Favourite workshop of the term

Some of these workshops and lectures aimed towards helping us with academic writing. My favourite workshop was Jon Clarkson’s workshop on analysing and reading skills, this gave me the opportunity to practice reading and understanding difficult pieces of text. I found this workshop very useful to me. 

Constellation Overview PDP

Rhiannon Settle

Constellation PDP

I have always had a problem with concentrating in class and understanding theory which I believe is  one of the many things that drew me to want to study fine art. I am restless sitting in a classroom listening to a lecture, I would rather be drawing and creating work. This year I struggled with constellation during the first term as the subject matter was philosophy and theory based. I did not find many of the lectures very interesting; most did not link to what I liked doing. Do not get me wrong, learning different ways of perceiving art was enjoyable and I did find the different teaching techniques very interesting. My favourite lecture from the first term was with Alexandros Kontogeorgakopoulos, where I surprised myself and actually enjoyed this highly thought provoking and complex lecture. We looked into how music represents itself in an image; so how a sound, looks. I really got involved in this lecture and was somewhat transfixed with the mental stimulation I got from the lecture. I found his teaching techniques very engaging, I was able to concentrate on everything he was saying.

Option choosing for our specific constellation groups through blackboard was hectic, with the best options filling up first which unfortunately didn’t allow me to choose my original option choice. I ended up getting my second choice which was After Modernism with Johnathon Clarkson. However very surprisingly, I am so very glad that I got this option! I could not have imagined how much I enjoyed the lectures, each one being highly insightful and interesting. I feel as though I learnt a lot about art during the 1900’s and about important and influential art movements and art periods during this time. I did however believe he could have used another method to do the lectures than PowerPoint presentations, as he used PowerPoint presentations for every lecture; it meant I sometimes lost concentration, which is a shame because the subject matter was really fun and interesting. My favourite lecture of After Modernism was the lecture on Fluxus; it taught me a lot and all of it was very much in my interests. I liked the Fluxus lecture so much that I wrote my 2500 word essay on the topic of Fluxus. From the After Modernism Lectures I discovered new artists and new modes of working, some of which related to my Field project at the time. In the lecture on pop art I found out about Ed Ruscha’s picture books and the example that was shown in the lecture was his photo book of 26 Gasoline stations. 

To conclude I personally have mixed beliefs on constellation this year. I did not particularly enjoy constellation during the first term, however my opinion on constellation vastly improved during this term. I enjoyed learning about topics within the After Modernism lectures and I feel as though I have a lot more knowledge about art during the 1900’s.

After Modernism Constellation term 2

It was a fascinating start to the After Modernism lectures; it was about a collection of theories about race and the relevance of art within the Cold War era, and abstract expressionism. I was unaware of America’s decision to push A.E. as a sign of cultural and economic growth, but it makes sense in the situation.

I was also entranced by the question; ‘Is art Popular or Elitist, and how do we measure which is better?’  It is a question I can really delve into! We were faced with two images, one of a Clyfford Still painting, with a sole viewer observing the piece without the many ‘security measures’ that obscures the Mona Lisa and the ‘Mona Lisa’ with a large crowd around it.

Constellation Term 1

This term I enjoyed having a lot of options given to us with different forms of lectures. I thought that it was a good idea that we were given a lecture each week of something different, a different topic each week. One week we were learning about Contemporary art, then After Modernism, then music and sounds in art.

We were mixed in each lecture with people from other courses, I thought that this was a good idea, however it showed that they would have to work the lectures around making it useful fr everyone, which meant the lectures were not focused on my particular art course of Fine Art.

However apart from it being good to expand my knowledge of different pathways within art, I found that most of the lectures were not to do with my interests, the topics were not to my taste.

Constellation Dr. Alexandros Kontogeorgakopoulos: The Future of Sonic Arts

This lecture was focused on and the future of music and how music is related to technology. We first listened to Beethoven Symphony no.5. This shows how music is close to technology. This music was performed by an orchestra and used mechanical technology.

Then we compared this to John Cage by listening to Water Walk, from 1960. John Cage’s ideas and theories can be applied to art and design,  his beliefs were that it wasn’t necessary top use traditional instruments to make noise. Max Matthews another composer and was the first to use a computer to make music. Karlheinz Stockhaussen was a pioneer of electronic music;  he embraced new technologies to make new sounds.

I found this lecture really interesting to watch because it shows how the sounds are taken from existing and put together to become a completely different thing.