Ba1b Formal Written Feedback reflections

Ba1b Formal written Feedback
Interaction with feeback
Reflections and Plans for summer projects/second year practice

Strengths:

Your practice is underpinned by an engagement in theoretical reading and a serious consideration of the ethical issues around making and exhibiting work in today's political context. Your ability to research through sustained and engaged reading and analysis is strong. This guides your studio work. Your presentation was concise and demonstrated awareness of your position as a member of privileged white western society and drew on the importance of certain psychoanalysis in informing your practice. Cosmopolis by David Cronenberg and Susan Sontag’s Regarding the pain of others were mentioned as useful sources. It was felt you worked very well as a group, working cooperatively throughout the show. A high level of consideration was given to disrupting the transient space of the corridor through floor based work and installation elements hung between both walls of the space. Your group discussion was really interesting, and you all spoke confidently about your engagement with the theme. You should strive to clarify whether not your poetic readings (all of which were fascinating) were part of your presentation or were actually integrated into the exhibition/ individual artworks. You then have the question of how to formally manifest address these elements within a show, do you do repeat readings, or use video etc. Your 2,000-word text makes a sustained argument for the priorities of ethical responsibility, activism and resistance in life and in art, as responses to social / cultural collapse. Bringing Dada collage and Elliot's Waste Land together is a distinctive move, and engaging with writers such as Fisher and Guattari shows your serious approach to critical perspectives.

Within the 'strengths' feedback I feel my research was praised. This is the area I am most confident within and I feel that showed greatly. However, due to the sheer amount of research and ideas I have I feel my essay was over complicated. This was commented on within the 'development' section. Also, a thorough edit would help. Due to the amount of writing I produce, errors are often overlooked. This was entirely my fault and I should have been more vigilant when reading the essay back for errors. 

However, to progress with my practice, writing is something I hope to appear and utalise to communicate themes. When producing this writing I will check more thoroughly for errors and ensure my ideas are clearly communicated. 

Further to these issues, my 'making' process was questioned. I feel this is a fair comment. I admit my process is mainly aesthetic and therapeutic. First and foremost due to the wish for people to enjoy the work and remain open to the meaning. However, much of the work was not paired with that meaning so the aim fell through. If the work was to be accompanied with research and ideologies, then the viewer would be more informed of the underlying metaphor. Investigating text and poetry (sound work also) would progress my work. Artists books are something I hope to look into and engage with. This could a possible way to successfully communicate idea and illustrate them visually through my more expressive paint work. 
After this feedback, I have been lead to research video work and how this could possibly help me convey my concepts and ideas. 
Initial Artist research/interaction after feedback-
http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern/display/media-networks/hito-steyerl (work viewed first hand at Tate)
Hito Steyerl, How Not to be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File, 2013- Specific interest in the voice (sound recording) used within this work. The automated sound was similar to something I chose during hybrid. The sound removes personality from the words and allows real dwelling on the sound. The long pauses between the words also help this effect. However, the slow pace of the work makes interaction difficult. The concepts and themes of my work demand attention and if a slow pace was presented then attention would be lost easily. This would not help the message convey to the individuals viewing the works.
-The Otolith Group- http://otolithgroup.org/index.php?m=information

'The work is research based and in particular has focused on the essay film as a form that seeks to look at conditions, events and histories in their most expanded form.'

After looking into this group's work I identify greatly with the heavily conceptual aspects. The use of video work and 'artist experiment' to represent a theme is interesting. These experiments prove that there is a process involved, the thoughts tracked by video or object. The critical nature of the work is something I feel my work may progress toward. A publication or extensive explanation of work allows this critical aspect to extend and reach further.
-Multitudes: Guerrilla News- 'Multitudes contributes to contemporary modes of knowledge production that demands a critical engagement with the political and cultural conditions of the present thereby affirming the potential of intervention within the disorientation of the now.' This type of platform is of great interest to my own art practice. The very active nature of the idea and the aims it holds to improve and progress society is something my own work can relate to. I struggled with this in the first year of the degree as I was not able to combine the conceptual writing of my work with the aesthetic works. Now I feel I have a clearer idea of how both can combine and how my work as a practice will develop. 

Areas for development:

Can you engage in more experimental and/or sustained approaches to making, focusing or combining media that may connect to and convey your research lead practice? Your research around Harry Sanderson and Terrence Malick is relevant as both use text and poetic approaches to making work that is philosophical and political. Consider the 'video essay' moving image as a format (Hito Steyerl, The Otolith group, Fiona Tan). Or perhaps poetry/artists books could be a way to develop this aspect of your practice (Lisa Robertson, Katrina Palmer). Consider the way you list your materials alongside the title as an opportunity to potentially reinforce the ideas behind why you have chosen to use them or else be ambiguous (i.e mixed media) but do it with intent. Written wall texts were placed next to each work, these provided a fascinating context to the artwork, but by occupying the same zone as the work on display they did disrupt the flow of the space, it was felt that these would be better situated in an accompanying pamphlet or a single wall vinyl. By not doing a traditional group presentation at the start, as asked for, it did become confusing from our perspective so always make sure you refer to the structure outlined in the brief in future. Your 2,000-word text would be much improved by a thorough edit / redraft for clarity, consistency and format; slowing the pace down to look at issues and examples in greater detail would help this process too. Research could be extended, notably on Berlin Dada, and the essay's intentions could be better signposted from the outset.