OUIL402 evaluation

I do feel that overall I have engaged reasonably well with this module, but probably not to the level I could have done. I don’t think that I integrated it with the rest of my work that well and if I had solidly chipped away at it more often throughout the year, then I could have made more use of it and really felt the benefit of using it to take a more holistic view of what I was achieving with my work and what I wanted to achieve with it. Having said that, I have definitely found it useful in a few instances, in particular the brief which required I visit an exhibition and then reflect on it. The exhibition I ended up going to, ‘What can be seen’ (Vlatka Horvat and Tim Etchells) turned out to be very relevant and applicable to the work I am interested in and have started to make and I almost definitely wouldn’t have ended up going if it wasn’t set. It was really re-affirming to see that other practitioners are interested in the same types of creative exploration that I was starting to lean towards. Before I felt a little unsure of myself, and whether my creative concerns were, in fact, worth pursuing or whether I’d just been spending too much time in my own head and turned them into something more than they were. After this exhibition I also investigated Vlatka Horvat’s other work and again found it to be really relevant to what I was doing, specifically for COP. The ideas I had for the final and most conceptually realised pages of my COP journal were, in part, inspired by some of Horvat’s work. I am happy with how the ‘illustrated self’ brief turned out, but still don’t think I made the most it. I made quite a lot of drawings I was really happy with as preparatory work for the poster, but I didn’t find an idea which I developed extensively and to a point where I felt really confident it would express what I needed it to. I sort of flitted between self-portraits for which I tried to apply the same conceptual methodology I apply to lots of my other work, which seemed a little contrived, and images which were really just examples of the kind of work I often make (at least conceptually) rather than illustrations of how I make that work. I ended up opting for the latter for the actual final poster, which I was happy with, though I wish I had put more effort into developing some more complex ideas. I thought my idea for the presentation, having google translate read out the content instead of me, would have been a good way of connecting my presentation to the themes in my work, namely, my tendency to abstract the subject matter through translating it from unusual perspectives, but I’ve been having some problems with it. The slow reading speed of google translate means I’m finding it hard to include enough information and keep it within the time limit, so now I’m considering just speaking in front of the presentation instead but that feels a little boring. Also I don’t know if actually I’d end up waffling a lot and I would still time it really badly. I should have planned it more and then I could have figured out a full proof way of getting the effect I wanted from google translate another way. Next year I want to make sure I make loads more use of my PPP blog. I often do have thoughts about films or TV I’ve watched, music I’ve listened especially which I think would be worth writing down. I could use the blog as a sort of database of all my creative interests which might help me solidify my ideas and give me lots of new directions to explore. If I kept that up, and made a more conscious effort to find connections between things I’m thinking about outside of College work and my practice then I think I could capitalise on my sense of curiosity to a much greater degree than I am currently. In terms of practical concerns, I really would like to start drawing, particularly observational drawing, a lot more outside of set briefs. I’m aiming to make it a habit, in fact, over summer and into the next year; it often really helps me with the generation of ideas and I haven’t really done it that much this year.