Unit 2 Assessment

MAVA Fine Art Digital Unit 2 Year 2 201819 assessment brief (1)

Indicative Content:

• Exploration of Practice
• Exhibition Planning and delivery
• Personal and Professional Development

Please find below the evidence required for:

1. Participation in the Symposium:

Symposium 2

2. Critical Evaluation of your practice and future
development (500 words):

The MA Summer Show preparation has allowed me to consolidate an idea that was embedded in my work from the outset: the painting plus its video as a single modular unit of installation. I intend to continue this trajectory already having further oil paintings on aluminium in progress in the studio.

The inbuilt modularity offers flexibility with respect to exhibition spaces in developing proposals to show work. Whether showing a single unit in a small space or multiple units in larger spaces, each unit can exist independently or as part of a greater number, sharing the same architecture and related points of origin.

Material is important to me. I have documented the reason I use oil as a medium in the recent Second Symposium. I intend to create a new series of smaller works in oil on copper. I have used this metal support before and know of its potential to offer different qualities to those of aluminium and look forward to discovering how this might affect my methodology.

I have come to realise that a painting possesses a memory-narrative which is hidden in its final state. This narrative is unveiled through the videos I have developed bringing together poetic narrative with the poietics (the “making” dimension) of the work . The continual documentation of all the phases of a work in progress to compile the videos has become vital to my practice and I intend to further hone my camera and digital editing skills and improve my studio set-up. Taking as a model William Kentridge’s studio set-up, this would include an arrangement for fixing the camera for perfect registration of the images.

Importantly, the MA has paved the way for further research. I am currently formulating a specific concept which builds on my research statement, focusing on aesthetic considerations from painting. I will bring this to a point where I can initiate a conversation with a potential academic supervisor with a view to undertaking a practice-based doctorate building on ideas and concepts developed throughout the MA.

During the MA I have created a number of poetic texts some of which form the basis for narrated audio tracks for the videos presented in the Summer show. These poetic narratives enrich my work as a whole and have the potential for publication. I have found that I actually enjoy voicing the texts, which was unexpected at the outset. This opens up a new possibility for performance, to experiment with and develop further. Other audio tracks have been created using sounds uttered by me, then made into soundscapes. With headphones, the videos offer immersive audiovisual experiences to the viewer/listener.

Also, I intend to develop the MA body of work as a touring show, building on previous experience and that gained during the past two MA years.

 

3. Reflective Journal (at least 2000 words):

Blog Curated According to Learning Outcomes (and Marking Criteria):

• Present a resolved body of original creative practice that has evidenced the
systematic enhancement of your knowledge and understanding (communication and presentation; technical competence; personal and professional development; subject knowledge; research; experimentation).

links to evidence in bold blue below:

A distinct goal of unit 2 has been to present a resolved body of original creative practice delivered at the Summer Show according to my Project Proposal, ensuring personal and professional development in the process. As evidence of resolution of this are the images of the Summer Show final installation

Continuing throughout Unit 2 to create and sequentially photograph the paintings in oil on aluminium, alongside processing the images and creating videos, I systematically organised work ongoing into sub-categories: show building blocks (physical and conceptual) and works selected for the Summer Show (including notes to self -further reflecting on these selected works). Finally, after much thought, titles were created ready in good time to fill in the forms for labels

The paintings were worked on over months and the oil takes a long time to dry completely; I therefore began the paintings in Unit 1 as a technical consideration.  I had prepared nine paintings and their videos in good time but in the end space dictated that only five units could be accommodated. However, this organisation brought me the extra unexpected opportunity, outside the MA assessment, to apply for the Select Show in Camberwell Space, as I had work to spare. Importantly too, my time plan for the Project Proposal had allowed for a further artistic development of the emergent videos: with a notion in mind, of painting as poetry, I was able to create my own poems/audio tracks for them, creating interchangeable form and with headphones an immersive audiovisual experience for the viewer.   The research and thought behind this (paintings into words) represents a significant artistic step forward in my practice, allowing me to deepen and extend my ideas further in alignment with the actual pieces of work produced, physical and digital, for the Summer Show.

