CONTEXTUAL STUDIES ASSIGNMENT FOUR: LEARNING LOG

Following the submission of my CS assignment 3 to my tutor, I worked on the feedback given which I tried to take all into account:

  • I tried to use PEEL as advised by tutor but I still need to develop this.
  • I’ve added temporary working subtitles for paragraphs

I added some further reading including:

Barrett, T. (1986) ‘A Theoretical Construct for Interpreting Photographs’ In: Studies in Art Education 27 (2) pp.52–60.

Bunnell, P. (1991) ‘Minor White’s photographic sequence rural cathedrals. Areading’ In: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society Published By: American Philosophical Society 135 (4) pp.557–568.

Brower, M. (2018) ‘Photography, Curation, Affect’ In: Journal of Visual Culture 17 (2) pp.177–197.

Clarkson, G. (2014) ‘Photographic codes’ In: OCA (ed.) Photography 2: Documentary fact or fiction. Barnsley: Open College of the Arts. pp.81–85.

Killip, C. (2023) Life in Pictures: Chris Killip. At: https://www.frieze.com/article/life-pictures-chris-killip (Accessed 24/03/2023).

Oring, S. (2023) Minor White Some Excerpts From Minor White’s Memorable Fancies. At: https://archive.org/details/minor-white-some-excerpts-from-minor-whites-memorable-fancies/page/n1/mode/2up (Accessed 09/04/2023).

Portland Art Museum (2018) LECTURE: Todd Cronan, PH.D. – From Expression to Creation: Minor White’s Theater. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBwJG1-XHug (Accessed 06/04/2023).

The only reading that I didn’t find directly useful was the Killip article, though I enjoyed it having visited an exhibition of his work at the photographer’s gallery.

I then revised my assignment 3 drafts of the introduction and Chapter one:

  • Before beginning the draft of the remaining chapters I reviewed all tutor feedback for CS and reread many articles.
  • I have submitted almost 3,00 words to my tutor for the remaining chapters of my dissertation.

I changed my dissertation title:

After reading and preparing evidence for chapter three – Affect and effect in the work of Minor White and John Blakemore, I decided to restrict my dissertation to the work of Minor White. This partly because I had plenty to evidence my theme in the work of Minor White alone. But more so as after deeper research on both I felt Blakemore’s work didn’t exemplify my theme in such a rich manner.

Blakemore’s work does often explore a theme over time, returning to one subject over a period. He does use some work as a metaphor for his own emotions, such as Wounds of trees (1971) after his marriage break up, and he does include some symbolism, and talks of layers of meaning. Though he does use sequencing to underline meaning, this is not as much as White did.

Overall I felt the main thrust of his work is a contemplation of nature and his relationship with it, but less so about the “something else”, an equivalence to a feeling that a subject evokes that White works into. And it is the affect in the something else, that is in Whites work that interest me and exemplifies my research more fully.

Content

I have applied relevant research on visual methodologies to my dissertation by expanding on images added to the literature review of Minor White’s work, and articulated how semiotics and knowledge of context and symbolism can expose expression and affect in his images

Structure

I have added contents and illustrations tables pages as suggested in the coursebook.

Submit the remaining draft manuscript for your extended written project, (chapter 2 onwards) observing the following submission guidelines:

● 2-3,000 words in length or equivalent alternative. This includes quotations, but excludes footnotes and bibliography. Please do not submit work that is above the allowed word limit as this will impact on the available time tutors have to spend reviewing work. Check with your tutor on appropriate word count, for example you might submit a fully developed 2,000 words, or 3,000 words that still needs some editing.

● Please note that your draft is not a ‘rough’ draft – the very first draft that you have done – but a completed first draft. Edit carefully to ensure that your draft meets the word count, and that you have answered your research question. It is helpful to break this longer assignment into 1 – 3 separate chapters of c.1,000 – 1,500 words each with a conclusion.

Reference: Alexander, J et al. (2020) Contextual Studies. Barnsley: Open College of the Arts