End of summer reflection

As I’m now nearing the end of the summer, I thought it might be a good time to look back and reflect on my work for the “summer project” (in ” ” as I intend to carry the work and ideas on). To start with, a summary of the route my work took:

• I did a brief overall brainstorm of the title “Deep Storage: Archives, Collections, Memories” to begin with, before deciding to look at the idea of information “stored” in the natural world – this was from a sketch of some coral I did that I didn’t plan initially to have anything to do with the project: a good lesson on how inspiration can be taken from anywhere
• I played around with digitally inverting the coral sketches to create a few pieces that were perhaps quite abstract upon first glance, and somewhat scientific (as if they were microscopic images)
• I created some drawings and prints based around tree rings – this didn’t advance my work much conceptually (as it was based off the same idea that climate data can be stored in some natural growths such as tree rings and coral) but did remind me of how much I enjoy printing, and how helpful I find it – it allows me to create a large amount of work in a relatively short space of time, which in turn can help me think about what’s working and what’s not, and generate more ideas based on this
• (although my work took a turn down a different route from this point, I still think there’s potential to continue to explore the tree rings/coral idea, perhaps incorporating real data)
• I then started exploring how the land itself can store information: I thought it easiest to focus on a particular area, and one close by would be ideal so that I could gather first-hand sources – the Ridgeway runs near me, and is often referred to as “Britain’s oldest road” so I thought it may be an interesting place to research (The Oldest Road: The Ridgeway)
• I focussed on a particular section that I had been drawn to (“The Devil’s Punchbowl”) and created a sketch of the landscape from above – a unique way to study a landscape (a book I’m reading, “The Old Ways” by Robert Macfarlane talks about the importance of the development of aerial photography in archaeology) and something that links to my work from FMP at the end of my foundation (I worked a lot with map-like images and aerial views)
• I then created some prints based on this sketch, as well as some other prints exploring a more close-up view of the road, looking at the layers of tracks and traces we leave in the ground

Summarising a project in a few key words can sometimes be helpful for picking out the most important ideas, and then also being able to work from and around these words going forwards. Words to describe my summer work: traces, history, layers, time, land, archaeological, walking (? – possible point for further exploration)

A few parallels between my summer work and that of my FMP (as these are my most recent, independent sustained projects):

• a “visual mode” of the scientific – I am drawn to pieces that look as though they contain some kind of encoded data, or are produced by some kind of machine (e.g. a microscope) – I think I like the idea that there is some element of truthfulness/fact embedded in a piece
• maps/aerial photography/aerial perspective (perhaps for reasons similar to the above point) – an interesting contemporary take on the landscape format (aerial photography), and maps are a crossover between art and information-recording (as above)
• macro vs micro scale
• landscape
• printing – I find printing can be quite pivotal to a project as a large number of pieces, all quite experimental, can be produced in one session, which I find can stimulate ideas on how to then further the work – I also enjoy the slightly uncontrollable aspect of the noise that is created when monoprinting

And some differences:

• I’ve been more specific/explicit with my subject matter over summer – in FMP I felt I kept it quite vague/abstract, with a general exploration of “growth” without using any specific examples, whereas here I’ve been very clear in picking different locations and examples to look at
• I was perhaps a little more visually-led in FMP, with my physical experiments being the driving force for much of the project – over the summer most of my research has been theoretical (reading round the subject etc) – this is something I’m still working on finding, the ideal balance between visual and theoretical research
• I haven’t been able to work on a larger scale, or in a wide variety of media, over summer as I’ve mainly worked at home – hopefully once I get a studio space I can dedicate more time and effort to making art

Overall reflections/points of note from the summer:

• I definitely could have gone to more exhibitions over summer – I feel my research has been quite narrow (but in-depth?), which is oddly the opposite to how I usually work (my research is usually broad but I sometimes worry I haven’t looked at any specific part in enough depth)
• I also could have researched more thoroughly around the artists we were told to look at initially (although I can obviously still do this now)
• I have enjoyed reading books around my topic of interest; as I mentioned above I usually don’t research as in-depth, so it has been really nice to get a good understanding of my topic. I am still reading “Old Ways” by Robert Macfarlane, but once I have finished I will publish the notes I have taken on that – I possibly need to consider how I will translate what I have learnt into art, but I can think about that a little later, once the book is finished.
• I’m glad to have identified a few new areas of interest in time for going into my degree (walking, the history of a place/a sense of place – these are particularly good as I’ll be moving to a new area, so my practice can also have the advantage of getting to know a new place) – I would like to research more into artists that work with walking, and some people from my foundation course did work based around walks so I could also draw on their work for inspiration
• I could have perhaps created more visual work, but equally I have made good progress in terms of my ideas, and I hope this blog is a suitable “reflective journal”. Hopefully, again as I’ve mentioned, once I have my own studio space and get into a new routine it will be easier to produce a larger quantity of work.