Future Anxiety and Trying to Answer the Question ‘What do I want to do with my life?’
ART519 Placement Module Summaries
The ART519 module on my stage 2 Fine Art Course at the University of Plymouth… Covid permitting… would give me the opportunity to either pursue a traditional work experience style placement or to embark on a new opportunity to engage in an interdisciplinary residency style placement with another sector of the university. After the placement period, we will then be reflecting on our experiences and the knowledge gained to produce a final practical body of artwork.
As part of the module, we have been asked to complete a blog/journal as part of our final grade and as a way to help inform our decisions and our final pieces of work, documenting our daily activities and reflections upon them.
To begin we have been given a series of seminars introducing potential areas in which we could take our placement and this particular blog will be summarising what information I have received and reflecting on my own feelings (and potential dread) considering where I may want to go as a post-grad.
Intro to Arts Organisations
Led by Tutor Karen Abadie
Arts Organisations are the community link to the art world, from mainstream, large, funded organisations to grassroots businesses. In this seminar, we were introduced to the main organisations within the Plymouth area, these included
The Box, Theatre Royal Plymouth, The Barbican Theatre, The Arts Institute in The Univerisity of Plymouth, Plymouth Arts Cinema, The Gallery at Plymouth College of Art
Take A Part, Effervescent, KARST, Flameworks, Under, Ocean Studios, Fotonow, Leadworks, Imperfect Cinema, Nudge, Plymouth Art Weekender, Bread & Roses, Stiltskin
As a native Plymothian and with the focus of going into a curatorial or gallery position as a career, I was already aware of some of these organisations, as well as being more drawn to some than others. In particular, The Box, which is the refurbished museum in Plymouth City Centre. Having grown up with the old museum and now watching it evolve into potentially a hub for contemporary arts in the South West, I think that to complete my placement here would be valuable to future opportunities. However I am leaning more towards somewhere like The Arts Institute, which is situated within the University itself, but from what I’ve seen of the exhibitions that they've put on could be a really good opportunity, connections that the Institute has within the South West and nationally.
At the start of the module, I was fairly certain that this was the route I wanted to go down and that the practical experience within the sector would be beneficial to my aspirations. I even sent an E-mail to the stage lead within the first week of term to get ‘on the ball’… and to feel a bit more prepared going into the new year. However as these intro’s to areas we could work in and as my practice side of the course has developed, I'm not as certain as I was in that first week.
Intro to Education
Led by Tom Baugh and Jennie Winter
Education, oh education.
Many of my family members will tell you I do not have the patience to sit in a classroom full of kids… but for some reason my brain didn't connect that the tutors that I see throughout the week have taken this strand… and I'm not a kid. well, I admit I might act like one sometimes.
So Jennie went through a lot of information in regards to various institutes within the University
Research with Plymouth Institute of Education, Sustainable Earth Institute, Plymouth Compass, Pedagogic Research Institute and Observatory
She also went into what she believes are the attributes needed for a good teacher
Sustainability and aims for education for sustainability, Equality, Diversity, Inclusivity, Decolonisation of what and how we teach, Moral obligation, Value base
It was a really interesting conversation to consider how by going into this area -especially from the research perspective- that we as individuals can impact on the areas taught to children and how that impacts on the way that future generations move through and interact with the world and people around them. It was quite inspiring in that regard.
However, I think if I hear the word ‘pedagogical’ before 2021 I might scream. so I'm not sure this is the strand for me.
Intro to Technology and Experimental Systems
Led by Dr. Andrew Prior
The focus of this seminar was on technology in arts and the applications of technology, taking a conceptual approach, or ‘Speculative design’
What are the implications, semiotics, and ethics?
What can we do with technology?
The Insitute of Digital Art and Technology (i-DAT) was what the majority of the discussion was concerning
Andrew talked about the specific project TIWWA (This is where we are, 2016) which was an interactive sculpture that i-DAT installed in the Tate Modern.
Another project that he mentioned was Notes Towards the Complete Works of Shakespeare, 2002 in which six Sulawesi crested macaques from Paignton Zoo were given a computer to test the theory that infinite monkeys and infinite computers would eventually write the entire works of Shakespeare. However in reality they got the keys stuck and eventually ended up with computers covered in… you can probably guess what.
You can read what the monkeys wrote below
In regards to the potential placement, Andy explained how they have been trying to archive the projects since the start of i-DAT and how they've encountered issues with how to transfer projects from outdated media.
