1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
In this module I have acquired an extensive amount of skills in regards to my theoretical writing. An issue with 2nd year was my lack of triangulation and this year I have come to use it more in my writing and confidently.
The process of writing a dissertation has been something I have developed. In writing small essays in 1st and 2nd year I think this was a good build up in helping me write a large piece of contextual writing.
Aside from my writing skills I have gained a lot crafting skills, in regards to curating an exhibition, which was something I have never done before. It was something that was quite mathematical which isn't one of my strongest points, however I applied this really well to my practical in designing the space and executing my concept.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
The contextual writing heavily influenced the concept of my exhibition and was a major factor into defining the aesthetics within my designs. From the theorist Adorno I based the 3 sections within my exhibition around 3 themes within his analysis of popular music theory, which are standardisation, passivity and pseudo individualisation.
Curating an exhibition was a complete challenge for myself as a designer, but this is something that I want to do in the future and in my personal practice. In design production I extended my skills from created hand manipulated artwork, curating a space, 3D signage, promotional products and product design features such as handing rails and music boxes. In doing this exhibition it has informed me of how much work and consideration has to put in place to produce one and is an invaluable skill that I can extend to other projects.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I think my writing skills are quite strong and have been developing each year as I have progressed on the course. However this extended writing piece I have become more aware of how to use a multitude of theorists, links and sources and write in a more refined and clear way, which has proven difficult at times.
For my exhibition I felt the concept was a strong point as it linked to what my critical writing was about clearly, but turning those themes into interesting artwork was something I felt really worked, I think when considering concepts I need to identify clear topics or themes to link things to, make my work more clear to an unknowing audience.
I took on a different approach to the design of my artwork using more hand rendered skills which is something I haven't utilised in a while and were thought provoking and interesting according to some feedback I had from the audience that attended the exhibition which was encouraging.
From previous years synergy was something I struggled with but I feel that this is something I have hit the nail on the head with.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
The weaknesses I have come to terms with in my work is spelling, in printing both my dissertation and artwork I had to reprint work due to these errors. I need to have more attention to detail in these situation and so that I don’t have waste time and get someone to proof read it.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
- Get more primary research to apply into my dissertation.
- Promote the event more, so more people would come in regards to agencies.
- Spend more time researching into my case studies to make my points stronger.
- Attend me pratical crits.
- Document my work more regularly.
