I realise I haven’t written a post for 3 weeks after making the intention to post weekly! Another failure to add to the list for my praxis project – I also have a blank black and white film which I processed last week (don’t ask!) and several blank A4 sheets of paper from the photocopier which were supposed to have images on them! Then my car wouldn’t start (but that’s another story!) I have just bought the book ‘Failure’ edited by Lisa Le Feuvre and published by the Whitechapel Gallery and that will be my reading this week. It was recommended by my tutor Anya Lewin who has also given me other links to research. I find her support really valuable. I am also working on the idea of a mail art project around the theme of ‘failure’ so if anyone is interested in taking part please get in touch with me – I still need to work out the details but my thinking at this point is that it will involve snail mail rather than the internet.
For negotiated practice I have been learning photoshop as I want to manipulate the slide transparency images that I have uploaded to my mac. So far I have been practising with layers, curves, colour balance, selection tools and cut and paste – here are before and after images – spot the difference? I have a long way to go with this yet!
I am also reading through Richard Taylor’s article on ‘documenting your work’ and finding that there is much to learn!
The past few weeks have been full on as I settle back into the degree course and ground myself – to find my way around a new university, meet new lecturers and technicians and start thinking about what ‘on earth’ I am going to do this year. Added to all this I must get used to being part of a much larger group of 16 after my previous group of five – I think this will be really positive though with a much broader and dynamic platform for discussion. I am on a part time course thank goodness as transferring two thirds through the course has its issues – so at least I have two years and not one! I have submitted a proposal for the Negotiated Practice module, which basically starts where I left off last year – I am still involved with these images and am looking at ways, I can use them with print and layering techniques. I am now working on the proposal for the Critical Studies module – last week I had an ah ha moment during our group discussion and changed very suddenly from the thesis option to the Praxis project – this provides the opportunity to focus on a research subject through the parallel practices of both practical art work and written enquiry (the practical work has to be a separate body of work to the negotiated practice) it will be demanding I know but I really want to push myself – my working title for the Praxis project is ‘Chance, unpredictability and the ART of failure’ and has come about from a chance quotation by a friend of mine when she was asking why I was doing the degree – for the degree itself or for the experience – my answer was for the latter. The quote by Malcolm McClaren is ” it’s better to be a spectacular failure than a benign success” – that is really something to think about!
Pushing myself is also writing this blog on a regular basis – my aim is to post weekly, at least during term time. The intention is to share the journey of my fears, failures and successes and by doing that I have more insight into my practice. I really welcome your comments and thoughts on my journey
