Wednesday, 26 February 2014

Research for FMP

I met with David Matthews who has been visiting Borth since he was a child, and his connections to Borth were through his grandparents who lived there.    My notes are shown below.

I feel I got a sense of the progression of Borth as a fishing village to a holiday destination and also the reason why there is not much more development in the area due to the marsh land being lower than the sea level.




Proposal for FMP

My proposal for my FMP is completed.   I started it a few weeks ago after talking to Emma as initially when given the proposal details, I thought OMG this is going to be hard to just write the proposal.   However, on reflection it hasn't been.

rough notes for FMP 


I have my primary research already and this was beneficial because I had my starting point and knew my topic was going to be about Borth.    I have received feedback on my photographs last year and advised that did I know that they fell into groups already and I hadn't infact noticed it.   I don't see things like this necessarily in my work so it was very useful to have this pointed out to me.

I did a draft proposal and asked for feedback from peers and tutors and was given pointers where I needed to add more information, which I have now done.  These areas included adding references where I had obtained information from, references for companies I will use and more details of cost of the project.

We also then were taken to see Mark Davies for his input into our proposal.   Mark talked about the horizon being infinite and unachievable  i.e. when you walk towards it, it gets further away.  This fits in well with the horizontals and vertical themes within the project.   Mark gave me some books to look at whilst with him and I picked up a few pieces of work including the following:

Fat Monkey made from flip flops by Florentijn Hofman - from this angle and distance you cannot see that it is a money or what it is made from.   Close up reveals the media used.




http://www.florentijnhofman.nl/dev/project.php?id=171

This appealed to me because of its size primarily.   The fact that it is also made from flip flops is even more appealing as it's so unusual.   The flip flop is apparently the national icon on of Brazil which is where the Pixelshow was being held.   How does this influence my project?   Well it just makes me think out of the box about making something largescale for instance the rocks that I sat on, so smooth to sit on and touch, but so awkward to walk on and not too comfortable either.

Alfred Wallis

038
http://www.andyblair.co.uk/alfredwallis/

017



Alfred Wallis, ‘Houses at St Ives, Cornwall’ ?c.1928-42
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wallis-houses-at-st-ives-cornwall-t00239

Alfred Wallis' work looks primitive and I love this type of work.   From a personal point I would hang this work in my home, and similarly, my own work to date tends to have a naive/primitive look to it which I used to call child like when I first started out on the foundation diploma.

Self Employment

For the self employment project to research self employment I typed into google self employment and started off looking through the sites that initially came up.   I discovered many sites that offered a step by step guide to becoming self employed from the Citizens Advice Bureau to HMRC.  There are comprehensive guides for all aspects of becoming self employed.  

I have found this project quite straightforward and enjoyable.   Having had a professional back ground and being a mature person, some of the aspects of self employment I have come across already.  I already have a selection of research on law within my specialist area so I have been able to use some of this information.

As regards my organisation of this project, I only discovered the week before we broke up for half term that there were documents on Moodle relating to this project.  They are too long to print out I discovered, and I had already made a good start prior to looking at these documents.  I don't know if my not knowing about these documents in my me having my ears closed or just not thinking to use the resources available to me.   This I feel I could have done better and can learn from.   

Also, today I discovered from fellow students that amongst these documents there are some worksheets we have to complete and today is the first I have heard of it.   So having not been in class this morning due to interview, Lotty has photocopied the sheets for me and I need now to fill them in ready for hand in tomorrow.

I have put together a good selection of information I feel, finding resources that people may not think of or would dismiss i.e. MoneySavingExpert.com.  

I feel my life experience has helped me in this project.   

Tuesday 4th February 2014

So, last few months of the course has started.  I have spent the last few weeks preparing a proposal for my final project which I have done.  This last project will take me up to leaving in May.   I have chosen Borth as my subject with the focus being on the landscape and the history.  I will be producing work using techniques I have learnt already and not going out and learning new ones. Techniques include hand knitting, embroidery, embellishing, felting and machine knitting.

I also have 3 interviews lined up for universities for topping up my foundation degree to a BA.   Not for the title in any way, but because I haven't finished learning yet.   I want more taught stuff, as opposed to going out and doing it for myself.   Really I suppose I'm going to be paying upto £9,000 for using facilities, materials and knowledge of tutors so when I think of it like that, is it worth it?   Or should I take the plunge, continue in the care working and do my creative stuff on the side?  Or should I try to get a job in the creative industries?   To be honest, I hadn't really given that one much thought.


Uni Interviews update 26th February

In late January I received notification of interviews for Birmingham, Bath Spa and Derby.  I set out putting a portfolio together.   I had no clue whether I had to start creating brand new work for it so was guided by Emma Strange and Sue.   I put together a portfolio of work from diploma and degree courses, which included actual work, photographs and a written piece which Bath Spa asked to be done on contemporary art and that could be a recent exhibition attended.  I had been to see On My Mother's Knee in January so I wrote the follow piece which I then had checked over by Emma to see how it read.



I have attended Birmingham and Derby interviews.   Birmingham for textile design and Derby for Fine Art.

On the day of the Birmingham interview the word design as in textile design hit me.   I put Birmingham in as my last option and in hindsight textile design is not the course for me.   The interview itself though was a very positive experience.  The building and facilities were great as they have a brand new building.  The staff were also helpful, positive and knowledgeable.   The feedback I received from two tutors was that they felt by missing out year 1 I would be missing the design process and therefore they would suggest I come in at year 1.   I'm not keen to do that as I dont have funding for another 3 years, and also it's a completely different route for me.   If I hadn't done the FDa CAP then I would probably go there and try designing.  However, given that I've now done two years, I will continue down the route i'm doing which is being more of a creative/artist and not a designer.  Birmingham also said I had a good portfolio and I came across well.

Today I went to Derby for the Fine Art interivew.   This interview was tougher than Birmingham I feel.  I was asked to pick one piece of work and talk about it, the thinking behind it, where I could take it to next were I to continue with it?.   I was asked why fine art and not textiles, what my favourite film is and what book i had last read.   I was convinced I wasn't what they were looking for and therefore surprised when they offered me a place on year 2, which is what I had applied for.

I have the Bath interview in a couple of weeks as I postponed it from last week.   Birmingham is not going to be an option for the reasons I have said above.

I have come out of my interviews feeling good about myself and my work.