Seminar 1: Exploring Themes

During the first Context of Practice seminar today, I created two lists pertaining to various aspects of technology and history. I swapped my history suggestions for another's culture list and combined these ideas with my own technological ones for illustration prompts. Here is what I came up with during the afternoon session:

I had some very vague and rather quite difficult prompts to work with, but this allowed me to have creative freedom with my concepts. My favourite of the 10 suggestions was Advancement Jazz, which I selected to construct further illustrative ideas and really go crazy with how Jazz instruments and music could be advanced using technology. I liked Reggae Keyboard as well, but ultimately chose the jazz theme as I imagine this description can be quite limiting - there are only so many ways a keyboard can be drawn with a reggae twist and the results would be monotonous. With Advance Jazz I was able to really go wild with some of the collaborative elements of musical instruments and technology.

Lecture 1: Introduction

COP stands for Context of Practice. Exploring communication in a written, oral and practical form. This module is worth 20% of your final grade and work will take the form of analysis in sketchbooks, PDFs and written work - encompassing quoting, referencing and required reading. Contextual knowledge, design and language will be covered and will incorporate social, historical. political and technological aspects.

The aims of the lectures include: provoking me into thinking about design rather than just creating, to encourage me to pursue issues in more depth, to form my own conclusions independently of practitioners and academics and to experiment with ideas to explore whether they work in practice.

The intended learning outcomes include: Knowledge and Understanding - demonstrating an awareness of the aesthetic, cultural, historical technological, social, political or other contexts relevant to other subject disciplines as well as demonstrating an awareness of the relationship between the theoretical and practical contexts of their own creative concerns. Practical and Professional Skills - evidencing the ability to analyse and evaluate ideas from a range of primary and secondary sources and Key Transferrable Skills - evidencing the capacity for undertaking practical and theoretical research that demonstrates an awareness of critical, effective and testable processes plus communicating individual opinions in written, visual, oral and other appropriate forms.

My aim is to unify all of the different approaches through synthesis; informed engagement in one complex, dynamic process. Demonstrating how things inform one another, synthesis between thinking and making, dialogue and dynamic thinking. The realisation of theory through practice, not just abstract thinking. Turning thought into action and learning about philosophy through design - it can be useless if not channeled into making and doing. The lectures will be the context that drives my studies and studio-making. They may seem like separate entities to start with but will foster harmony and synthesis in time, generating ideas for practical work. Take key points from each lecture and make them bespoke to your practice.

My Thoughts and Reflections:
I really enjoyed the introductory lecture today as it reminded me very much of the way my Contextual Studies lectures were structured last year on the Access to HE course. I took a particular interest in these sessions; learning more about relevant artists in various fields with elements of art history, politics, societal changes, feminism, technological advances and art movements of the last 100 years. I'm curious to learn new angles and how it ties into my practice as an illustration - questioning, experimenting with and channeling these new ideas presented to me on a weekly basis.