questions to stimulate ideas for research project.

Creative Histories and Industries – Task 3 – for after the Xmas Break

Research Project – Initial ideas and interests

Try to be analytical & critical, rather than just descriptive in your answers to these questions. Consider WHY?  you are interested in the specific areas that you are – this will help to clarify areas that you might want to go on and research further. 

You may have lots of ideas – that’s great! Note them all & we can discuss these at the start of next term before you decide which you want to focus on for the next stage of the module.

Do you already have some ideas about what you would like to research? 

If so, make some notes about these before moving on to the specific prompts below…… (which might also prompt some other ideas)…….

• Which areas of Creative Practices particularly interest you (these may include areas outside of your immediate subject specialism)?
• performance/performative work, music, dance, circus, street performance, costume, comtemporary gallery based art, instalations, sculpture, site specific work, conceptual art, automata, bikes. 
• I'm not particularly interested in photography or film but I feel i'm going to have to use these mediums as a way of recording and presenting my own work. I find that as much as i might love 2D work, i am not particularly interested in making it myself. 
• I prefer my work to have a physicallity, either by being a 3D object or by being animated in some form such as performance. I think this may be partly due to a saturation of images. I frequently 'copy and paste' interesting images that i find on the internet which i might share. This availability reduces their value I think. Although I might enjoy the images or find them thought provoking in a whole range of manners, I also find them 'dead'. A two dimentional image is not quite enough for me. Even in the print room, and i loved printing, I found myself moving on to embossing straight away. When the bike chain punctured the news print, I was delighted. It brought it alive, gave it another dimension.
• I am also quite keen on light, I enjoy seeing how light passes through materials, things displayed on lightboxes are pretty cool. I rather liked drawing in white chalk on white paper, to see the image you had to stand at an angle where you could see the light striking the chalk. There are two images of glass towers which have stuck with me as well. Again this points towards using film/projection in some way. 

• Are there any questions that you have identified in your responses to the readings and lectures that have formed part of the module to date? What about any questions that you have posted on your blog?

many many questions! I'm wondering where art might go next. I wonder what I think about historic ways of living. I love the idea of attempting to live in a neolithic or nomadic manner and documenting it. I found myself wondering how contemporary circus meets traditional circus and whether it's worth mixing different performances - why doesn't mixing circus and theatre work for me? I wonder who's done what with bikes. i wonder if it's possible to ride a mini-bike on a slack rope. 

• Which aspects of the readings and lectures from the module have you agreed with? 
• agreed with? Well, It's hard to 'disagree' with history, I might not like what has happened or is still happening. I don't like that modernism, which sounds great in many ways, like communism, always seems to go wrong in practice. So with communism it ends up being a dictatorship, so with modernism it ends up being soulless, corporate and environmentally destructive. Are there any envisioned futures which combine technology and environmental good practice? Post-modernism, or whatever;s happening now seems so frequently to be plasticy, I don't like that much either! Is there a future for crafts that isn't the preserve of middle age, middle classes (people like me!) 

• Which aspects of the reading and lectures from the module have you found to be particularly interesting?

Fashion. Fine art. photo journalism. punk.

• Which aspects of the reading or the lectures and discussions from the module to date have you disagreed with?
• Sorry, not trying to be pedantic but how can I disagree with the lectures? I could say 'Sam, you're wrong, it was in 1846, not 1847' but i'm unlikely to know really... so no, I agree with it all. Each dicipline is part of and influenced by the others, almost everything was avent-garde/modern/post-modern in it's time. 
• I am not interested pursuing photography or film, or anything technical, for its own sake. I'm not an illustrator or a graphic designer either much as i love print making and hope I can use it more. Although i will have to use elements of all of these things, I sit much closer to art, fashion and performance.

• Are there any specific issues that you feel strongly about? (Art, Design & Media related or not?) 
• Loads! A whole wealth of social and environmental issues. I have worked in nightshelters and run community groups aimed at global and local food security, I've risked my life and liberty for environmental issues. I get outrageously angry at instances of sexism in the press, stories of women being harassed or not feeling safe walking alone and am shocked when i become aware of my own assumptions.I am also a new convert to ashtanga yoga and so currently evangalise about it quite happily. I have yet more issues with public space and how it's used and designed - things like shopping complexes being touted as public space really irritates me - if there are security guards telling people they can't sit there, drink or perform then it's not public space, it's corporate space. Freedoms and liberties I guess. I feel strongly about language and, though I don't meet my own standards, I feel strongly about how we should speak to and teach our children. 

• Which exhibitions/events/screenings have you been to see since beginning the programme? Are there any specific aspects of these that have particularly interested you?
• Mostly performance stuff, arnolfini live performance, arnolfini music performance, arnolfini gallery stuff. Invisible circus. various interesting things at the cube cinema. A lot of scrappyer, less polished stuff and better for it. 
• The things I've booked myself on/do out of college are: harmony singing.  playing the saw, spoons, flute. busking. taking the gramaphone out into the street. contact improvisation. cross-art improvisation. improvised singing. a prop making and automata course (!), experimental textiles course, clowning course. mini-bike dance. bike maintenance session. slack rope practice. yoga. I used to do a lot with plants, i'm still a big fan of plants! The thing i did most recently that i'd like to do more of is the bike festival workshops and, more importantly, things like dreaming up the automata bike music event. That only happened because someone else did all the paperwork and  I don't think my part of it went that well as i am over ambitious and under experienced. I do like making things. 

• What do you know about contemporary employment practices in your chosen area of specialism? 
• that it's competetive, that you need to have a great portfolio and a winning smile plus a great way with applications and interviews. I want to be freelance and don't mind being skint so that bit's ok.

• Are you specifically interested in any aspect of commercial practices? 
• performance. celebratory community art. craft. prop making. theatre design. installation. site specific art.

• What do you intend to do at the end of the Foundation Degree? Do you know how you are going to go about this? What do you need to know to pursue your ambitions?

I'd like to do a top up to a BA, probably in fine art/sculpture or performance but I probably won't be able to afford it. I would like to make performance pieces - street, circus, cabaret, or gallery. I think different work for different purposes. I wouldn't be happy just working in gallery spaces as it would probably lead to me pontificating too much and getting too serious where as I wouldn't be satisfied with just producing a nice piece of popular entertrainment as, to ensure easy appeal, it might be advisable not to be too experimental. I want to experiment, but not be restricted to 'art viewing audiences'. I also wish to be a whole lot better at finding out about commissions and writing funding applications and maybe even residencies (need to find out more about how they work) for community arts, performance, events,  installations and other projects. The only thing I'm fairly sure about is that I'm not destined to be a two dimentional artist, much as I love drawing. I don't know how to go about doing this, but that's why I decided to do this course.I'd like to work with theatre design or prop making and I feel I have the skills already, what I don't have is a clue of how to get work!

 I think the main thing I need in order to fulfill my ambitions is to have faith in my work and abilities and enough 'go getter' confidence to do it - and no, I have no idea how to go about getting it.