PGD Preparation

01.10.08 Reflective writing October 2008

Summary of activity: Planning for PGD phase
Creating a large plan/mindmap for the above
Reflecting on last years body of work

In order to assist the reflective process, I cleared a large space and brought together all the materials from last year, which includes portfolio of stills, 4 sketchbooks and 3 lever arch files of reflective writing and research. I created a master sheet with ink painted rectangles to plan the work for the PGD phase.

I started with basic, but fundamental questions, what, who where when how, why?
At the end of the presentation the statement reads ‘next’… The rectangles soon filled with information and titles to explore and the order will be reconfigured until the presentation is formalised.

One of the most useful exercises I undertook was to draw very rough diagrams of the project direction before and after. It was surprising to see such a monumental shift in my thinking, due to practice and reflection. The diagrams highlight the difference in my ability to animate, my recognition of the importance of audio and the shift in producing a purely typographic piece to work based on the relationship of type and image. The relevance of location and personality are also key themes that have evolved from the work. This has been mainly due to the involvement with the International Student department and the project’s evolution to address a sense of ‘Englishness’. Using the diagrams quickly demonstrates the different tenets set within the project early on and how it is presently.

A tendency I have to accentuate the work of others and shy away from discussing mine is still apparent and I think this was one of the problems highlighted in the previous tutorial. I need to make a conscious effort to bring my work to the foreground and support it with other work, not the other way around.

I have also been researching diagrammatic forms, particularly the Bauhaus 1922 curricular model. This is to help my reflective practice more transparent to peers and tutors during the PGD assessment phase, it is also essential that I gauge my processes. The act of creating such diagrams is encouraging me to think, reflect, redraw and define where I am located within the MA journey.

Two of the key themes that have emerged from reviewing the work are ‘intonation’ and ‘word stress’. How can these language terms be visually described?

Reflecting on the work I have produced, there are a variety of ways I have started to tackle these. See below some of the ways that I have attempted to represent intonation through visualisation.

Type style change (within the same family), bold italic, roman, light, formal informal
Space and composition of elements (sp a c e)
Extreme type characteristics (accentuated ascenders, descenders)
Media experiments, type letters enlarge with ink ‘tendrils’ or fading pastel
Deconstruction of letterforms (Lennon, during the swearing)
Colour change (type) and background
Word play
Angled words (Lennon animation 1)
Change in media (Delyse animation)
Deliberately misspelt words (HASSS)
Changing from upper and lowercase to capitals (whispering to shouting)
Bringing meaning to emphasis the word (time appears over a longer period
and fades away)
Change of pace (time appears over a longer period and fades away)

Simple symbols have been used to represent pauses or sharpness of voice patterns.
Circular pastel shapes were created as a visual pause growing, this seemed to fit in with the Lennon speech as it could be ‘read’ as a vinyl record (relevant to the time of the speech).


02.10.08 Reflective writing October 2008

Summary of activity: Creating a large plan/mindmap for the above

I photographed the active process of thinking through visuals today whilst organising the plan for the PGD presentation. It was particularly helpful to colour code the emergent themes. Visual hierarchy was established quickly, through the application of colour, for example critical components were painted red, major influences green, minor influences yellow and issues connected to reflective practice was painted with blue. In places I had doubled up on the content, this was stapled together and will
be either merged or omitted at a later date.

Working in this way I was able to see clear categories and introduced overarching titles
to help segregate the work appropriately. Reflecting on the previous presentation,
it is apparent my aim was to show as many examples of research and evidence trips
as possible with little concern for focus. Even at this early stage this amended presentation already has greater focus than before. I am keen to improve the work through regular peer feedback, which I have organised to do on Mondays after work.
I am planning to meet with at least 4 RPT students once a week or fortnightly to discuss the progress of our work collectively and broaden my ideas on this project.