Northbrook College Review

On Wednesday afternoon we had the opportunity to look at BA courses that also take place at the college, the event started with a brief summary talk on what the college has to offer after our Foundation course. Below are some of the key points made in the talk,

Why go on to Higher Education:

• Personal Factors - new ways of thinking and seeing, opportunities, social elements
• Career Factors - employment, earnings, qualifications
• Knowledge
• Skills
• Better employment rate
• Higher pay
• Professional subject knowledge

Why choose Northbrook:

• High contact hours
• High student satisfaction
• High achievement
• High value
• Progression to employment

After the talk I went to look at the Costume Design, Photographic Arts, Fashion Media and Promotion and the Fashion Design courses. I was slightly pushed for time so didn't get to look around as much as I might have liked too, however we got a long guided tour of the costume design course and classroom. For the other courses, I have spent time looking at the appropriate leaflets and booklets to get ideas about which may interest me. I really liked the look of the fashion media and promotion course because it incorporates so many different subjects, such as fashion, graphics, and business work. The fashion design course also looked good, but I'm still unsure if I want to go specifically into fashion, I have the same issue with photography as I'm not sure where the degree will take me. Costume design was really interesting, and the classroom had a lovely vibe, talking to the teachers, who were very friendly, made it sound as though the workshop is always an open place for students, and quite relaxed. My only issue with costume is how much time they spend on period costumes,  I am interested in making these types of garments but not for a large amount of time as this course suggests. I will be considering Northbrook in my applications, however I had hoped to move away from Worthing for University as I have lived here all my life, the idea of moving away to gain independance is in someways more appealing to me.

Bath Spa University

This is a short review on Bath Spa University after visiting on their open day on Saturday 19th. I went mainly to look at the Fashion Design course, accommodation and the university itself, however whilst there we stumbled upon the Graphic Communication course which I found really interesting. I'd never been to Bath so we spent time over lunch looking around and exploring the city centre. I've summed up the 3 categories in bullet points below,

University and the city:

• Beautiful place
• Nice accommodation
• No cars in halls
• Lots of hills
• Not too far - 2.5/3 hours
• Good high street
• Good bus service
• Lots of green park areas
• Not too far from friends and family
• Each course is allowed to use other equipment in different areas of the college 

Fashion design course:

• 9-5 everyday, possibly more
• Summer, Christmas and Easter projects
• Very committed, have to know what you want
• Well informed course leader
• Industry links
• Close connections with the Bath Fashion Museum
• No time for part time job
• Rarely time to see friends/family

Graphic communication

• Course looks good
• Really nice course leader
• Industry links
• Students work looks really interesting
• Potential to do what I want to do
• Well informed course leader

I have decided that the Fashion Design course isn't for me, as I am not yet decided that I'd like to be a fashion designer, so the commitment is too much. During University I would like the opportunity to have a part time job, this is another reason I'm not keen on the fashion course, but need to enquire further with the Graphic Communication course whether this is possible along side college commitments.  

Portsmouth University

My review on Portsmouth University after attending the open day on Saturday 5th October. I looked at 3 main areas, the Fashion and Textiles course, the accommodation, and the SU and student bar. 

Fashion and Textiles course:

• Industry links
• Focused on employment after graduation
• Course looks good
• Learn useful techniques 
• Good work space
• Sketchbooks without writing
• Options for dissertation

University and city:

• Good place to be
• Nice accommodation- but bad social area in flat
• Good high street
• Lots of gigs
• Not far from home
• New building looks good
• SU and bar looks nice
• Good night life
• Possibly no car in halls
• Easy train journey to Southampton or Worthing 

Volunteering/Work Experience Ideas

Task for Thursday 17th:

You are to research and develop a proposal for a voluntary position/work experience activity to engage with by 1st January 2014. Try to be bold in your selection and do not be put off by thinking it won't happen (three years ago one student spent time with Rankin; so be bold and determined).

Develop a letter/application and a rationale for why you consider it appropriate.

Volunteering and work experience ideas:

• Amberly museum printing workshop
• Charity shop window dressing
• Work experience with Lez Brotherston, stage, set and costume designer
• Marks and Spencer promotional design team
• Work with local graphic designer

For my work experience I have decided to write to Lez Brotherston in the hope to gain a day or two work experience with him. The chances of this happening are very slim, but it can't hurt to try, especially as I will be seeing his work at the upcoming performances of Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake. Lez Brotherston is an award winning British set and costume designer, working extensively on film, operas, dance, theatres and musicals.

