#settask

I chose to carry out an ethics form/checklist on my 202 module as the subject matter and narrative are sensitive (even now it has been evolved). I believe it is important to think about the ethics behind what your making as creative especially if the subject matter is sensitive meaning you could hurt or offend someone.

After thinking about my future as a artist and developing a three year plan previously on my blog I have chosen to revisit evaluating my future by doing the five year plan provided on the PCA tool kit. 

STEP 1: Planning For Success

To me success means to feel happy and accomplished about what I have done. I think to be successful someone, not necessarily me, has to have benefited from what I have done. Success looks like happiness, a positive change that I have created or helped with.

I have felt conflict for the past 6 or so months on what I would like to do when I graduate. I separated the two paths I wanted to follow in two and thought I would end up choosing on in my third year. However, upon my work experience and research into business’ I have discovered that there aren't two paths but one with a few options. When I graduate I want to be a teacher or work within positive change.

I want to be known for helping people and making a difference by using my creative practice. I want to be known for helping people and communities, making an overall difference to the quality of life.

Depending on the path I choose I want to either work within a secondary school teaching art. If i pursue social change as a career I hope to work within a business thats made up of a team of creatives.

Idealistically, my day will consist of continuing to be creative within the photographic field to change someone else’s day. Everyday I want to try and make a difference even if it means building on the day before, I want to create projects within communities. Idealistically, my working day won’t look too much like a working day.

I think what we will make me proud is pursuing what I want and not settling for less. It would make me proud to be able to make a difference within a business and to help the less fortunate.

I want to be a teacher or work within a social enterprise to be able to make a difference to people who have gone through something. I want to do this because when I was younger I needed people there to help/show me that creativity can help as a way out. Inspired by my a-level teacher and the way she always encouraged me to be my best.

As said prior this is so important to me because it is true to who I am. 

1.) What are the main features of the ‘White Cube Gallery’ space and what are the pros and cons for an artist/audience?

I think that the main features of the gallery are white ceilings and walls, modern, clean, large for the most part and almost a clinical space. I think the pros of the space are that there are no distractions from the work, it looks sleek and clean so comes off as professional and the biggest pro being your work being in one of these galleries can open doors for your future for an artist due to the type of people who go to them. I think the cons of the space are that it lacks expression and is boring, the audience of the work is limited due to fear of not fitting into the ‘IT’ crowd and that you can’t really say much about your work with just a white wall and a cold room. The biggest con being that to get your work into a ‘white cube’ gallery you have to break the impenetrable circle of how the art-world works with prestigious artists and collectors ruling the ‘white cube’ space.

2.) What alternate space might an artist show in and what possibilities might be offered? 

When thinking of other spaces art could be shown there is an overwhelming amount of options such as schools, cafes, hospitals, shops, factories, offices, online galleries&social media, local spaces run by artists as well as the street itself. Presenting work in these public spaces offers the possibility of finding a new audience because some people don’t have the time to go to art museums or galleries but the spaces listed after often part of there everyday so they will come across your art when they would not have before.  Another possibility is that when choosing where you present your work you can enhance its meaning of change it depending on the location you choose. As well as the physical locations the digital locations have the same amount of possibility with the art you create having no limit to what audience it can reach via social media and online galleries.

3.) How does the type of space affect the audiences ‘reading’ of/or the meaning of the work?

As I’ve said prior the white cube space affects the how the audiences viewing of it as a white wall might not match the narrative that you are trying to portray through your work. The work presented could actually benefit more from being presented in a low-key, calm environment with the chosen location enhancing the narrative. Although I find the direct juxtaposition of work on a white wall interesting I think that the space limits the imagination but does allow the audience to focus on the work and the work alone.

4.) What kind of space would suit your work and why?

·      White ceilings, white walls – modern, clean, clinical – semiotics of space – a blank canvas – associated with modernity

·      Don’t take space for granted – become more critical of what the space is trying to do

·      Unpack the space

·      Introduced in early 20th century – ‘Tate’ terms = constructed reality should we rebel against that? Tate = state funded gallery

·      There’s a gallery actually called the white cube – private gallery – inspired by the Tate and modern art in New York – a museum like quality

·      ‘Inside the White Cube’ – every object inside gains importance

      A space of power yet minimalistic – minimal considered chic, fashionable – hide rubbish – idea filter through from culture and art

‘Talking about your art is one of 10 key behaviours that characterize successful artists. When you talk well about your art you make people want to see it, to look at it longer, to look at it more closely. Remember, nobody falls in love with a work of art, or even considers buying it, until they understand what it’s all about.’ Mary Edwards, Ph.D.

