Context of Practice 2: A Trip to the Museum

In order to encourage a practice of primary research we were given specific places in the city to study. Our group visited the Leeds Art Gallery and made a variety of studies on tracing paper.

Upon our return to the studio we began to assemble the imagery on a light box.

Having found the space limiting we expanded to the window.

Although the final composition seems to lack a logical structure, it was created with the consideration of the contexts of each image; the
landscape painting studies appear at the top, while figure-based studies appear in the implicit foreground.

Identify unexpected/useful outcomes of (a) combing your drawings with other group members and (b) having a focused task to achieve in a short time

a) By combining our work we managed to create a sort of holistic study, encompassing the many distinctive view points and aesthetics of each individual. The response we created was more diverse than what any one person was capable of.

b)The short time limit provoked us to allocate tasks to each other, and use the space of the museum more effectively, we deliberately split up in order to gather a varied amount of information.

Comment on how Task 2 led you to respond to the gallery/museum. If this was different to previous visits, how and why?

I found the task different to other such research tasks as it wasn't provoked by initial contextual research, in addition I found that I was more sceptical of the art work when considering it's compositional and aesthetic elements.

How could the practical aspect of COP 2 be extended to challenge your image-making further and enhance your essay line of enquiry?

I shall consider visiting more locations, even if they aren't obviously associated with the themes of my inquiry. Using a small selection of dry media seemed to enable quicker responses, meaning I could create a larger quantity of reference material for later developments.

Context of Practice 2: A Trip to the Dump

To provoke some visual responses, I visited two local recycling and waste sites.

The first, Ellar Ghyll is the community waste cite of Otley. Here locals bring their various wastes and deposit them in the relevant large container, which is taken to landfill or another recycling facility.

The second, Crossley Evans Scrap Yard is a much larger site. A mountian of scrap material is observable to all who cross the main bridge in Shipley.

I would suggest that referring to a local location within the essay would be somewhat beneficial, using primary research can produce new lines of enquiry and totally original arguments.