I first came across Lez when my godmother sent me a DVD for my birthday of Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, her favourite ballet, she'd already told me a lot about, knowing how interested in dance I was. My mum and I sat down to watch the film production and were instantly engaged by the familiar Tchaikovsky accompaniment to the not so familiar choreography. As the performance progressed we began to notice the interesting costume and sets, showing thought out designs, with the sets focusing on perspective and the costumes on original creativity.

The first live performance I'd seen using Lez's designs was Edward Scissor Hands by Matthew Bourne at Sadlers Wells in London. I remember being in awe at the set in particular, and how the dancers incorporated the constructions and props into the performance working with it and around it.

Lez's work is inspirational to me, to be able to spend any amount of time with him, talking about his work and how he got to where he is now would be wonderful. If this doesn't work out I have plenty of other ideas, but if you never try, you never know, I think this quote from Lez sums this up quite nicely,

"You have to feel comfortable enough to say "Here's an idea, it may be terrible" because out of something terrible, something great may happen."

Tony Warner Seminar

Wednesday 16th seminar was held by Tony Warner on the subject of black history month. Tony is an activist/historian passionate about educating people and sharing his knowledge of the heritage of African people in Britain. The talk began by Tony asking a series of questions about black saints and noblemen, looking at how we perceive them nowadays in comparison to how they were perceived 500 years ago. In the 16th and 17th centuries Africans in portraits and paintings had a royal portrayal, one of the first changes was noticed in 1863 in the painting "The Secret of England's Greatness" by Thomas Jones Barker. The painting shows an African king kneeling to queen Victoria as she hands him a bible, in the original sketch they are both standing on the same level, but for some reason the artist later changed the scene to as it is now.

Another question I found puzzling, was that when asked if there were black people in world war 2, no one had any knowledge of their presence in helping Britain in the war, why we weren't taught this in school is questionable. Men from the Caribbean in Trinidad and Jamaica assisted Englishmen alongside 2.5 million Indian men, whom without we may not have achieved the same outcome to the war.

Tony was very interactive with the audience, encouraging us to be vocal about our views, opinions and perceptions. The following main point to be made, was in recognising positive and negative images of black people, then considering which type we see most commonly. We revealed that the media, in particular the television and music industries, predominantly promote the negative images such as violent gangster hip hop music and provocative dancing, opposed to images of happy families, or traditional African culture being passed through generations.

The result of the largely negative representation of black people is reflecting on children of the next generation, tests have been carried out from the fifties on children to analyse their reaction and understand how they feel about the subject. A common test is one using two dolls, one black, one white, the child is then asked a series of questions such as, which is their favourite doll, then select the good doll, then the bad doll and then the doll that looks most like them. The results show that in general most children chose the white dolls as their favourite and the 'good' doll, with the black doll as the 'bad' doll, one young girl even said she didn't like herself because she was black, which is heartbreaking. It's astounding that children so young can have such clear views on peoples appearance reflecting who they may be, or may not be in many cases.

I went into the lecture with a fairly closed mind not knowing what we were about to witness, but expecting to be half asleep by the end, however I was pleasantly surprised. Tony's talk was eye opening and very interesting, he explained his points clearly for everyone to understand, backing them up with photos and the occasional amusing video, I can genuinely say I learnt a lot and am glad I attended.

Tony's Warners website: www.blackhistorywalks.co.uk

Community Project Task

Task for Wednesday morning and afternoon:

You are to work as a small collective and together research and develop a proposal for a community based activity to be delivered by 1st January 2014. Try to be adventurous in your selection and move beyond the expected. Be considerate of practicalities. There will be limited if any funds available to support the activity; inventive problem solving is critical.

Group brainstorm community projects ideas:

• Buy charity shop clothes to alter and restyle to sell at a profit for charity
• Have a stall at a market
• Hold a stall at a Christmas market
• Decorate poppies to sell for remembrance day
• Secret sculpture making in town
• Pumpkin carving installations
• Bonfire night activities and food

As a group we discussed the potential and practicality of each of our ideas, looking more in depth at each individually. The group was split over a few ideas, with some being agreed as really good but were thought to be a little too complicated or expensive, in the end we settled with the idea of creating a sculpture or installation in the town.

Through research we discovered an opportunity to create our work on a main roundabout in the town centre alongside a sculpture of a winged horse by Alan Tobias-Williams.

Another idea we thought may be interesting, is to put our sculpture in place during the night/evening when there will be less people around, the idea behind this plan is in an effort to bring an element of surprise and wonder to local workers, shoppers and visitors of the town the following day.

Expanding Contextual Horizons

Task for Tuesday 15th
A proposal to expand your contextual horizon: Research 5 activities to engage with/attend by 1st January 2014. Try to be adventurous in your selection and move beyond the expected. Suggest how each could inform the development of your practice.
Remember eg it is really important that you do not simply go ONLY to ‘photography exhibitions’ if you are a photographer.
One of the activities needs to be local ie Sussex based. One of the activities needs to be a group activity discussed and agreed with your peers.