How do you preserve projects from media that is now obsolete?
There is an opportunity to work with them in an archival position to look through the works, categorise them, and ultimately use the works of the past to inform our practice and reflect upon them. Potentially reimagining projects for the modern-day or maybe using it as a jumping point to explore older technologies.
Intro to Medical Humanities
Led by Karen Abadie
(annoyingly I haven't got many notes on this area, but I will stress that it’s because I was engaged with the seminar)
This is an area that I wasn't really familiar with beforehand, medical humanities, what’s that? I mean, it makes sense… but how can the creative industry and the medical industry communicate on the same level nevermind in a way that is constructive… But alas! It can work! and is very interesting to boot.
My notes say:
Discovery — Translation — Community
Which I think was my brain noting the three key areas in which the medical and artistic communities can come together to impact the wider community. The way that Karen was discussing this communication was through the lens of mental health. By linking to the medical humanities Karen and former stage leader Tom Baugh have been able to create a collaborative piece discussing self-harm and OCD respectively. By having the link to medical humanities the two have been able to go to medical conferences and discuss the lived experience and show how we, artists, visualise experiences relating to health. The piece currently titled ‘Dialogues of Disorder’ is now linked to Livewell South West and is being discussed as a way to train medical professionals on the disorders themselves. These conversations can impact the way that medical professionals communicate with patients by understanding in a more personal manner what it truly feels like to live with the condition.
Karen mentioned both a medical humanities journal
and the Association for Medical Humanities
With my current practice I feel as though this strand would be perfect and seeing as we will be doing a practice-based reflection on our experience I think that an area within the university researching medicine would give me further knowledge of the area to inform both my practice module (ART518) and the post-placement practice.
Artist Talk with Sue Austin and Info on Marine
Sue Austin is an Alumni of Plymouth University and her story is absolutely incredible. Even more incredible was listening to her be so passionate in discussing it.
Prior to the meeting, we received an E-mail asking us to watch a Ted-Talk by Austin on her practice. And after having watched it I haven't stopped telling people to watch it… and I wont stop here… Watch it!
Incredible, right?
Currently I would say that being able to listen to Sue Austin, explain her practice, the impact, the weird twists of fate that lead to her talking at NASA, has been a highlight of this year.
Although my practice doesn't align with the marine aspect of her work, thinking about the medical side and the semiotics of what the wheelchair represents in societies collective mind and her ability to, by using spectacle as a strategy, totally transform the view of the wheelchair is relevant to some of the themes I'm discussing in my own work.
Austin also mentioned the live versions of the underwater wheelchair where divers witness the chair, as well as utilizing 360 cameras to engage people fully in pieces, again using spectacle as a way to alter reality and perceptions.
Truly awe-inspiring work.
Marine has been the big one, the one that the tutors have been excited to have made the link with. With the environmental crisis at the forefront of everyone's minds, in recent years they've seen students increasingly use sustainability and ecology as a key underpinning of their work. To have created this link they hope to build relationships with the sciences at University that are researching this field and using us, as artists, as a way to communicate to a wider audience, either the impacts or what the everyman can do that will help. (much in a similar way to the medical humanities, but relating to the planet instead of the body)
Discovery — Translation — Community.
As a way to really show us what marine can do we have a planned trip to the Marine Research Centre, unfortunately, that trip was cancelled but is hopefully being rearranged. Before the trip, we were given a seminar that advised us to look at the Marine Institute’s page on the UoP website. We were also told about Mike Lawson-Smith’s project surrounding fishing in Newlyn.
Again, I don’t believe that this strand will be useful to me… but I can’t deny I was excited to see some fish.
What’s next?
We will in the next coming weeks be watching presentations by prospective placements, within areas of the university under the interdisciplinary residency and the more traditional placements. After that we get to choose where we would like to do our placement, write a proposal with our top 3 choices and then in January complete around 6–10 sessions with the placement.
So to answer the question ‘What do I want to do with my life?’ I feel more confused now than I did at the beginning of the academic year, but not because I don’t want to do what I had originally thought, but that there are now more options to pursue.
I am particularly excited to hear one presentation from Nursing and Midwifery, which would align with the medical humanities aspect but also the themes of embodiment and particularly female embodiment that I have been beginning to read into for my research for ART518.
