The beginning of the day was a brief introduction given by Anne McNeill (Director) and Dr Pippa Oldfield (Head of Programme) explaining there roles within the gallery and asked us where we were in our studies and our motivation regarding photography, it was a relaxed informal ice breaker. OCA students in attendance were Andrew, Allen, Anna and myself with OCA Tutor Garry Clarkson It was followed by a talk and a walk around the exhibition - Chloe Dewe Mathews - In Search of Frankenstein which centers around the location of Lake Geneva where Mary Shelley wrote “Frankenstein” in 1816. The work features the Alps and a network of nuclear bunkers that are hidden within these mountains, sharing similar themes of man made monsters. The work was interesting and engaging. The attention to detail incredible from the framing to the layout of the work itself. The format of prints switched from the large landscapes to the smaller prints of the bunker interiors. Overall there was a dominant landscape format which was intermittently disrupted by portrait formats. The landscape images always separated by the interior images so that landscape never touched landscape. The interior images predominantly grouped in two’s and three’s with the occasional single image. It seemed so natural that the landscape images should be bigger that the interior, small by comparison. This harsh environment, open, isolated, absent of people apart from me looking at this landscape. If I tried hard enough I could hear the sound of the snow underfoot, the whistling of the wind and the cutting cold. This set against the interior, equally has isolating, absent of people apart from me. The interior closing in, cold and clinical with the echoing of footsteps. Both environments bearing down foreboding, we seek shelter from the elements going from the outside in, but once inside we try to escape, we are trapped. There was also two display tables with archive material. One with archive photographic prints some of which showed the same landscape that Chloe Dewe Mathews had captured showing the environmental changes that have occurred over time and the environment impact we have had on the landscape. The other display table with a series of archive books with differing covers. some with open pages. The scanned archive text displayed on the walls taken from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was so much larger than the images, almost like when you read a book then you imagine the scene. The text carefully selected to echo the moment when the monster is first seen. The exhibition was effective and created a sense of tension, a feeling that something was or had happened. The work made me think. After the talk on the exhibition we sat down and Anne and Pippa began to talk about how Impressions programmes, working with emerging photographers, the importance of audiences and the artist statement. It was both extremely interesting and informative. They explained that they have
If I understood correctly they have final control over the gallery interpretation of the work - Framing, presentation of the work, its context, images selected and text. In order to engage the audience on different levels. And that all work must be
This all neatly led into the realm of the artist statement which was reduced after a discussion into a nutshell Who, why, where keeping it simple and straightforward using plain language avoiding loading the statement with art speak. Anna had a very useful guide “The Artist Statement : How and Why to Write Yours” by Jennifier Schwartz. This was followed by the portfolio review which involved laying out our work followed by spending 5 minutes walking around viewing all the work on display. All of the work was of what I felt was to a good standard and that thankfully my work didn’t feel substandard. It was great to hear people's thoughts and motivation on there work, it was both interesting and engaging and will be great to read the other students blogs regarding their thoughts and feelings on there review and experience. It was great seeing how different eyes can change and challenge work, for example Andrew who is on the final unit of level one, work centered on a food bank was dramatically changed and altered just by removing half of the series moving it away from the food bank reducing it to an almost set of forensic crime scene set of images. Allen who has just completed level one work centered around identity and self it was pointed out that the colour palette was one of its strong points and that some of the images didn’t quite fit this colour palette. Anna who is level 3 work on a body of work called One Year which centers around communication via letters from a person who was imprisoned for a year. The work I felt was rich and the strongest within the group which I would expect at this stage involving letters, images of locations and of plants, textiles and prints on tracing paper of stains created by the plants which were turned into fluid, the tracing paper then overlaying some of the photographs. Anne and Pippa felt that this didn’t work very well, and it made me think if maybe there was to many elements at work within the project overall. An effect caused by the amount of material I am sure Anna has. It made me think regarding my own work with the Suitcase and the amount of material I also have to work with. At times the amount of material can become overwhelming. Then the dreaded moment came. I explained what the Suitcase contained, what the Suitcase was, it’s story and what it meant to me. The work I displayed were prints from the series alongside original photographs, contact sheets and a roll of undeveloped film from the suitcase. I talked about it (if I remembered correctly) in a straightforward manner. I explained that this suitcase had become an obsession. And I know the story sounds so far fetched even Anne asked me if it was made up - a fictitious suitcase. I explained that I could authenticate the story via news archive footage which I later emailed the link to the gallery.