Ideas for 5 activities:

• Illuminated Palace at Brighton Pavilion- Friday 1 November 6-10
• South Of England Christmas Show- 14th-17th November
• Country Living Christmas Fair- 30th October-5th November
• Thomas A Becket Middle School Fireworks Display- 4th November
• Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake- 7th December
• Work experience at the V&A- 6th December
• Peace concert- 6th December
• Tulley's Farm halloween activities
• The National Open Art Exhibition- 14th-30th November
• Crystal Fighters concert- Thursday 21st November

In our group we have agreed to go to the Thomas A Becket firework display, we will use this opportunity to work on night photography techniques and may use it to influence our artwork after the event.

For my sussex based activity I have chosen to attend the National Open Art Exhibition at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester. The National Open Art Exhibition is a registered charity that aims to provide a fair and open platform for artists to exhibit, sell and promote their work annually at one of the venues across the UK. In attending this exhibition I hope to see and experience new and exciting artistic work forms, which may inspire or influence my own work.

The idea of seeing Matthew Bourne's performance of Swan Lake is to look at the costume and set design aspects. Matthew Bournes productions never fail to astound me, the choreography is breathtaking and Lez Brotherston's design work on the production is unbelievable.

Also the first weekend in December one of my admired bands 'Peace' are playing at the O2 Shepherds bush empire, where I'd seen 'Alt J' almost a year previously. The Alt J gig was inspiring in so many ways, with the scene and atmosphere dream like, I hope to have a similar experience at the Peace gig. My aim is to capture the event and atmosphere in photographs to then use in my work, encapsulating the essence of the night to reach out to all the senses.

On Thursday the 5th of December I will be travelling up to London to complete a day of work experience at the V&A on Friday 6th. Showing me the ropes and giving me tasks will be Alex Flowers, a family friend. Alex contributes to setting up many of the exhibitions, and works prodomininantly on the digital media and displays within the exhibition and visual learning. From this experience I hope to gain knowledge on how large museums organise exhibitions, and how the digital media may be created, and the impact on modern technologies to the exhibitions.

Conversation about Practice

In order to apply to university, a personal statement has to be written, and it has to be interesting. On monday we were set a conversational task to gain ideas and inspiration for our first draft, the task involved working in pairs asking and answering a series of questions, these were as follows:

Qa) Give a basic introduction about your area of interest demonstrating how this was sparked, suggest things you have done that demonstrate this eg attending conferences/exhibitions/workshops etc etc

• A) design, fashion and textiles, printwork, graphics, music album covers
• Album covers sparked interest in designing 
• Exhibitions - visited The Tate Modern, The V&A, New Designers, The Knit and Stitch Show
• University and college exhibitions

b) Talk about your current interests and the methods and materials you are playing with and planning to work with.

• Dance and performances - interest in costume/set design
• Print
• Photography as a hobbie and to use in work
• Fabric
• Printing materials
• Experiment with digital print e.g repeat patterns, screen printing
• Fashion magazines

c) Talk a little about the ideas that are affecting you and how your practice (thinking and the stuff you make/do) has progressed since being on the Foundation 

• Go with the flow without an outcome in mind
• Accept failures and learn from mistakes
• Things don't need to be perfect
• Enjoyed darkroom work
• Trying new things
• Enjoyed experimenting

d) What key influences have affected your practice either because you are excited, intrigued, enthralled by them, because they inspire you technically, because they repulse you (often inspiration comes from what you do not want to do).

• The exploratory project
• Enjoyed the deep thinking about artwork or ideas tasks less than other more hands on tasks, however the discussion and ideas that were developed as a result were very eye opening
• Set making was inspiring technically with relevance to the story and links

e) talk about your ambition and why you would enjoy a BA course (peers, discussions, inspirational tutors etc etc)

• Work in design - big company or small 
• Make things Ive designed
• Album covers
• Clothes
• Possible work experience with Marks and Spencer promotion team
• Gain more inspiration
• Learn more about possible career ideas
• To expand on what I already know
• Get more experience
• Gain independence

Go on to develop these notes into a draft personal statement. Be very careful to read out loud your draft to make sure it sounds like your 'voice' and not 'essay speak'.

Blog Introduction

I plan to use this blog to post my ideas, thoughts and reflections during the course of the year studying for an Art Foundation Diploma. My main interests are design and dance one of which I intend to study at uni in september 2014, my reviews of my chosen universities will also be posted after attending the open days.