Thursday 10 November 2016

Reflections on the weekly briefing with Dr Rowan Bailey, Wednesday, 9 November 2016.

In revisiting some of the notes that I made for the research methods and project proposal module TMA 1401, I have been thinking about how my plan development is progressing.

Within the briefing, we reminded ourselves that we would need to have at least four or five journal articles properly referenced out through summary as part of the literature review these journal articles will go together with short reviews and summaries of up to 10 to 12 case studies as research.

As a separate section on the proposal, it's then possible to create a set of the main influences which outline what each of the cases addresses, but also what they don't engage with.

Conclusions and work to follow up this week!...

  • I took away the message loud and clear that we need to fully and accurately "sign-post" what we are going to do in our proposal for this module.
  • It's essential that I need to summarise and analyse the existing literature that is out there to put my work into context. 
  • By continually reading both journals and books on artistic research methods this will help to define my progress. 
  • Ultimately the proposal is all about Content! Content! Content.


Monday 7 November 2016

A reflection on practice (assisted by Richard Mulhern, Sen. Lecturer), module TMA 1404. Friday, 3 November 2016.

 A reflection on practice, assisted by Richard Mulhern.
Richard was keen to explain the role of learning and how this connects with the other module TMA 1401 concerning research and development of research methods.

In this Digital Media Concepts module, what is important is to understand and negotiate is;
 "what will be important for ourselves, as individual practitioners as to what to pick up and research and what to leave alone?"

 In essence what we are trying to do in this digital media concepts module is to continue to improve our own unique and individualised language. In a Masters degree, this is an emergent activity.

In a way, the combination of both the theoretical research module together with this functional module helps in a similar way to an academic Masters degree in perhaps a science subject. The process is virtually the same. The science method is simply all about establishing a goal, defining a process, and then tracking the same and our experiments to hone in towards the convergent point.

It is, therefore, necessary with reflection, not to overcomplicate the work through too much discussion about the method.  And in my particular case, I need to be careful to avoid over analysing object-oriented ontology and speculative realism.
Richard suggested that I looked at the work of Joseph Beuys, which in reflection, is an excellent place for me to consider, as I looked at the work of this artist a couple of years ago. Of particular interest is the work of a body of work usually referred to by Joseph Beuys as "Thinking is Form."

In consideration of the practice towards digital media concepts, this Masters degree will allow me to find new meaning. This should give me the space to learn a higher level of interdependence and reflexivity, that is, continue with the ideas that Ebbinghaus originally planted (nearly a hundred years ago) which is to learn and then repeat, and then learn again, and learn to make further outcomes.

Conclusions.
I need to define what the implicit indicators are for wanting to develop my ideas of how I can draw together the concepts of digital media and speculative realism.
Initially, I have started practical work around animation. However, I am also now considering the use of some kinetic text style to help articulate some of the fundamental ideas of speculative realism.
I realise with the reflection that I need to be careful in how to choose particular visual representations so that I can drill down to define 'what is behind those images'?

An area for study would be due close writing on Joseph Beuys. I know that Benjamin Buccloh wrote extensively about Gerhart Richter and I have investigated those books as an undergraduate. I need to try to find due close writing as a further exercise to reframe some of my ideas.

Reflections on "Visualising Reseach" - by Gray & Mallins

In consideration of appropriate research methods Carol Gray and Julian Malins visualising research guides to the research process in art and design published in 2004.

It is clear that it is possible to invent research methods that are specifically appropriate for the task at hand in an artistic endeavour. It seems appropriate that an inherent part of successful research methodologies is the action of reflective practice. By comparing one's own works and practice to those produced by other practitioners in the field, and also practice created by other artists from different categories or disciplines, provides a much richer outcome towards one's own artistic production. What is key in all of these research methods is the experience of making and creating artefacts and through this experiential engagement it is possible to reflect on what is successful and what is not on areas that are quite often purely subjective whether they are aesthetic or appropriate is always a matter of considered opinion. By making reflective analysis and at the same time keeping in mind theoretical research from other disciplines and combining that with visual comparison and research of other practitioners is in itself a triangulation known as a pedagogic approach.

To make suitable judgements on research methods Gray and Malins explained that "clearly articulated research questions to be addressed through the research and related objectives will enable those questions to be explored and answers. By specifying the research context for the questions and the rationale for why it is important will enhance creativity insights knowledge and understanding. Through the specification of appropriate research methods and answering the relevant research questions rationale can then be developed for use of particular methods.

The ideas of improving learning methods were articulated considerably through the work of psychologist anything house who brought out the theory known as having house theory in which learning followed by reflection and then followed by reflection at a later date was the most efficient way of grasping concepts. In 1984 further work was published by in "the experiential learning cycle" in which Colbert stated that there were four phases for most effective experiential learning. The first is the total immersion in a subject matter to establish a deep-seated experience. The second phase is a period of reflection which follows and concurs with anything house earlier theory. Kolb went on to create two further phases or stages the third one being a conceptualisation of the learning process in itself and by doing this action of the articulating the understanding gained through the earlier experience and reflection permits the fourth phase to be manifested through further ideation in order to develop new aims and objectives and therefore execute upon them in order to gather new fresh outcomes and experiences in themselves for further reflection. Thus starting the cycle again.