Someone who doesn’t know your work needs insight into what's inside your head and a little bit of your heart through a couple words - pointing out specific materials or processes. 

The one thing that's essential for people to know about your work?

Figure out how you’d explain it to five different people

You should use different languages for each one or you are not reaching all of your potential audience, the language you use for you Grandma is a lot different than what you would say to a curator.

After reading through some of the articles I wrote a first draft of what I would say if asked my work. I’ve only done a first draft and as I would like to revisit this further on in the year to explore how I’ve grown into my practice and developed a greater understanding of how to put into words a project about grief.

Through complexly layered images my work explores themes such as loss, time and memory stemming from my personal experience. Each image investigating a sense of absence yet a presence via old found photographs and artefacts such as jewellery. With the main purpose to make the viewer look longer and harder, to make a difference within the taboo that surrounds bereavement.

How 'collective' ways of working might be useful to photographic artists.

Collective artists are a group of artists who work together towards a shared objective with a shared identity. In this year's Turner Prize the four shortlisted artists came together as a collective to win the prize as a group. The collective’s reasoning behind this bold collaboration was ‘in the name of commonality, multiplicity and solidarity’, a ‘dadaist gesture’ to show how ‘absurd the value system in art is’. Historically, collectives are seen to be linked to a ‘leftwing outlook’ which can be seen in other groups who have won the Turner Prize in the past such as ‘Assemble’ who were created ‘out of political circumstances’, ‘a product of austerity’, with their collaborative work combating the ‘traditional rules’. Similarly, other collectives use collaborative working as a political statement or a form of protest such as the Fluxus Group and the ‘Guerrilla Girls’. Within their shared identity collectives ‘value argument and discourse’ and are a threat to power structures such as the political system. Working as a collective has allowed these groups to question the system in a way they may not have been able to on their own.

Although photography is naturally quite a solitary process photographic artists can use this way of working collaboratively to their advantage whether that be politically or not . When working alone on a project your ideas are almost  limited not only due to your own cultural iconography but also how you go about doing your research. In a collective everyone's life experiences would be different which would allow multiple cultural iconographies to be brought forward into the main body of work. Alongside this the research that goes into a project would be vaster and possibly done faster. Moving on from research everyone would have a different way of looking at things and a different point of view allowing each member to bounce off each other creatively, inspiring each other to create a strong outcome.

Furthermore, working as a collective benefits any artist as it will open up new doors. With each member having their own diverse networks as a group you’d be able to combine all of them which in turn would probably further your outreach allowing the work created to have more influence on the art world. The work being more easily recognised due to these networks allows bigger and better opportunities to present themselves such as group exhibitions.

Overall, I’ve found that when artists bring themselves forward to work in a collective your work and your influence is stronger all together. It allows the artist to broaden their horizons on what is the norm, opens up endless opportunities that would be limited when alone. Yes, working alone as the traditional, broody artist is appealing but if you chose to work amongst like minded people you could begin to challenge and change the rules like in this year's Turner Prize. Your shared identity creates a strong collaboration that has a far reach and a rich context.

Embarking on this module I have two job roles in mind which I’d like to explore the possibilities further in the next year. Firstly, teaching or being an academic. I explored this possible job role in my first year of pdp, researching opportunities and gaining work experience in that sector at a Saturday Arts Club. Secondly, a magazine editor/art director which is a path I have just begun to explore and express an interest in.  I find these two aspirations to be quite different from one another and I have been finding it hard to choose which one to focus on. To solve this problem, as I have spent a year looking at teaching, I am planning to take this year to explore possibilities in the magazine sector to determine which role I would definitely want to pursue.

Preparing for this future begins now with looking at how I would break into these magazines which naturally is a hard thing to do, especially due to me being based in the South West where this kind of role is not as strong or dominant as a place like London for example. At first, I thought that online magazines would be a good place to start as I could possibly work remotely because of their online nature. To progress on with this there are lots of internships for online and regular magazines with a variety of roles on Chegg Internships that will allow you to take part in the experience remotely. Applying and hopefully landing one of these internships would be a fantastic start to building a good experience bank which would boost my cv in this area. Skills that I would either develop alongside an internship or work on before are gaining and more in depth understanding of software such as Lightroom and InDesign as well as researching journals or online magazines further and working on my overall confidence.

Thinking realistically, alongside online internships I want to look into local magazines which stimulate my interests. One I have come across is a fashion magazine in Bristol called Bricks. Once I have gained a bit more insight into this industry and experience I will do more in depth research into them.

In term of a three year plan, for the first year I plan to do what I have said above. If this turns out to be not suitable I will switch back to teaching/being an academic. Which i will achieve a future out of by continuing work experience then continuing to get the teaching qualification after my photography degree.