Saturday 8 October 2016

Digital media concepts, a tutorial structure discussion.

The study of digital media concepts (TM 1404) carries 30 credits towards the Master's degree
it will be the vehicle and basis for peer group feedback.
Within it, we will learn the ability to analyse key concepts in digital media
to develop perceptual expertise.
And hone and improve critical analysis techniques.

A Masters degree teaches one to think in a much more structured way.

The lecturers appointed for this module are Dr Liam Devlin whose particular speciality lies in the conceptual and research writing practice; together with Richard Mulhern, whose expertise is in creative production and execution.

It is recommended to read the project brief, which accounts for 100% of the portfolio and works together with the reading list which is located on Unilearn jointly with the module brief

As part of the Master's degree study, it is important to realise that the work is very different from that of the undergraduate level. It isn't necessary to learn "craftsmanship," as your earlier pedagogy would have been expected to give you this skill. However what is important, is the emotional connection and success to what you achieve as an output. Nevertheless, this study at postgraduate level degree requires a student to commit to developing a clarity of purpose to make a critical framework with a higher standard of clarity, academic rigour and professionalism in the chosen subject.

In essence, it is an engagement in building an informed, critically articulate approach to your practice.

In this sense, we are all producers and makers, and thus any work submitted as part of the course must be technically fit for purpose.

The idea of craftsmanship at the postgraduate level should be much more meditative with the practitioner engaged "in the moment". It is then that you apply the technical rigour to analyse what you have done and created, to contextualise and implement the academic rigour required in a team environment.

It is, therefore, essential to use deadlines set by the lecturers effectively!

Creating new networks of people are also vital to the creative environment and here in Huddersfield, located between Manchester and Leeds on the M 62 corridor, makes this particular region active and fertile for developing personal networks in the creative field.

Do not limit yourself to only attending the workshops that you might just be peripherally interested in; it is useful to do them all because it is through these engagements that new ideas will flourish.

We are always engaged in a constant battle of emotions versus logic; how we carve and refine our ideas of how visual images are received is a response that is to be critically cultivated. When we create an image or a visual response to some thing, we need to test it, then test it, then test it again. It is useful therefore to develop the online presence of your practice consistently through engaging with Instagram, twitter, tumbler et cetera almost as a second nature.

Consider that the whole creative practice is built upon 'Association'. Through the creation of, for example, record sleeves, magazine sleeves, book covers, videos, event recording et cetera and then displaying them through various media networks, creates a kind of network of people to help you execute and realise future projects.

During tutorials, it is vital to bring images, notes, recordings, print tests, ideas and moving pictures or videos, etc. to allow lecturers and staff to engage with your work on a critical level too. However, Richard Mulhern also suggested to "beware of the Pub- philosopher" when looking for your feedback about ideas from those individuals whom you may know. The "pub philosopher" often have great ideas about work but are usually completely incapable of executing anything. It is your job as a creative artist to have the ideas and then actually implement them, entirely, producing resolved outputs that adequately feed into your next creative endeavours.

Resources that are also useful for this community are;
Redeye
Grain
Foam (Amsterdam) as sources and publications, which also have an online presence.

Competitions for digital media practice should be fully engaged with and include;
BJP Lens-culture. And perhaps www.photomediations.
Competitions are vital to engaging with if you want a career as a digital media artist as these are now perhaps the only defacto away that creative directors usually select people for recruitment in this day and age!
It would be useful to sign up to the Photomediations website as they have something called the Photomediations Machine which highlights and showcases various practitioners within the current context. For example Catrina Selewis,-her ideas of unthinking photography are useful paper to read in which it discusses different approaches to image making. Within this article, she articulates very clearly that the content is always the same as it ever was, but it is the process of presentation and reprint or re-presentation that is now different, and it is this area that needs to be explored.

It is also extremely useful to volunteer at digital media events and festivals such as the Bradford symposium and book fair at the "impressions" gallery.
The "format" exhibition at Derby in April/May 2017.
The "look 17" will be held in Liverpool during the summer/May 2017.

Other exhibitions and galleries should be visited and attended as often as possible, for example, the "Open Eye" exhibition, currently showing Sarah Fisher, a very progressive artist not to be missed.

As an exercise for the next tutorial in a couple of weeks time, an assignment was given to select a single text that connects with my practice. The text and summary should be submitted by 17 October and should articulate why it is important.

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