CS ASSESSMENT

ASSESSMENT BOW & CS AUTUMN 2023

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       Nicola South   Student number: 514516

PH6BOW and PH6CTS

AUTUMN 2023 ASSESSMENT

NOTE TO ASSESSORS

Dear Assessors,

BODY OF WORK ASSESSMENT

My Body of Work is presented for assessment via my Padlet Body of Work: What Lies Beneath: Assessment. The link to the site can be found in my Selection of Creative Work folder on the Assessment G Drive.

In case of any technical problems, I have also uploaded to my Assessment G Drive:

  • Learning Outcomes
  • Evaluation
  • Video of portfolio presentation and single images (Slideshow of portfolio presentation, in case of technical problems with video).
  • Tutor reports

For guidance on accessing Body of Work blog posts directly see below Contextual Studies assessment notes.

CONTEXTUAL STUDIES ASSESSMENT

I have uploaded the following to my Assessment G Drive:

  • Literature Review and Dissertation Plan (Assignment 2)
  • Dissertation and Abstract (Assignment 5)
  • Revised final Dissertation plan
  • Reflective commentary
  • Learning Outcomes
  • Tutor Feedback

Blog posts are generally in the standard descending order by date but are easiest accessed by consecutively by the sub menus. My posts for Contextual Studies can be accessed from the Contextual Studies tab, which has sub menus for Coursework, Assignments (including learning logs, and Assessment against learning Outcomes) and Submissions (including Reflections on Formative Feedback).

CS Assignments:

CS Submissions:

My Contextual Studies Research can mainly be accessed from my Reflective Journal_Research_CS Research:

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NOTES ON BODY OF WORK BLOG POSTS: Blog posts are generally in the standard descending order by date but are easiest accessed by consecutively by the sub menus. My posts for Body of Work can be accessed from the Body of Work  tab, which has sub menus for Coursework, Assignments (including learning logs, and Assessment against learning Outcomes) and Submissions (including Reflections on Formative Feedback).

BOW Assignments:

BOW Submissions:

My Body of Work reading, research, and reflections can mainly be accessed from my Reflective Journal:

CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: ASSESSMENT

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PH6CTS CONTEXTUAL STUDIES

Nicola South          Student number:514516

SELECTION OF LEARNING LOG ENTRIES FOR REFECTIONS ON LEARNING OUTCOMES

LO1 undertake research and study demonstrating comprehensive knowledge of your area of specialisation and built a theoretical framework for your creative practice.

I have researched extensively. Some of my research is shown under the CS Research tab in my Reflective Journal on my blog; much I did not post to avoid self-plagiarism, though I have posted screen shots of someof my research notes and annotations:

  1. I researched visual methodologies I could use to examine artists work for affect and effect. I built on this research and assimilated so I could present it coherently in my Literature review, particularly see pages 1 to 5. I began by reading Rose’s (2001) ideas on visual methodologies. These led to further research on semiology and discourse analysis and models for semiotics of visual art such as Saussure and Pierce: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/research/cs-research/cs-a1-notes-on-a-text-and-annotations-as-used/ I then researched further set this in context with other writers: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/research/cs-research/cs-a2-research-further-evidence/
  2. Research enabled me to build a theoretical framework for my Body of Work photography, which developed exploring ideas deepened through CS research, which stimulated broader CS research. My CS course reflective evaluation explains this research journey: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/assessment/cs-assessment/cs-course-reflective-evaluation/  

LO2 synthesise and articulate your critical, contextual, and conceptual knowledge and understanding into a coherent critique of advanced academic standard.

  1. The draft Literature review only touched on the effect of audience in interpreting meaning in images. I queried in my reflections against learning outcomes for assignment 2, whether I should expand my research to include this, or if this widen my research too much?  My Tutor suggested I research and add this to the conclusion of my essay. After further research I realised audience was an area that a semiotic analysis of images did not take account of and is integral to understanding meaning. Consequently, I wove this factor throughout my dissertation, and dedicated a section of the third chapter to it. These changes can be seen in my submitted dissertation as well as the redrafts of my Dissertation proposal/planners here: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/contextual-studies/c-s-assignments/cs-dissertation-proposal-redraft/
  2. Researching and drafting my dissertation helped contextualise my BOW concept and relate sources to each other for my dissertation. I started with research on the tension between expressive and documentary photography, then looked at this in the work of White and Blakemore, with other commentators and the influence of Szarkowski’s ideas on mirrors and windows. See some of my research notes and annotations as I critiqued and cross related them for use: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/research/cs-research/cs-a2-research-evidence/
  3. As my research expanded it was important to articulate how the style and content of the work of an artist can exemplify affect. Initially I related how visual analysis methodologies can expose this content by adding Minor White and John Blakemore’s images and narration of affect in these images into my literature review pages 6 and 7. Then, when I drafted Chapter three of my dissertation I expanded on this including many of only Minor White’s images and applied a semiotic toolkit to pick apart affect in his work. I noted this in my reflections on learning outcomes assignment 4 and here in my reflections on formative feedback for assignment 4: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/contextual-studies/cs-submissions/csa4-reflections-against-formative-feedback/ The final result of this can be seen in pages 10 and 12 to 14 of my dissertation.   

LO3 apply your own criteria of judgement, reviewed, criticised, and taken responsibility for your own work with minimum guidance.

