building a reference point(s)

what do you like about making work?why do you make work?what do you want from your work?what’s your work for?

building a reference point(s)

what is your work about?where does the work go?who is your audience?

building connections

art history musicdancewritinggeneral/local/national/global historygeography/placecontemporary practice science

your making - contextual framework

social political

personal

critical/theoretical

historical geographical

institutional cultural

geographical

social context

Making and seeing an image always takes place in a social context. The way it is seen and how it is seen are culturally constructed.

Audience for work - who is included/excluded/implicated on the ways an image is produced, circulated and consumed

political context

Specific political issue

broad political issue

gender - race - ethnicity - sexual orientation - class - disability - religion

personal contextBiography - narrative of the selfparticular issues - memoriesWhat motivates/ drives you?Your particular skills as an artist/ designer/writer/photographerWhat strategies do you use when the work is not going well?How do you relate to the forces that in part condition what you know and in which you make things?

critical/theoretical context

Does your work relate to particular critical debates about contemporary art and design practices?

Is your work informed by/engaging with/contesting particular theoretical frameworks/issues?

historical context

Understand how/whether your practice relates to a tradition, with a history

How knowledge relates to periods in time.

geographical contextLocal, regional, national, international, global.

Where do you make your work?

Do you make your work in relation to a particular place?

studio home church city rural cyberspace

institutional context

MA Course - school of design

Your educational background/experience

Your professional background/experience

Your family background/experience

cultural context

In it’s broadest sense - ‘a whole way of life’ - this relates to all the other categories.

More specifically, what works of artists, designers, writers, filmmakers, photographers, musicians are important to you and your work - why?

mapping your practice

Any other contexts worth considering?

Importance

Overlapping

change - evolution of practice

geographical

If you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know when you get there?

If you don’t know where you’re going, then it is best to surround a problem in order to solve it.

If you don’t know where you’re going, then any road will get you there.

Martin Creed: Work No. 202: Half the air in a given space.

Louise Bourgeois, The Insomnia Drawings.

Creed

http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/tateshots-martin-creed-tate-st-ives

Bourgeois

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiOHA0INiqA

A B

A

A

B

A

B

B

B

B

building a research project

making-thinking

learn

implement

ideation

choose

research

define

prototype

ideation (idea generation) – is the

process of creating new ideas.

stage 1• finding the need

• begin to wonder – what if...

• could this be better – personal dissatisfaction

• recognising gaps – professional stimulus

• raising questions

• strengths and weaknesses

stage 2• the identification of a ‘hunch’ – leading to an

identifiable question• so what....the wider significance - why is your

research needed? • how are you going to develop an appropriate

methodology? gathering, generating relevant • what do you hope to gain by undertaking

research?

stage 3• Initial search for information that supports

your hunch

• Initial feedback – peers

stage 4• No apparent external rationale – could

the work be too indulgent/idiosyncratic for a research project

stage 5

• Refocusing the initial proposal based on your discoveries so far

stage 6

• Mapping the terrain

• Surveying the context – to increase understanding

• Selecting what is relevant – evaluating critically

• Identifying gaps

Stage 7

• Identifying a question

• Using this to develop a plan

• Aim, objectives, rationale, methodology, projected outcomes and outputs

• Ethics?

stage 8

• So far

• Planned the journey

• Mapped the terrain

• Located your position

• Now – crossing the terrain

• Modes of transport – methodology and methods

stage 9 • Interpreting the map

• Evaluate – what is valuable, relevant, significant?

stage 10 • Conclusion - so what?

• Critical evaluation – making visible

• Identification of future research

to conclude - research should Be required and relevant – clear – an external, professional

and personal rationale – a need

Be intentional – envisioned, proposed, prepared for, strategic, planned, focused

Be disciplined – rigorous, critical, ordered – it is a structured investigation

Develop a research approach – initiation, context, methods, making findings visible

Be revelatory – contributing new /alternative perspectives and insights

Be public – open to public and future use