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Flux

I’ve been inhabiting a slightly strange space in my mind.   These last few weeks have been a period of reflection and summation in anticipation of the submission of the Teaching and Learning portfolio.

That work has run parallel with being present to the conversations around my elective unit of Introduction to Practice as Research (it sometimes plays in my head as Introduction to Research as Practice).

I’ve been learning new words.  

  • Autoethnography.  

I am not sure this is for me.  The explorations of my practice are very much tethered to my identity but I have no interest turning myself inside out in the way that the definitions suggests.

Still, I am wondering and wandering the landscape of what my practise is and more importantly what it might be.  After reading an excerpt and a Guardian newspaper review I have followed my tutor’s suggestion and ordered A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit. Why this book? The two drop-in sessions I attended this week have both been constructive.  Looking outside one’s own discipline for approaches on how to work is enlightening.

Reading Visualising Research (Gray and Malins, 2004) has stimulated my interest in reflective practice which is something I had only considered on a surface level.

For most of us, problems can arise in terms of time available and other commitments, and possible lack of research experience and confidence.

I recognise myself here.

I am looking at my notes from each of the sessions and they are mostly single sentences or a few words.

  • The body as a site of knowledge and production
  • Escape route
  • Contextualisation can lead to overthinking theory before practice
  • Playing with identities

As I write this I’m remembering WG Sebald’s Rings of Saturn.  I’m feeling inspired to reread some chapters.

I’ve made a mind-map (of sorts) in an attempt to draw some new connections between the different elements that make up my practice.

Although I have been exploring printmaking, the main component of my practice is photography and so I have recently revisited a book entitled Photographers and Research: The role of research in contemporary photographic practice (Read and Simmons, 2017).

Mike Simmons draws a distinction between research in science and research in arts practice citing John Dewey.

The scientific worker operates with symbols, words, and mathematical signs. The artist does his thinking in the very qualitative media he works in, and the terms lie so close to the object that he is producing that they merge directly into it.

He then goes on to discuss the importance of thinking critically about the relationship between practice and research, where he suggests taking into account one’s own subjectivity and relationship and how it relates to knowledge and any possible innovation.

He says that by closely examining one’s practice and work in progress, one will be able to question and test ideas using the method of ‘critical distance’ which is defined as ‘ideas, research and practical experimentation.’ 

I’m am looking forward to reading some of the case studies and I’m also already inspired by work by the cohort members.

It’s an exciting time of flux.

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Getting Out of My Own Way

One of the biggest challenges on journeying through this PgCert will be the writing.  I’m not going to hide from that fact.  

  • What to say?  
  • How to say?  
  • Does it make sense?  
  • Will it be understood? 

The Introduction to Research as Practice, at its conclusion requires a 4,000 word essay.  We can supplement it with visuals such as maps, illustrations and photographs but these will still need to be surrounded by words.

I find it a challenge to sit down and write.  There are many ways in which one can procrastinate.  This is the freelance monkey whispering in one’s ear that one should be making sure all the commercial plates are continuing to spin.

Yet when I attend a writing workshop (there have been a few) and I am brought into the right headspace by the tutor, I find myself immersed, the words flowing freely, uninhibited by my own second guessing voice. 

Today’s IRP workshop session was split into two parts.  Lorrice Douglas our co-leader of the unit shared her practice.  It was a way of us getting to know her more and also her sharing how we might construct our final submission for the module.

I have started backwards in reading the conclusion of an essay that it is suggested we read called Research and the Self (Biggs and Karlsson, 2012) in which Morwenna Griffiths states:

“In arts-based, practice-based research the self is inescapable, because the person creating, responding to, working, developing or evaluating performances, artefacts and practices is central to those activities.”

This quote has given me pause for thought because I have never seen my practice as being about me since my focus is other people’s stories.  Of course I realise that it is impossible for me to remove myself, as the stories I am interested in are an intrinsic part of who I am, and especially as it is something I recognise in other artists whose work I admire.

