College 16th January: Sharing ideas

Today we had a group tutorial with Mark, which was in part a nudge about the whole raft of work we have to complete in the next two weeks - the two Pathway Projects, our essay, and our portfolio presentations.  So much to do!

Bravado from most of us, "yes, we'll be fine" but privately I was thinking "Help!  Where did all the days go?".

A couple of people have already heard about interviews for BA courses next year, and have interviews booked.  So for them, portfolios are suddenly very important.

James had brought his in for a shared critique, very bravely.  He had lot of very interesting work, and drawings, and altogether it looked pretty impressive.  There was almost too much material, although selecting things to discard will be hard.

But it was also illuminating.  How must admissions tutors (or QR assessors?) cope with looking quickly at dozens of these things in a day or two?  How do you show your bit of work to best effect?  What kind of impression are we trying to make? Do you try and showcase a little bit of everything we've done, or do you focus on just a few areas where you really want to concentrate future work?  All decisions we'll have to face soon.

I haven't even begun to think about what to include in my portfolio, and in a way it is harder since I have no specific focus in mind.  I'm not, at least at present, thinking about applying to another course, degree or otherwise,  although I suppose I just might be wanting to do so next year.    Luckily we have a week after the Pathway assessment to assemble our portfolios for a separate assessment session on 6th Feb (although I'll be away over the preceding weekend so in reality I will only have a couple of days to get mine done).  Oh help!

We also looked at my blog - this blog!  - which I've been banging on about all last term, so it was very nice to have everyone take a peek.  No-one else in the group is keeping a log, although several have their main research resources on laptops rather than in paper folders.  General reaction was favourable, so I felt rather pleased, not least because I am the least technically competent among us, but have learned to do this.

College week 11/1 Research Folders 21st November

Today we had a group tutorial with Mark, mostly about our research files.  Mine is at present mainly this blog, but I realise that I need to do more by way of:-
(a) referencing;
(b) commenting on how I respond to the many artists whose work I look up;
(c) making it clear what is research for a specific project, and what is more general, e.g. in support of our art history letters;
(d) making sure I record all the galleries and exhibitions I go and see, however small or grand;
and finally
(e) keeping it in some kind of order so I can show people and also so I can find things myself at a later date.

In other words, I need to revise what I've already done, and do a good deal more.

I think I will also need to maintain a paper file - not least because i pick up flyers and exhibition catalogues, etc, and need somewhere to store them.  Plus bits from the newspapers (although often they're available on-line a well).  So, lots more work to be done on my research...