  1. Between assignment 1 and 3 I worked on reframing the precise title to outline my main enquiry succinctly. In my reflections on Learning outcomes for assignment 2 I shared the mind map I developed to begin this process:  https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/contextual-studies/c-s-assignments/cas-assignment-2/cs-a2-reflections-against-learning-objectives/ In my Assignment 3 Learning log I reflected on my ongoing process of defining the title: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/contextual-studies/c-s-assignments/cs-assignment-3/cs-ass-3-learning-log/ and finally in my Assignment 4 Learning Log I described how I decided to focus only on the landscape photography of Minor White, dropping John Blakemore: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/contextual-studies/c-s-assignments/cs-ass4-learning-log/
  2. Some of the decisions and actions I took after reviewing my work are exemplified in my Critical Reflective Summary of changes made to my dissertation draft between assignment four and five: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/contextual-studies/cs-assignment-5/cs-a5-critical-reflective-summary/

LO4 select and apply information management skills and used appropriate technology in the production of an accomplished critique with minimal supervision.

My tutor supported my improvement in academic writing, but I took responsibility for implementing techniques he suggested, and his feedback especially by assignment 5 confirms my ‘good studentship’ in this.

  1. In my assignment 5 reflections on learning outcomes against LO1, I identified that I have progressed from the point in the literature review where I presented various theories, to the dissertation where I have interrelated, evidenced and put them to practical use, see https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/contextual-studies/cs-assignment-5/cs-a5-reflections-against-learning-objectives/
  2. Up to assignment 4 I was still being challenged by my tutor to be more succinct. By assignment 5 after reviewing my whole dissertation with rereading, reordering, and amalgamating my sources and evidence, I noted that now better understood the value of techniques such as PEEL (Paint, Evidence, Explain, Link), using quotes to support points rather than explaining the quotes to form a critical argument, and how to use some ‘reverse engineering’ to achieve this. These techniques enabled me to get to my point faster, reduce the word count and be more concise. See my reflections on formative feedback for assignment 5: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/category/contextual-studies/cs-submissions/cs-a5-submission/cs-a5-reflections-on-formative-feedback/

CONTEXTUAL STUDIES ASSESSMENT

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PH6CTS-5         Nicola South Student number: 514516

CONTEXTUAL STUDIES COURSE REFLECTIVE COMMENTARY

Starting points and progression

In Contextual Studies I understood I should build a contextual and theoretical framework for my photographic work as Body of Work and my Contextual Studies would run concurrently and contextualise each other; I wasn’t sure how this would work. My interests lay in Postmodern Landscape perspectives, photographing subjects as visual metaphors, and using photography for layers of truth. Exploring these further would develop my research on Minor White in my Landscape photography coursework, and Documentary Fact and Fiction research.

Initially I explored themes of post structuralist thoughts on plurality of meaning, and the way work can be interpreted differently by various viewers. I researched how photography can free a subject from a fixed time and place, ontology, (Bazin, 1960) and revisited ‘ways of ‘seeing’ (Berger, 1972) and relationships involved and ‘reading the space’ (Walker, 2005). It was satisfying researching critically and comparing the approach and conclusions of these and other leading authors relevant to my concept.

From assignment two I researched the tension between ‘affect’ and ‘effect’ in photography that emerged in the early 20th century and investigated methods to articulate both affect and effect in artists’ work. I began using compositional analysis, but concentrated on post structural Semiology and discourse analysis, focusing on the premise shared by writers that using semiotics based purely on linguistics cannot fully explain visual signification.

After assignment three I added further commentary from theorists such as O’Sullivan (2001) on affect theory and the opposition of idealism and materialism, and by assignment four had expanded on the need for context to give meaning. Whilst redrafting I also expanded on the effect of the audience on interpretations. I enjoyed deeper research on White and his methods for equivalence such as sequencing and symbolism, and contextualising with commentators such as Szarkowski and his ideas on mirrors and windows in photography.

Challenges

Summarising my argument to form a concise title was a challenge. I intended to explore how photography can be used for both sharing reality (effect) and expressing what is in an artist’s mind (affect) and discuss with reference to the landscape photography of Minor White and John Blakemore. It took me until assignment 4 to tighten this to: ‘Affect and Effect’, the landscape photography of Minor White. By then I decided to concentrate only on the work of Minor White, as after deeper research on both photographers, I felt Blakemore’s work did not exemplify my theme in such a rich manner. Allowing the research to dictate the final question eventually worked.

Later in my research I realised that I had not initially understood some concepts such as representation well. As my understanding grew I gradually incorporated representation into my dissertation to an extent; and I will continue as an area of further investigation along with theories on realism.

The peer group hangouts that I am part of, as well as tutor led Groupwork sessions, were a great support to my studies. Both my Tutor’s feedback and another who ran the Level three groupwork sessions helped me to better understand ways to extend and control my research.

What I will take forward

I now appreciate that at the beginning of a project you may be uncertain on what to research, or how a project will be framed, however as you proceed the balance of this shifts to more certainty and confidence. It was satisfying to discover that my research helped me to figure out where my photographic practice fits into the photographic world; I now understand how a good knowledge of visual culture can support my photographic knowledge. My Contextual Studies research moved my Body of Work creative practice forward, and my Body of Work explorations gave meaning to my Contextual Studies. It was rewarding to refresh and improve my academic skills, particularly how to bring a balance in my writing between being concise but not too dense, I will take this forward as a transferable skill.

References:

Bazin, A. and Gray, H. (1960) ‘The Ontology of the Photographic Image’ In: Film Quarterly 13 (4) pp.4–9.

Berger, J., Blomberg, S., Fox, C., Dibb, M. and Hollis, R. (1972) Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation.

O’Sullivan, S. (2001) ‘THE AESTHETICS OF AFFECT: Thinking art beyond representation’ In: Angelaki: journal of theoretical humanities 6 (3) pp.125–135.

Walker, I., Dagenais, F. and Batchen, G. (2005) Image & Imagination : Le Mois de la Photo À Montréal 2005. McGill-Queen’s Univ. Press. At : https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=0qyuzQEACAAJ