The second part of the session was a writing workshop Writing as Practice with writer Joanna Pocock who also teaches Creative Writing at UAL.

She spoke about the creation, by Dorothea Brande in the 1930s, of ‘free writing’ as a pedagogical tool and its subsequent development in the 1970s by Peter Elbow.  I had previously used this approach having read about them in Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg but the habits they should have instilled have slightly eluded me in recent years.

During the workshop we discussed making the obvious physical and mental space for writing but also more crucially, creating time as a space in which to write (and daydream).

Not surprisingly ten minutes of free writing, followed by a discussion, some reading and a lunch break led to a very relaxed 30 minutes of writing about the object we were asked to bring to the workshop.

Writing metaphorically is not my style so I was surprised by what I produced.  I think much of this was Joanna’s suggestion to create keywords of nouns, adjectives and verbs which derived from studying our object and thinking about its location within our living space.

It’s seems slightly cheesy as I read it back to myself, but in an attempt to get out of my own way, I’m going to leave it here anyway.

I am a long way from home.

I once lived in the ocean but I now see the sunrise from a bookcase in the opposite hemisphere from where I began.

It is so not lonely.  I now reside in a tiny colony with other molluscs and strange though it may seem we have a shared history.

We have all travelled here by way of friendship.  Gifts exchanged between dear ones.  Our purchase a symbol of those who are loved and left behind.

Our exteriors are are tough, resilient, created to protect our once fleshy undersides and interiors.  

Me, I shine.  My texture is smooth, silk like, but work your way around my contours and you will feel the edges and holes where others have rubbed against me.  Pummelled me.   My ridges and colours are scars not of my own making.

Tilt me toward the light and see what you want to see.  There is no one colour to describe me.  I represent the world.

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A Recipe is a Theory

A long, intense and fulfilling day.  It was the first session of the Introduction to Practice  as Research unit.

I chose this module because since I graduated from my Masters (Documentary Photography & Photojournalism) in 2017 I have been trying to understand and formulate my own research process.  I am never quite sure if it is ‘correct’ and I am always curious about how other artists, particularly photographers gather their information.  Interestingly when working with students and their projects this is not an issue and it feels easy and right to suggest that they cast their own research net wide.

Looking at my own bookshelves, web browser and hard drives, especially at material I have collected over the last five years, it is clear that I have been trying to create a formula or a structure which would enable me to extract maximum information from my research. 

In anticipation of the module I had reserved some books from the university library.  A couple were from the reading list and some were sourced by browsing the digital shelves.  Of the latter group one of the titles that I found was Doing Your Research Project, (Bell and Waters, 1987).  

The opening pages around approaches to research have already given me cause reconsider my own practice.  Whilst my work is not specifically about seeking solutions it does involve other people and the gathering of qualitative data which will stimulate conversations around specific topics.

“Because the activity of action research almost inevitable affects others, it is important to have clear idea of when where the action research necessarily steps out the bounds of collecting information which is purely personal and relating to the practitioners alone.  Where it does so, the usual standard of ethics much be observed: permissions obtained, confidentiality maintain, identities protected.”  (Denscombe 2010a: 132)

For this session we were asked to read an extract from How to Make Art at the End of the World: A Manifesto for Research Creation (Loveless, 2019) and note one idea that we took from her idea of research-creation.   The extract was two short but powerful paragraphs.  Both of which resonated with me.

“the next logical, research-creational, pedagogical, step is this: to open the university up not only to different writerly vocalities, as decades of feminist, literary, Indigenous, critical race, deconstructive, and performance studies (the list goes on) scholars have done, but also to different tangible forms (for example, a song, beadwork, a performance, or a video installation) as valid modes of rendering research public.“

This first suggestion of opening up the university struck a chord as that morning I had been listening to the podcast Dialogues: The David Zwirner Podcast (6 Jan 2021) about the Bauhaus school and the interviewee Nicolas Fox Weber (founder of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation) stated that Anni Albers saw no distinction between craft and art.  I think he was alluding to the boundaries sometimes created by academic or the art market establishment. 

