What is this course all about? 

This course is made up of a theory and studio production components. It is designed to give you an opportunity to extend your extend your practical work as well as giving you the opportunity to hone your research, analysis and critical skills and gain an understanding of how to find artistic inspiration according to your individual interests,ideas and themes. You need to complete both aspects of this course in order to fulfil the TASC level 3 standard.

A little rant on organisation… 

It is essential that you are organised  – right from the very beginning of the year with both your practical and your theoretical work. This means that you need to find ways for yourself to record, map and store your thoughts and ideas, for both the theory side of things and the practical aspects.

Your theory book and your visual diary MUST BE SEPARATE DOCUMENTS ! YES I AM SHOUTING!!! Do not write your theory notes in your visual diary. Your visual diary is for recording your visual work and the work of others. Of course you can write your thoughts and annotate artworks in this document too (you can learn more about how to annotate artwork here ). Your theory book should be the place you record your written work, including  your assignments and handouts. What you use for this is up to you  – an A4 folder with plastic pockets works fine and you might like to use and exercise book as well – up to you.

Studio Production (practical work) 

Firstly, you have one calendar year to complete work for this subject and you can absolutely not submit work which you are using for another subject.

To help your practical work along we will firstly begin with an in depth exploration of how to develop your ideas. By undertaking a number of short exercises you will explore ways to develop your own inspiration.

This will be followed by exploring materials and techniques, in particular, learning the basics of digital and analogues photography. This will include: traditional and digital photographic techniques, creating photograms, combining photography with other mediums such as drawing, painting etc and using collage and montage techniques.

In the second part of the year you will write a ‘mini’  proposal which will outline your areas of interest. You will then be required to produced a number of finished prints and series of prints both in digital and analogue formats which will finally result in a body of work suitable for a display . This must include support materials such as your visual diary  and will address criteria 1,3,4,5 & 6. Your practical folio of works will be externally assessed.

It is VERY important that you can show a cohesive development of ideas and techniques. If you read through the TASC documentation on the subject you will see this word ‘cohesive’ used repeatedly. But what does it actually mean? It does certainly not mean that you need to choose one idea or theme right from the start and only produce work using that idea/theme. Of course we expect your work and ideas to evolve and change over the course of the year. However, it does mean that there needs to be a natural flow of ideas and practices which make sense leading into one another rather that a whole bunch of random ideas which have no connection in either concept or technique.

Visual Diary

Your visual dairy or workbook is a CRUCIAL part of  your coursework and will be marked intermittently. It is therefore VERY important that you keep it up to date and record your progress , thoughts and artworks you like as you go.

All Course information is available on the website I have set up for you. It is VERY important that you follow this blog so that you are able to keep up to date with all information, messages and important dates. The address is below.

Theory (written work) 

Your theory assessment will consist of four, 500-700 word written assignments and one major, 1500 word research assignment. The areas we will cover in this area of study are; art commentary, art history and art criticism. 

Art Commentary In this part of the course you will learn about the importance of reflecting upon your own work. To do this, we will consider the ‘language of art’ by exploring the elements and principles of art as well as looking at symbolism in artwork.

Art History This area refers to the study of art in the context in which it was made. Here, we will examine the work of a number of artists and how their work reflects the social values and contexts in which they were created.

Art Criticism Art criticism is the study of the art in the context of the viewer. Here, we will examine the relationship between artists and society by looking at different types of galleries and exhibition spaces,  including public and privately owned galleries and museums, and the roles and processes in the exhibition of artworks.

The four small assignments

These are internally assessed and the topics will be negotiated by student and teacher. I will be giving you all a starting point for each which can be found here. They will be a combination of research and critical analysis in style and will include 3 written pieces and one piece which can either be an interactive presentation, a website or an interview.  You will receive more information on this later on. 

The research project

The research project must relate to your own work. It must be a minimum of 1500 words and may include focus on other artists you like, styles and techniques you find inspiring.

 

Patricia Picinini – The Gathering