One of the comments made by Pippa with Anne agreeing that the digital text and placement of it “Seemed clucky, maybe the text is too large, maybe it’s the font, maybe it's the digital, maybe it should be handwritten” but they agreed that it wasn’t necessarily the content of the text that was the issue, just its placement and presentation of it. This echoed some of Garry original feedback when he was my tutor for EVY - “Not sure of the strategy of including text (i.e digital crisp text as an “Anchorage” device over the image itself” I did explain that I couldn’t bring myself to hand write anything on the backs of the prints which Anne also agree with. My personal feelings that I could make this project last forever, working within it and from it and in different ways, I felt was being confirmed by the review. It was suggested that the current title - The Suitcase Somewhere and Nowhere, may not work and “Looking for Mr Crisswell” could be a possible title that could work - I can’t remember who suggested this title I think it was Anne. It also confirmed my thoughts that typologies within the archive is a possible avenue to explore but ultimately the scale of the archive makes it difficult to see what to do with it, which is why I feel that there is many different projects within it. Like a true suitcase one that is packed and unpacked. Andrew made a comment about if I knew where any of the place were and that I could visit them and take photographs of the same location this was added to by Anne/ Pippa that I could look for people that knew Mr Crisswell and take their photographs asking questions. But maybe like Anna maybe the amount of material there is a danger of it becoming overly complex in terms of presentation. I am beginning to see that in fact the Suitcase requires many more months if not years of work putting into this project and it could take a lifetime. I have always felt that the suitcase is bigger than me and this is still the case. I felt it was a positive response and experience even if I found it a little overwhelming and stressful this made it difficult to keep track of everything that was said. Pippa and Anne made suggestions on photographers who worked in a similar manner, I failed to make a note of it and for the life of me I cannot remember who they were. In fact I didn’t take a single photograph of the event which I regret. I feel I was under prepared and when I look back I think I could tried to engage a little more. But having said that it was the first event like this I have attended so I can give myself a little leeway. Has an introvert group work, discussion ect ect and openly talking within a large group is not something I excel at or work very well within. I find it quite overwhelming and emotionally quite draining. But by default networks are group based and I will continue to expose myself to these situations by utilising these study events and the online Live Forum, I will learn how to cope within these environments. But this level of face to face engagement and contact not just with peers but our expert tutors who are practicing photographers/ artist plus contact with the very experts within the photography/art world some of us aspire becoming apart of, is an essential journey we must take even if at times it feels like we are walking on broken glass. At such an early stage of the course I feel like I have come along way and I am beginning to forge a meaningful creative network that I greatly value not just via the forum but also face to face contact that it can led to. This I am sure will continue to grow and strengthen over time. Like all partnerships and friendships, it is the level of commitment to time and effort. This investment is the most rewarding, the bigger the commitment, the bigger the reward. 1. What you got out of the day in terms of feedback from us all (and of course Anne and Pippa) on your individual projects. I need to explore different layers and approaches to the suitcase, continue to build upon it. Maybe looking at seeking out people who knew Mr Crisswell, selecting different typologies within the suitcase. That maybe I need to be looking and telling the story rather than telling half a story. I can see and understand that peer networks and expert feedback and partnerships are essential has a developing photographer and for the development of current and future projects. 2. What you may have drawn and related to (both in your present projects as well as generally for the future of your photography) from the Chloe Dewe Matthews Exhibition. It can take years for projects to develop reaching a point that it is ready even to be considered for an exhibition and that partnerships with galleries is critical. Chloe Dewe Matthews work shows a multilayered presentation is an effective way to visually engage with its audience through the use of both text - artist statement, scanned archive text from Mary Shelleys journal, archive photographs and books with the main body of work - photographs of the landscape and interiors of differing sizes and orientation. This approach to the suitcase is something that needs consideration for the future. 3. The value, difficulty and challenges of portfolio/exhibition visit days such as this. Value It has been invaluable and is quite difficult to articulate, it has given me a brief insight into the running of a gallery and how they work in partnership, something that I otherwise would have not have been exposed to. The face to face contact with other students who are working on/ at different levels and units, seeing other students working in different ways, using different approaches which help broaden my views and gives me a chance to ask questions about their work, unit and view there work has a physical print which is a very different experience to viewing a digital image. The opportunity to begin to form student and tutor networks beyond the virtual realm. I have met Garry, Allen and Andrew a number of times in the flesh and keep regular contact online this will help form a stronger network and friendship over time. The feedback given