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.

Next post: https://nkssite6.photo.blog/2022/06/05/contextual-studies-relevant-notes-from-study-meetings-and-hangouts/