“It is with this in mind that I proposed to my students the following – slightly opaque – provocation as central to research-creation in its strong form: the crafting of a research question is the crafting of a story that is also the crafting of an ethics. Following this, in a room full of students who self-identified as art historians and artists (along with a few sociologists and performance studies students), I, perhaps even more provocatively, proposed research-creation as a methodology that, therefore, necessarily sidesteps disciplinary allegiance.“

This second paragraph where she proposes to her students ‘research-creation as a methodology’ as a way of stepping outside of the boundaries of their major creative discipline, made me think about a conversation and a question that arose in one of our earlier seminars.

  • are subject based departments the best way to organise research teaching?

I was recalling my own experience on my Masters where I was given the option to attend one module from another course (Photography Arts).  It was still related to my core discipline of photography but the module content Photography & Aesthetics was very much inline with my interests and the direction I felt my practise was going toward regarding issues of identity, belonging and values.  

It was a rich period of learning that expanded my personal network and led to the realisation that the lines between documentary and photographic art are becoming blurred.  This of course brings into question where the  boundaries of ethics lie.

The title of this post is a quote from John O’Reilly the co-leader of this unit.  I will elaborate in another post why this has stuck in my mind.

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Well That Didn’t Go As Planned

Today was our teaching observation workshop.

My own blunders aside it was a really enjoyable session.  The teaching experiences within the group was varied which meant there was something to learn from everyone.  We listened to music to inspire creativity, were taken into a virtual online space and encouraged to consider how colour impacts on our daily lives.

Most but not all of the group teach design or something relating to that subject and I was one of two people that are not part of that discipline.

The fact that we had to use an object in the workshop made it interesting for me to think about how I might run the session.

By using a 50 year old camera my aim was to have the group think about value.  I created a 1 minute video of the object, a Polaroid SX-70 camera doing two revolutions on a lazy Susan.  Unfortunately I was beset by technical problems so I couldn’t share the video and ended up showing the video page in which the object was visible.  In retrospect I should have dropped the video link in the chat and allowed everyone to watch independently.  As a result of this I lost my focus a bit.

I had a few backup versions including a PDF of the slideshow so I upload that was able to share and carry on.

On March 3rd I had attended an Academic Support workshop called Working Through Projects Using Sensory Mediation run by Jhinuk Sarkar.  It was fun but also really useful to see how an experienced practitioner would run a workshop and how I could apply what I learned to my session.  The pace of the workshop was not at all rushed and this made me want to keep things as uncluttered as possible for mine as we only had 20 minutes to ‘present’ and then 10 minutes for feedback.

I wanted it to be an enjoyable experience for the ‘students’ but I think technical mishaps put paid to the fun element I was also hoping to achieve.

Ultimately the aim was to have them working as a group and creating a story around value from their individual responses to seeing the object.  I created a Padlet page for them to use but in hindsight and after a discussion during the feedback it was suggested that the whiteboard would have been a better way to link their ideas together.  As they would be writing into one space and  this would probably have given a more cohesive feel to the group plus it would also have been easier for me to read.  A suggestion was splitting the board so that top half of the whiteboard was for the keywords (exercise 1) and the bottom half for the story (exercise 2). 

I ended cutting their 6 minute story construction time down to 3 minutes which put the pressure on and definitely took the fun element out of the exercise.  In the feedback it was mentioned that although everyone is familiar with members of the cohort it still takes a while for a group to warm up to a task and to gain the confidence to speak.

Also from the feedback more guidance could have been given on how to work together as a group.  During the exercise one of the cohort suggested each taking a part of the story and writing that.  This was good and what I was hoping for but of course younger students might not have a courage to do this so the guidance would be needed.  And as Kirsten Hardie states she advises learners ‘regarding the requirements of discussions as I recognise that student-led unstructured discussion of objects, where teacher instruction and intervention/interjection is not involved, may be considered as a higher risk activity for a teacher (according to Bonwell’s ‘classification of instructional strategies by levels of instructor risk’ (n.d., p. 7). 