within the portfolio review both by experts and peers adds an additional layer of review and reflection which complements the online formative tutor feedback, online email/ forum/ hangout peer feedback which can only add to our development. Difficulty The main area is time, location and financial restrictions. This portfolio was a big opportunity for the fee I paid £20 which was a huge bargain, many portfolios reviews I have seen cost up to £100, something at this moment I could not justify. There is always the time element - life, family and work and of course the location of the event my maximum travel time is 2 hours in any one direction. When you combine all of these elements it can provide quite a large barrier. Challenges I think the fear/ stepping outside of the comfort zone for the portfolio review was quite a factor, stepping out into the unknown is never easy but very rewarding. I know that the more I do it the easier it should become. I also felt quite unprepared, I forgot to take photos of the day, I didn’t take good notes and the review feels like a blur. Maybe next I will recorded the audio on my phone. All photographic material kindly provided by © Garry Clarkson www.chloedewemathews.com/in-search-of-frankenstein/ http://www.impressions-gallery.com/
4 Comments
The few months have been unproductive, I need to knuckle down and get the written work sorted, I need to start making work even if they are seeds of ideas. I wanted to get the unit finished and ready for the Nov assessment this is not possible. I am working on a system a way of working the I find natural and more intuitive in terms of written work. I need a balance. Onward and up wards.
One of the topics on this hangout was put forward by Nicola was “Tips for students to ensure a smooth and stress free first assessment preparation experience?”
This topic was discussed by the group with a number of students talking about the possible way of preparing, presenting their work and learning logs. It was an interesting topic that I felt I couldn’t really comment on after listening to other students approaches mainly because I seemed in my own head I completely went against the grain. The students approach I felt was the way to go. Allow for time at lease 4 weeks Review learning log and reorder making it easier to navigate Spell check Ensure that exercises were complete and that reworks were done where needed This in my own head is the best practice however was something I failed to achieve in my first unit https://whatifiamwrong.weebly.com/ I failed to complete a large portion of the exercises. I left the process of putting the assessment together within a week or two to organize and order prints, never reordered or spell checked (a task to large to perform) the learning log which I felt was very light in terms of research and context. This I felt was at the time a failure of the unit and that the other students were working in a way that I wasn't and I felt I failed to manage. I wanted to comment but it felt wrong to do so, that I couldn’t comment because it would seem that I was taking a position of opposition. It felt like I would be taking the stance of lack of care and regard of the work has well has the course, fearing of coming across has over confident and flippant. I scored 80 on EVY and I didn’t complete all of the coursework, didn’t spell check or reorder the learning log or even really reworked the work. I left it that late that the prints and clam shell, the assessment preparation was completely last minute dot com. Not knowing if prints I received from the printers were a good quality. I placed the prints in the order I wanted them to be seen in. Me basically saying here I am with a score of 80 for the unit not knowing if it would all come together in the end, the lack of research, me saying it is what it is, seemed insulting the efforts of others put into their preparation. The only thing I could think was that I thought and felt on what I did but at this stage I find it difficult to articulate openly face to face. I should have done what the other students are doing but I didn’t prepare nothing beyond what I had already done it was warts and all and maybe I need to accept this and moving towards the end of this unit I believe I will end up doing the same thing even though I have tried to been more organized and mindful of the exercises again I have failed to do this. I need to learn how to verbalize this without sounding flippant or sounding like I don’t care. But I didn't prepare. All things die and decay there is nothing that is untouchable, nothing that is beyond the process of time, biological generations, life cycle. Yet we place eternal faith in technology, in the digital world everything is eternal, preserved in perfect condition stored in the virtual world of the internet and the various storage system. We ignore the technological process of time, life cycles the next generations and versions of software. The Microsoft operating system "Windows" is 35 years old, the JPEG is 25 years old it is only logical to assume that these systems and file formats will become obsolete at some stage. And yet we continue to store and file important photographic images and archives solely in the virtual realm. C 22 was a colour process introduced by kodak in the 50's became obsolete 46 years ago in 1972 this was superseded by the C 41 process. C 41 process continues to be readily developed to this today where has the C 22 process can only be developed by 4 commercial photographic labs and only has a black and white print. 4Facebook is 14 years old, whole archive of personal images and memory stored on a virtual platform that surely come to an end one day. Image recovering 14 years worth of digital photographic archive of one person! When my eldest reaches the age I am currently (44) Facebook would be 32 years old if it continued in the future, I would be 74 years old with a Facebook archive of 43 years!!!! of course the accounts of the dead would need to be closed down. Not including 8 plus computers/ hard drives and other storage platforms.
