Interim Assessment & Feedback
above: the rubric for the pass level im at so far (click to enlarge)
28th jan 2021. via a Teams meeting, Rob + Michaela shared with me the results of my assessment. across the three rubrics of ‘body of work’ (accounts for 60% of mark), ‘reflective journal’ (20%), and ‘statement of intent’ (20%), my work so far is at a Pass level (between 50-59%). this denotes that i have ‘started to develop’ in each area, but that in each there is a still lot of refinement + further development needed.
looking at the marking rubric, what immediately occurs to me is that there are a number of phrases which i simply don’t fully understand the implications of in this context. i am going to go through the wording of the marks i received and highlight some of the uncertainties i have.
Body of work (60%) : Some knowledge of the preferred subject area, but evidence of research is limited. Some consideration of the wider cultural context. Limited professional approach.
my queries
1. what does research mean here? primary/secondary/both? possibilities that occur to me:
-practice-based research via making work
-watching other ppl’s techniques in relevant making method (throwing demo videos etc…)
-reading about making techniques
-researching glaze/slips/etc - collecting recipes
…specifically, does research in the form of collecting examples of different traditions + work for reference/inspiration fall under this category, or would that count towards the Reflective Diary?
2. what does ‘wider cultural context’ mean here - does it mean the context of the ceramics market in contemporary britian, or something else?
3. similarly, what does ‘professional approach’ denote? this worries me a bit, as i do not understand how i really can have a professional approach at this point in my development, as i have obviously not sold any work and don’t anticipate doing so til at least after the MA. given this, it would be helpful to get advice about what sort of things i need to do to fulfil this requirement.
Reflective Diary (20%): Critical questioning of personal approach and design dialogue, supported by appropriate research and information. A developing line of enquiry.
my queries
1. what does that first phrase mean - ‘critical questioning of personal approach and design dialogue’?
2. what is ‘appropriate research and information’ here?
Statement of Intent (20%): Submission shows evidence of synthesis of ideas and insights and identifies some possibilities for putting these into design practice.
my queries
1. does the Statement of Intent comprise the Learning Agreement? if not, what [else] is it?
2. higher grade levels emphasise ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ ‘synthesis of ideas and insights’, but what does this phrase mean? is there any way i could be given some examples of what someone doing this effectively would look like?
key issue that emerged in this crit
1. i’d misunderstood some previous advice a bit.
one piece of advice i’d been given a couple of times, in first year by Dave Binns and more recently by Rob also, was that i needed to develop a ‘family’ of forms that worked together. i had understood this to mean i needed to develop a small range of different forms which had a harmonious feel when pictured or situated together. as such in my throwing so far i had been striving to create a small ‘library’ of forms - different types of bowls, vases, and yunomi. in this tutorial, Rob clarified that actually it would be better to narrow my focus further - to create a ‘family’ of different variations of the same form.
=> the advantages of focusing on a single type of form
a further narrowed focus on a single type of vessel would mean i could better experiment with, + record my thinking on, very precise and particular formal variations, and that moreover by further narrowing the formal focus in this way i would be able to really push my throwing skills further because producing variations on a single type of form would require me to gain much more precise control over the clay on the wheel.
Michaela made a point here that i found very helpful in seeing why focusing on producing variations of a single type of form would produce preferable outcomes, from an aesthetic perspective as well as from that of advancing skill level. she noted that creating a series of subtle variations on a single type of form for my final outcome, rather than a number of different ones, would much better embody the kind of aesthetic of simplicity i am interested in.
2. not realising the full range of things (esp. evidence of own thinking + secondary research) that will count towards the MA.
one instance of this occurred during our discussion of the point Rob’s crit raised, of my needing to determine whether my work is ‘for something’ or ‘about something’. i explained that i’d been thinking about this over the break and that whilst in some ways it was difficult to disentangle, as ultimately in my practice i would like to make both functional + decorative objects, but that making objects with at least a potential utility was something i felt deepened the aesthetic quality i was pursuing; but if i just had to pick one of the two alternatives phrased like that, i would say my work was ‘about something’.
Rob observed that this being the case, i needed to dive deeper into what it was the work was about, noting that within art education students are expected to gather fragments of things that inspire them and have relevance to what they are trying to explore in their work. i was at once surprised and pleased at having this clarified, as this sort of thing had been a bit part of my Art & Design Foundation Diploma (2018-19) - i’d really enjoyed it at the time, but had no idea that that sort of open-ended collection of inspiration fell into the remit of this MA.
it was a bit of a shame to only fully realise this at this point, but now that i have, one of my main focuses going forward will be to do and record much more of this.
// proposed next steps //
tutor feedback (quotes)
Work on throwing. When throwing be disciplined by weighing, measuring, and working on repetition. Continuous practice builds muscle memory…practice based research.
You need to develop a critical eye when reviewing the shape & form of your ceramics. This is especially important when you are striving for simplicity. Part of this process should include drawing in which you develop shapes and proportions on paper.
It is important to document all aspects of your work, be it visually and in written reflection– test tiles, choice of clay, form, other people’s work, your photos and paintings, examples of thrown work etc. – and to write about them. Your blog should include description of processes along with your own critical analysis.
Could you consider collaborative practice?
proposed action
- write down parameters i choose: how much clay working with, how many pieces to throw per day
-document this via photos
-write up notes on blog
working on A3 or A2 paper, using charcoal to draw from piece i have made that has promise - use drawing to explore the potential of a form - eg varying scale, depth etc; exaggerating aspects of the form….
- re: choice of clay, move from buff to specialist clay/s
-re: other people’s work - start an ‘inspiration book’, a separate sketchbook documenting work / approaches / artists / types of ware which are inspiring to me - describe/writes short analysis thereof & of why it’s inspiring to me.
this idea intrigues me but i do not know how i would go about pursuing it, especially at present - do tutors have any suggestions of how i might do so?