8/6/2017 log essay workshop
Essay workshop:
Talk about themes within your greater practise but can discuss recent works and how they are relevant
Research Essay Task: Critically discuss a selection of the reading done within your research project, including reflection on the role of this inquiry in your art practice.
Critically discuss even if it is in a conversational tone
Can disagree with the readings but say why, comment on date and if they are still relevant today
Robust discussion vs just talking about your own work (no)
Read and understand it, read around it. What did you do with that reading, how has it changed your reading.
Big base on Durban diaries book: how it isn't much are out round out the art work but it is strongly are out round out trout the community it is being created in and the lives of the people helping to create it.
You don't have to justify your work within your essay, just be really hope estate about it.
“I have read and been thinking about such and such which has lead me to question this, which is answered by this reading and thinking and it shows in my practise how…”
Think about your audience, tell them how the readings are valuable to your practice SO IMPORTANT
If not writing in the standard way have a reason why, (narrative/mind map)
Critical discussion which includes reflection
Aim to have it support the artwork. Don't have to fully explain the artwork but should compliment it. Not a breakdown of what you have done.
Have to do abstract abstracts well…. Synopsis of the work so the essay can support it and explain things better.
Can break it down into sections and take them one at a time
Don't just use quotes, use readings that are really important so the bibliography doesn't get bumped up
essay body minimum 4500 words.
Has to be a page by page hand in (physical copy to office and digital to turnitin)
Can put in diagrams and images in it
Some read before some read after and some read in between Scale and workload: The programme requires you to spend 20% of your time on reading and thinking, and on processing this in writing towards a research essay. (This amounts to roughly 10 hours per week on average until the essay deadline.) The submitted document has a maximum length of 6000 words, including footnotes and bibliography. (This implies an acceptable minimum for the body of the essay of 4500 words.) Aims and genre: This element of the programme is first and foremost an opportunity to develop the verbal thinking involved in your art making. Reading that might be done more intuitively in professional practice is externalised for reflection, and extended, as you commit the required time, and follow academic protocols to present some of this thinking in writing. The work you do for the research essay will improve your articulation about your practice, which will have an impact on future artist’s statements and proposals (as well as on your supervision conversations and critiques, in the short term), but it is not intended to be a direct rehearsal of professional writing as an artist. You are free to model your writing partly on a genre that interests you, but it can thought of as an essentially private, academic text; one you might not write outside the programme, nor want to make public beyond your examination. Content: You can read whatever and however is useful to your project. You are not required to argue for a definitive conclusion, nor to restrict yourself to a single issue; eclecticism, and well-defined questions and ambiguities may be truer to the thinking that is productive for your practice. The coherence of your submitted essay may derive from your uses for what you read as much or more than from critical debates in art or other fields. You are not required to provide an exegesis of your final studio presentation, nor to address any works of your own. Note in this connection that your practice is distinct from completed works. Addressing “the role of this inquiry in your practice” means writing from the position of an artist about reading as an artist, not necessarily on your own works. In the academic context your obligation is to take appropriate care in presenting ideas. As well as the scholarly mechanics of complete and consistent referencing, this includes demonstrating your self-awareness about your uses for the texts you engage with, including your probably interdisciplinary relationship to a proportion of them. Process and support: Whole group workshops within the programme, meetings with your supervisor, and optional workshops provided by Student Learning Services (see below) will assist you through the year in understanding and planning what you will need to do to complete the task well. Semester 1 Week 3 – 22nd March - Research Essay starting points Week 9 – 17 May – Research Essay work in progress Semester 2 Week 6 – 30th August –Research Essay editing (bring partial essay draft) Week 9 – draft essay due 6 October Week 11 – Completed research essay due October 20. The default referencing style for written work at Elam is MLA. (see http://www.cite.auckland.ac.nz) Your work will be submitted electronically through Turnitin, as well as in hardcopy. Instructions will be provided closer to the time.
