Library research refresher - tips
- brainstorms and mind maps for keywords and their synonyms
- follow interests and you will find connections along the way
- look at subjects outside of your discipline and outside the arts
- R E A D ! Read for fun, be curious
- Whitecliffe library homepage is updated frequently, check for useful information
- Fine Arts online resource and database pages are available
- journal articles are often more recent than books (takes longer to publish the latter); access through EBSCO etc.
- E.H. McCormick library is only open by appointment but can be useful if you're looking at specific artists
- Auckland Library has databases that can be searched too
- To find a journal: check library holdings, check databases, Google for it, or ask for inter-loan requests (fees)
- BFA(Hons) and MFA catalogues are available in the library and available as PDFs online
- Auckland Museum Library is available by appointment (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)
- keep a note of reference (book/article, page number, author, etc.) on notes pages or photocopies; build as you go
Guided Brainstorm - Critical Contexts, Feb 24th 2022
idea (concepts, contents, subjects, etc.) + language (formal languages, material, media, visual, etc.) = content
Motivations - what's inspiring to you?
- it doesn't always have to be a literal part of the work, but what's driving you?
Practice-wide
- 'bedrock' ideas that are consistently present, but often in the background or across multiple works
Specifics
- ideas that drive individual works or bodies of work in a particular direction
Working with language
- the formal language or combination of languages used is part of the content of the work What does that language lend to the work? How does that change the meaning or the subject that you're working with?
- your approach to your chosen language will be read as content by your audience
- a process consciously deployed is a methodology, a purposeful intention
- the 'chemistry' between ideas and language needs to be constantly tested, analysed and evaluated. What worked last time might not work the next time
- content emerges in the work through the process of making
Research
- research connections through ideas; fields of research that relate through ideas/subjects/concepts but not form
- research connections through language; fields of research that relate through form
Even describing the work in its most basic terms gives you a net of terms from which to drawfrom , i.e photography, still life, colour, contrast, NZ Gothic, cosplay, character, narrative, etc. Sorting and filtering
- not every work (or exhibition) you make is about all of your ideas - the emphasis is different each time
- There is a hierarchy - some ideas are more or less evident to a viewer
- content emerges in the work through the process of making; it's a reflexive feedback loop
smudgeskittle.com - writing game that can help with prompts; embodied writing exercise
States of embodiment produce bodies of writing...
Word associations for my practice:
immersive, studio-based, site-specific, personal, embodiment, data, digital, video, installation, light art, information, experience-based, memory, introspection, psychological, philosophical, abstract, boundaries, a collapse of space/boundaries/information, liminality, barriers, spatial, drawing-based, documenting
From others on my work: the body as an art-making space, light, simulation, domestic, technology, Covid lock-down bubble, personal, moving image, spatial
Statement of intent
This year, my practice expanded on my interests in documentation, data collection, digital technology,
and the self in an anthropocentric society. These are themes that have developed throughout the course
of my degree and that I wish to continue investigating in future through multidisciplinary art practice.
In my studio work this year, my interest in these themes has manifested through an investigation into the
perception, mediation and experience of liminal states, and the humour and futility at trying to define,
capture or systematize the ephemeral. This led to an exploration into theories of New Materialism and
Object-Oriented Ontology, as well as those surrounding the formation of cognition. The role of digital
technologies in building an understanding of the world through documenting or translating information
was also a key element, and their use was a recurring part of my methodology – often using digital
photography and abstraction, as well as applying machine-like parameters to how organic data was
processed. I hope to delve further into these themes in future, particularly those surrounding digital
media, mediation, and perception as I feel there is much more to be investigated there. Immersive installation art and environments are also areas I would like to build my skills in.
Recently I have moved towards a more drawing-centred practice, something I would like to continue to
develop in future, particularly in combination with new media and technology. These were themes that
informed my Year 3 End of Year video installation work, Surface Level (bubble up, bubble over), which
combined digital video and virtual reality drawing to explore the liminality of psychological and physical
boundaries and the construction and perception of one’s reality.
HOMEWORK:
- look at the list from today and see if anything needs to be switched or changed from your statement of intent
- write my research proposal as one sentence
- write " in the voice of a fictional character
- write a one-sentence research proposal for someone else in the room
Comentarios