Lynda reminded us that we needed to bear in mind that if one is giving them a task centred around writing then our students may include those with dyslexia.  Managing that might mean briefing a student the day before or enabling them to contribute in another way such as a doodle or illustration.

Making sure that the group has enough time to read one another’s padlet contributions would have been helpful as well.  I realise now I was really focused on them creating something together but didn’t factor in time for them to read and process.

For the course overall, I’m still struggling with reading enough but I did particularly enjoy the Wow: the power of objects in object—based learning and teaching by Dr Kirsten Hardie.  

I was looking for the ‘wow’ effect that she spoke of and I suspect if the group had been able to see a 360 revolution of the object then this might have been achieved.  She states the ‘Students are encouraged to think creatively; to explore their own experiences and responses to the object;’ and those latter two were some of my aims in choosing this particular camera.

Openness to experience is necessary for learners to have the evidence upon which to reflect. It is therefore crucial to establish an appropriate emotional tone for learners: one which is safe and supportive, and which encourages learners to value their own experience and to trust themselves to draw conclusions from it. (Gibbs 2008, p.19).  (ref K. Hardie).

The above quote really struck a cord with me and although I was less successful in applying it today, it is something I definitely encourage amongst the photography 1st year students that I teach. 

As I am writing this I’m excited by the possibly that I could take this object into the classroom when face to face teaching commences, but then it occurs to me that passing the object around a room might not be an option for sometime due concerns about spreading the Covid-19 virus.

Update: I have the opportunity to run the session again next Tuesday, so I’ll be using the feedback from last week to make some improvements.

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Trying Not To Judge

The first article we are asked to read made me laugh.  In fact thus far both pieces allude to the mischievous sense of humour of our course leader.

The fictitious tutor in Teaching Evaluation Study (MacFarlane) might need to reconsider her position in the profession.  At least that was my initial assessment.  One wonders if she cares about changing the educational experience for the students or if the job is just part of her portfolio.

There are various small ways she could change their experience and her own without ‘spoon feeding’ them, the term in this context laden with negative connotation.  Supplying the lecture notes after a class is acceptable and also helpful for students not able to attend (some for very genuine reasons).

She could have the period of a class where the students are allowed to ask questions and raise concerns about the assessment.

Having a meeting with an administrator after they have both read the students’ responses would facilitate an exchange of ideas on how to progress.

Having watched the video….. I’m realising that at the start of the academic year and being completely new to online teaching I was completely second guessing myself.  The need for parity was clouding my judgment on delivery as I trying to ensure that the students got the ‘same’ as their cohorts were with other tutors.  Or to put it another way, that I was teaching in the same way as my colleagues.  

More practice preparation with the topic would definitely have been useful as I wouldn’t normally deliver the whole session.  However, there had been a increase in student numbers this year so for some elements we each had our own group (20 students) that we were responsible for disseminating the information to.  That has since been changed as it was too labour intensive and so we now only manage our groups for their tutorials.

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Bringing One’s Whole Self

We were a small number in yesterday’s Tutor Group meeting.  Around 12 people.

It was a really interesting and again enjoyable session.   The discussion centred around the reading material the subject of which was Love, Care and Belonging.  It was recommended that we read at least two of the listed articles.

I chose hooks, b. 2000. All About Love and Patience, A. (2008) The Art of Loving in the Classroom: A Defence of Affective Pedagogy.

As I commenced reading the article several things came to mind.  The first being the song How We Love by Beth Nielsen Chapman.

And as bell hooks asks if the young can understand love outside of romance and outside of their own personal circle.  The second thing that came to mind was about how we centre young children lavishing much love and attention on babies and toddlers.  Then as their social world starts to expand we then have to reconfigure that attention and manage their expectations so as to ensure they don’t become narcissistic. 

One of my takeaways mentioned in the bell hooks article was the idea of love and self worth and how you cannot have the former without the latter. 

Students’ confidence in their work can ebb and flow throughout their time at university.  It is important to build but also help them to retain that confidence in their ideas and what they produce.

