LO1: Produce convincing visual products that communicate your intentions, using accomplished techniques in complex and unfamiliar environments, with minimal supervision from your tutor
The concept of the final idea for this project following the many considered was based in a rural location of New Zealand, although close to me (about an hour’s drive) it was very much an unfamiliar location. I had no local connections and had only ever driven though the location like most people to visit the lighthouse or photograph the coastline at sunset.
The images produced for this first assignment were scene setting. Exploring the location, trying to discover what made the place tick. I didn’t want to produce the ‘chocolate box’ image of New Zealand and so I experimented with a number of formats and considered different mediums, square, 5×4, black and white v colour.
The general location Images can be found here
The first few months were completed without support of a tutor as a replacement was needed and so the aim was to keep the ideas fairly broad until I could discuss my ideas more fully, however I think the images capture the remoteness, isolation and maleness of the location.
LO2: Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of your area of specialisation and be able to situate your own work within a larger context of practice in your field
I have set up an area on my blog site which tracks my progress – Work in Progress (WiP). This will be used extensively to document how I’m developing my ideas, research and then applying to my Body of Work final submission. The WiP area has been divided into each month of the course. For this first assignment this is covered under November 2019 to March 2020.
Link to Work in Progress can be found here.
I have been attending several student forums – the ‘Rest of the World Student Forum’, the Documentary Forum (continued from Level 2 as most of the students were moving into Level 3) and a small group of us have formed our own Level 3 Support Group. I have presented my initial ideas and images to the groups for feedback and have documented these in my ‘Thoughts and Reflections’ posts on my blog.
Link to Thoughts and Reflections can be found here.
Both the WiP and the Thoughts and Reflections were set up by me to capture work, ideas and progress electronically. I have also been working in external log books which I carry with me to record additional thoughts and ideas when I’m away from my computer.
Written evaluations of all the exhibitions and talks I have attended can be seen here. Following each I have provided a write up on how they relate to my ideas and both Body of Work and Contextual Studies. It is often difficult to judge prior to book these lectures the value to my project but overall, they have provided some guidance on how to progress and develop a clear narrative to a major project.
LO3: transform abstract concepts and ideas into rich narratives and integrate them in your images
Both my Thoughts and Reflections and WiP pages of my blog document how I have progressed from initial thoughts to the submission of this first Assignment. I have utilised initial work from studies at Level 2 Documentary and developed research to expand on and move from very personal situations to one that is focused on rural communities here in New Zealand.
Research from newspapers, magazines and government agencies highlighted the issues and statistics concerning the poor state of mental health in isolated rural environments. The facts were hard to digest when New Zealand presents a 100% pure image, but when you look under the hood the story is very different. My project needs to explore how to represent this and the work today explores both environmental and personal approaches. The approach is key, and to not hide behind the camera, but gain the trust of this community.
LO4: Critically review your own work and evaluate it against desired outcomes
A critical review of my progress and an evaluation was added to my first assignment submission and this can be found here.
LO5: Demonstrate management, leadership and communication skills and have deployed them during the negotiation and production of the final body of work with your tutor and third parties
I started this part of the course without a tutor so started and progressed the first few months without that support under the risk that I would need to start the project again. However, I managed to progress under my own management and planned to keep the specification of my project fairly broad so that once I had a new tutor the final direction could be discussed and negotiated without too much delay.
My professional organisational skills will come to the fore I think with this aspect of the course and also trying to manage time allocation to the Contextual Studies module. I will continue to monitor and report progress within my Thoughts and Reflection blog posts.
Michele Usher 