I am one of those people that if it can be picked or pulled I will act on that compulsion and go ahead and pick or pull. So my current thread seems to be seated around time, memory, personal events, archive and constructed images.
I have noted that although that assignment work has all been created or is in a process of being created are all individual work, triggered by different personal responses to the assignments. I believe that maybe I have created one continuous piece of work, a constructed story of an event and experience of somebody. A story based on truth that has led to a fiction. Assignment one - Postcard, work based the lost of my, like a postcard to heaven without saying mother or death. Assignment Two - Halfway Land, work based on a seizure and recalled of my wife has a witness. Assignment Three - Echo Chamber, based around the pointless act of trying to write in 300 words your day, trying to describe how you feel, what you think, a self portrait. Assignment Five - Work in progress, construction of damaged negatives and family archive photographs with the negatives obscuring people maybe has an indication of lost. If viewed has a whole is it a postcard to heaven, a traumatic event, the after effects of the event, and the photographic memory of somebody that is no more, damaged and fading memory. Something to think about............. Vivid dreams are pretty weird. I use to get them every night when I started my medication for my epilepsy (a side effect) I use to call them sweet medicated dreams but has I have gotten use to the medication over a period of time they have subsided.
Had my first floating dream, I felt light feeling myself lifting rising up it slowly took my breath away it felt good.........then my wife snapped me out of the dream poking me because I took a deep breathe in but not out - guess that was the floating :) Not sure why I have posted it here maybe something to work with? Well I guess it is beginning to happen again, the course work is taking a big back seat. I still haven't submitted assignment two, although it is almost there. I have been working on assignment three and five at the same so the impact is on time and course work.
Its a tricky one, assignment work is my priority, ruminating put it down, if the assignment work presents itself strike while the iron is hot. Of course this means it is not informed by course work first then I will be in the same position I was in on EVY completing assignments first then taking the line of it is pointless to retrospectively complete them. I guess if they are completed retrospectively it can still inform me and the work. I could still retrospectively add to written assignment work and indicate that that is the case. Effectively a large part of this unit is done......essentially backwards, which seems to be working for me. The time management? well my target was a 8 week assignment submission and I guess that I am just creating unnecessary pressure by self imposed deadlines. If the work is weak then deadline pressure will just further weaken it because it will be rushed. I am still on course for completing the course in a year, I still have 20 weeks. A1 is complete A2 is 90% Complete A3 is 60% Complete A5 is 30% Complete I've asked my dad for old photos, I am digging through all of my stuff in the loft, old photographs, an archive of time, place and memories some of which I have forgotten and some of which I have never witnessed until the photograph awakens a trace of memory or a question which always leads to a story. My memory and these photographs share commonality in that they are both hidden away either at the back of my brain or at the back of the loft waiting to be rediscovered.
Where is here? somewhere and nowhere? a suitcase? a biscuit tin? an attic? the back of a brain? A snapshot, the vernacular and the mundane.............. This is a story but of what? I do not know. The presentation and the format the work takes will impact on the viewers interaction with the work. I am beginning to get a very basic feel not just how the presentation and format impacts this interaction but also the works setting.
I think that this seed of understanding is forming out of visiting exhibitions and the different experiences of viewing work online and within a gallery or museum setting provide. So far I have visited Ikon Gallery Edmund Clark - In place of hate Rie Nakajima - Cyclic Langlands & Bell - Internet Giants : Masters of the universe Birmingham Musem and Art Gallery Coming Out So guess what I have been thinking (Jesus I am like a blood yo-yo) .............no doubt written and research is going to be a tough one to break in terms of comfort zone - assignment four is an essay, I feel like I am struggling with the written and the research element. Rumination is kicking in. I sound so needy so self absorbed and irritating but it is not done seeking a pat on the back or looking for comfort. I need and I am motivated to break this cycle.
Look back and review Post EVY Reflection Feed Forward Short sweet, relevant and be honest - I can only do what I currently do but I can look at small changes in practice and approach. Try different things. Continue to type here in my journal who knows I maybe able to turn it in a physical one. Pick a book up here and there. Read one or two paragraphs, write a sentence or two. See work write a sentence or two. I need to organize myself like this learning log, I need to peel back the layers into separate elements. |