Professional consideration was given to the fact that the Summer show is a group show, a collaborative effort, so it was/is important to be clear but flexible. I organised the work in a modular way – from one to nine installation units, each unit being a painting plus its video.  I communicated as clearly and as early as possible at the time via the MA Wiki space my needs with respect to space and equipment so that the best arrangements could be found for everyone. Tutorials with Jonathan have greatly helped clarify the way ahead and with Kaori I was able to consolidate my ideas further.

Unit 2 continued/continues the Unit 1 exploration and reflection (continuously making notes to self in many blog posts), experimentation and research – systematically enhancing my knowledge and understanding at all levels of my practice – enriching and consolidating my methodology. This has been done (unfolding pictopoiesis) through the lens of my own painting-making system, pictopoiesis.  

Along the way, I have used the blog as an online sketchbook for experimental gifs and videos. – something not possible with a conventional sketchbook. I have kept my blog throughout according to the simplest theme, Coherent, for continuity with Unit 1 but also with a view to developing it further as there are many possibilities.

• Analyse and critically reflect coherently upon your own practice and its
context (research; analysis; personal and professional development).

I have for many years been in a studio-based context, working independently but I have now, in my ongoing work, created a way of communicating clearly online not only the painting in its gestalt state but its process, exploring the concept of time-based forms as gif animations and videos. The painting and its video together become an installation unit and my work has developed into a matter of producing these units. Actually, the videos could also stand on their own; representing the painting in time-based form, so the physical presence of the painting, though desirable is not essential. Crucially, this means that I have as a result of the MA, created a flexible, scalable presence, both in real space and virtual/online, opening out my ongoing work to a much wider audience than is possible with painting alone. This enhanced presence also means that I can communicate readily with people in other very different contexts, potentially spanning disciplines.

The 2nd Symposium allowed me to critically reflect, analyse and further clarify my thoughts concerning where I am coming from and future trajectories. This along with the research discussion briefing (for which I prepared a special page for online communication) and overall symposia feedback from my peers and others, and regular skype chats was important; painting being notoriously difficult to analyse and explain, having its own silent language. I am now developing a clear idea for a practice-based doctorate, a potential supervisor in mind, this MA having paved the way.

The word poiesis (ancient Greek) means a making (especially artistic production) and a painting is an actual making. Poiesis is also the root of the word poetry. Throughout the MA I have been trying systematically, through exploration, the experimental and research, to clarify painting as a poetic making (unfolding pictopoiesis) not only through the lens of my own system, pictopoiesis which simply means painting-making but also through the creation of other forms such as Leporellos and many experiments with the notion of line and many arrangements of single and multi gif animation forms as threads/membranes/walls. Participation in all of the interim exhibitions has allowed me to filter, distill and critically reflect on all matters, as I go.

• Summarise and evaluate your overall progress and formulate a constructive
plan for continuing Personal and Professional Development (personal and
professional development; collaborative and/or independent professional working).

My overall progress has been huge; I have successfully reached a point where further practice-based research at doctoral level is the next logical step. My area of thought, developed in practice and enriched through the Research Statement involves the aesthetics of painting, natural science (specifically circadian neuroscience). This trajectory amounts to a significant development of my practice and its future possibilities. Importantly, I am now able to articulate my ideas more appropriately, to be able to forge certain interdisciplinary conversations on which to build; this was something I began doing in Unit 1.  I also plan to develop work ongoing as a touring show (as stated in the critical evaluation above), this in parallel with practice-based research at a doctoral level.

Throughout the MA experience in collaboration has been gained not only through the residency projects involving my fellow peers but also at home: Alexis Rago (fellow MA Fine Art Digital peer) has worked with me on audio tracks for videos, beginning with Fabric of Common Descent. Our conversations, already underway, are destined to become ever more fruitful,

4. Practical work resolved according to your Project
Proposal and presented professionally as part of a final
exhibition:

links (in blue bold)/ to evidence