In yesterday’s conversation we also discussed language.  The use of the word ‘love’ and how that is open to misinterpretation in an educational context and what might be a better substitute.  bell hooks says that some people are more comfortable with the word ‘compassion’ although this too still come from a place of love.  Love of humanity as a whole.  To not be selective about that love.  To regard everyone as worthy and equal.

Also with regards to language Allan Patience suggests, in an educational context, replacing the word ‘relationship’ with ‘relatings’ to avoid any negative connotations.  And he affirms that healthy teacher – student relationships are about nurturing the student and recognising and affirming their value and self knowledge.

He also discusses relating whole heartedly to another person and my interpretation of this comes through my own mediation practice whereby one engages with an open heart and mind and does not sit in judgement of another human being.  I guess I fall into the affective pedagogy camp rather than the utilitarian pedagogy.

It was interesting to note that men are the bigger producers of romantic writings on love and women are the main consumers.  Suggesting that understanding love is defined by gender which is probably defined by conditioning.

We discussed how we might develop a frame work for creating a nurturing and caring environment for the students.  Time is a factor, with each tutorial (non pastoral) being around 15 minutes.  Language, class and culture are also factors to consider along with perhaps being new to the country or the city.   

Perhaps at the beginning of the second semester of the first year students could be asked about their own expectations for their future.  This topic could be revisited at the same point in their second year to assess how much it might have changed and what they need to consider when preparing to graduate.  Some of the international students don’t have industries to go home to and some might lack parental support for their career choice.  Others might wish to pursue a more theoretical, rather than creative, path.

This information would help the tutors to offer a more focused support for each student.

PS.  I’m a slow reader and although having not come through a traditional BA route, and despite doing an MA, I sometimes have to labour over the text.   I’ve signed up for a couple of courses via the Academic Support.

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Learning Curve

20 January 2021

This is a post about the group session on Wednesday 20th January 2021.

I’m aware that we are discouraged from posting retrospectively and this is particularly late but January was a challenging month and by the end of the session I had already clocked up significant screen time for the week so I closed my laptop after the class was over.

However, what I did manage to do the following morning, despite the fact that it’s hard to listen to my own voice, was to record my thoughts and it is to those that I am referring now.

Firstly I really enjoyed the session, not that I didn’t think I would, but our tutor was welcoming and shared some personal experiences which created a safe and open environment, which in turn enabled members of the cohort to open up to the group in terms of their personal challenges.

We discussed the reading material (Vilhauer, Understanding Art: The Play of Work) which I personally found engaging and no where near as dry as I thought it might be!  There was an honesty from the cohort about their understanding and the likes and dislikes of the text.

I ran over time with my presentation (as usual) and I’m hoping the course will help me develop my time management skills in terms of delivery of a teaching session.  Trying to find the right balance between too much and too little material is always a challenge.  That slightly panicky realisation, in the middle of a session, that one is going too fast or two thirds of the way through that one still has a lot to deliver. 

It felt good to be able to contribute and take away suggestions from the session.  We recognised that we are all facing similar concerns around online teaching especially around language, intonation and silences and the use of the latter in trying to create a comfortable space for the students to speak.  Also we were encouraged to be explicit in our expectations as as teachers.

Fast forward to today, I am now trying to catch up with my reading.  Personally I like to print reading material as it is more portable and I like to mark the paper, so my recent investment in a laser printer is about to pay off.

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Hello teaching world!

Welcome to myblog.arts.

My name is Yves (she) and I am an Associate Lecturer on the BA Photojournalism & Documentary Photography course.

This is my 3rd year at LCC and I currently work with 1st and 3rd years.

I am really excited about being on this course but it is not without trepidation.  Like many I am concerned that I will have to make do with our allotted 24 hours in a day.

I am also self employed as a commercial and editorial photographer and since the UK is in the middle of a pandemic I see our current lockdown status as a blessing and curse.

I’m looking forward to meeting more colleagues, even if, for now,  it is only online.