31.3.22
So it been a while, I’ve been working on my BOW assignment 2 which is now submitted. I probably should have been working on my literature review at the same time, however I have needed to get a direction in my head for that before I could move on. Now I’ve got that direction, I’ve the confidence to start on my dissertation proposal and literature review.
Preparations
- I have pulled together much of the advice and information that I have gathered on writing a literature review into one document. This has helped to focus my mind on what is required and how to be effective,
- I have collated ideas, that I’ve gained from various peer groups that I engage with.
- I have revisited the feedback given by my Tutor form CS assignment 2 and noted suggestions made for CS part 2. Stimulated by this I have begun research in some of those areas.
- I have collected together research that I’ve not yet used, which will feed into my literature review and my dissertation proposal, some may also inform my BOW.
Reflection
I now feel in a good position to begin putting together my ideas so that I might in turn send as my tutor suggested key points that I want to review in my contextual literature and move myself towards ta core premise or theme and a visual methodology to analyse in my work.
21.4.22
Back again and ready to re-immerse. I have been reading and researching, both paths I have found and texts suggested by my CS Tutor, who I contacted a few weeks ago with a summary of key points that I want to review in my contextual literature.
I have expanded my reading and investigated my area of interest further, made notes as I have gone along. Whilst reading I reflected on:
• Documentary and artistic expression in Landscape photography
• Landscape genre as a genre
- Tension between effect- express, and affect -emotional responses
• Possible title: Mirrors & windows in the Landscape photography of Minor White and John Blakemore. However I think I need to reform this as a question.
My reading covered:
- Practitioners who express or inspire emotional responses in their work: John Blakemore and Minor White.
- Methodology: Semiotics (Rose, Saussure, Pierce- most relevant to images)
- Rose “The good eye”- how contemporary image makers work against that interpretation
Rose: Discourse analysis but I don’t see the relevance to my work at the moment
I have decided to exclude the more contemporary work of the Inside the Outside collective, to narrow down my focus, however this means that I can use these inspirations in my BOW work.
From this I have organised my research notes and made links. I now have enough research to begin writing my literature review and have narrowed down the focus of my proposed dissertation yet have still to completely define my question foor enquiry/title. This is where I am currently on key issues and debates:
- The tension between effect (social/cultural) and affect (emotional/personal responses) in landscape photography
- Mirrors (reflection of the artist/expression) and windows (knowing the world better/reality).
I recapped on my research on White and Blakemore to define my premise and form a title with a question and read dissertation advice especially on defining titles.
To form my tentative dissertation title, I then created a mind map to help brainstorm ideas and keywords and make related ideas, focus on the Key issues and debates and to find the main questions I intend to talk to.
Mind map:
The tentative title that I will work to at this stage is:
Does the camera have a good capacity to express an artist’s own thoughts, and emotional response to the landscape; Discuss with reference to the work of Minor White and John Blakemore.
My primary visual methodology is semiology, supplemented by compositional analylsis; I have yet to decide whether to also use Rose’s discourse analysis 1, more research is required.
25.4.22
Advice that I’ll use:
My Tutor:
- Paragraph on each piece of major literature and how it links to my premise/title:
- Relate the sources to each other and connect to make a theoretical framework
Ariadne at L3 study session:
I asked: How do I stop researching and write my literature review?
A: The literature review is the framework to form my argument – to form the context. In order to avoid self plagiarism need to reformulate later.
- Ask what do I really need for this?
- What would I need to include if explaining to someone else
- Keep to the essentials – it is important to analysis to the full potential
- Analyse the most important blocks I need – 4-5 sources only
- That the writers should be significant theorists that argue about the photographers work I Other advice:
- am using in CS, or my central arguments.
Other advice:
- methodology: approach how I intend to go about my work
- Objects of enquiry are elements I’ll examine to answer these question (texts, artists)
- Content and conclusion of author
- Relevance of text to my rationale
- Critically compare approaches and conclusions of others, their consent and disagreement, how their work was received by critics
- Indicate what I plan to explore further
- How this relates to my BOW – reasons for choosing
- Set my subject in the broad historical/social context with parameters
30.4.22
I need to stop researching now and write my literature review. I have determined my Core premise or theme and the main questions I want to address as well as the key points/theorists that I want to review in my contextual literature
One point I am unclear on is whether I include in the literature review commentary on the work of White and Blakemore whose landscape work I will use to contextualise the debate I the eventual dissertation.
22.5.22
The literature review and the dissertation proposal are now finished and just have to update my blog before posting to my tutor.
I only gave the briefest mention of Minor White and John Blakemore and commentators on their work in my Literature review, but have included them in my dissertation proposal. I hope that this was the right approach.
NIKI SOUTH 