, and I’ve learnt some good lessons about abstract writing along the
way.
Using
wandering and visual response to investigate Northernness: How did I get here?
“The North” exists not only as a
physical entity, but also as a lived experience for the Northerner. How can
this embodied experience be investigated and depicted using visual methods?
Within the various stages of
deindustrialisation - the decay and rebuilding of urban Yorkshire - lie the
roots of the heritage and identity of many Northerners, myself included. The
search for our roots can be depicted visually; the transformation of the urban
landscape forms a rich source of visual material. Heritage and life history
perspectives can be used to articulate stories of the places, people and
objects of the North. By combining these theoretical perspectives with urban
wandering, it becomes possible to visually describe the embodied experience of
living here.
This combined approach opens up an
immersive, visual research method which gives rise to visual responses.
Looking, observing and connecting with the built environment and its peoples,
past and present, brings a sense of place, of being and of belonging. As today
becomes tomorrow’s heritage, so this visual research adds to the pool of
collective memories.
The creative outcomes generate a
personal visual language of Northernness, deepening understanding of identity,
self and heritage. The urban landscape reveals new shapes and colours,
repurposed through the choice of marks and materials. Abstract, non-figurative
artworks invite the viewer to share the embodied experience without the
pre-conception that might be suggested by a figurative image. Colours come into
play: black and white suggests the grim industrial past. Vibrant colours depict
the embodied experience of the present and hope for the future.
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