Lovely to meet with most of you last week, and catch up with returning students of course!
As you know we like to communicate through a variety of means on the MAPP DTP and those of you on Module one now, your first task is to set up and post your first blog. If you could let me have your blog addresses ASAP I can then add them to our LibGuides page and you can all link up with each others blogs in order to be able to comment on and exchange thoughts that way.
Those of Module two and three, please do make sure you are linked with each other through your blogs too (I have updated on LibGuides, so that you can find links to each others blogs under the separate modules and under a comprehensive list also, titled Blogs!). Module three's, we spoke about you all sharing what you're doing in terms of your research through your blogs with each other to start you back into using your blogs this term. Module two's for you to get linked in on Linked-In on our MAPP DTP discussion group, for a wider sharing of practice and ideas here.
Schedule/Dates:
Your learning/study weeks for all of you this term run from MONDAY SEPT 30 (being week 1) through to Friday Dec 20 (being the end of week 12) with submission of work for assessment on MONDAY JAN 7 2014. Module Three's will also have their oral/practical presentations of TUES JAN 21 2014, to which you are all welcome to attend and support.
So in preparation for week 1 - blogs up and running, dates in diaries, linked in on Linked-in, and bedtime reading of your handbooks!
Of course, any questions now, or at any time, Adesola and I are here, online, on the phone, in person...
Deep breath in and let's go!!
Helen
Monday, 23 September 2013
Thursday, 5 September 2013
New Term...
Welcome back those continuing on their MAPP journey's and welcome to all our new MAPPers too!
Hoping you all had good, restful/research-full summers and are keen and ready to go at the end of this month.
Some dates and info for you ahead of the term starting...
Induction -
New starters for this term we would like to meet with you for and induction/orientation chat via Skype on Friday Sept 20th, 17.00-18.30. Please make contact with myself and Adesola (your advisors for the MAPP DTP) before then so that we are sure not to miss any of you in that call.
Skype: Helen - helen.kindred2 / Adesola - aonthephone
If you would also like to meet in person at our London campus in Hendon, I'll be happy to see you there at 13.00, also on the 20th. Please let me know if you intend to come.
Returning students, whilst you don't need an induction to the programme, it would be really good to catch up and talk through the modules you are progressing onto. We would like to do this via Skype on Saturday Sept 21st, 10.00-11.30. Please can you also make sure that you make contact with Adesola and myself before then, I know I have contact for some of you and Adesola for others, but it would be good to have you all together for this.
If you would also like to meet in person on campus, I'm happy to catch up with you in Hendon at 14.30.
Handbooks -
Programme and Module Handbooks for 2013-14 are now up on our Library Guides page for you to access. If you would like a hard copy of any sent to you please do let me know.
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/mappDTP
Looking forward to talking with you all soon!
Helen
Hoping you all had good, restful/research-full summers and are keen and ready to go at the end of this month.
Some dates and info for you ahead of the term starting...
Induction -
New starters for this term we would like to meet with you for and induction/orientation chat via Skype on Friday Sept 20th, 17.00-18.30. Please make contact with myself and Adesola (your advisors for the MAPP DTP) before then so that we are sure not to miss any of you in that call.
Skype: Helen - helen.kindred2 / Adesola - aonthephone
If you would also like to meet in person at our London campus in Hendon, I'll be happy to see you there at 13.00, also on the 20th. Please let me know if you intend to come.
Returning students, whilst you don't need an induction to the programme, it would be really good to catch up and talk through the modules you are progressing onto. We would like to do this via Skype on Saturday Sept 21st, 10.00-11.30. Please can you also make sure that you make contact with Adesola and myself before then, I know I have contact for some of you and Adesola for others, but it would be good to have you all together for this.
If you would also like to meet in person on campus, I'm happy to catch up with you in Hendon at 14.30.
Handbooks -
Programme and Module Handbooks for 2013-14 are now up on our Library Guides page for you to access. If you would like a hard copy of any sent to you please do let me know.
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/mappDTP
Looking forward to talking with you all soon!
Helen
Monday, 15 July 2013
Summer Check-in...
As the sun has finally made an appearance and I'm getting ready to take some annual leave, I thought I would check-in to see how everyone is doing for MAPPing thoughts over the break.
You should all have received now your grades (via UniHub) and feedback on your most recent submissions (via your Advisor) and hopefully had a chance to read through it, reflect a little, ready to feed forward to your next module on the MAPP DTP.
Updated module handbooks for 2013/14 (they will be labelled as such under the Modules and Materials tab) will be uploaded onto our LibGuides page in August, if you would like a hardcopy sent to you, please drop me an email confirming this with the postal address you would like it sent to and I'll be happy to do this. As always, any queries you may have about the modules please do talk to your advisor.
Otherwise, enjoy your summers, enjoy some pre-reading, preliminary research AND a break!
I leave you with a quote from an Alexander Technique workshop I took with Rebecca Netti-Fiol over the weekend,
'We must remain adjustable...always'
Helen
You should all have received now your grades (via UniHub) and feedback on your most recent submissions (via your Advisor) and hopefully had a chance to read through it, reflect a little, ready to feed forward to your next module on the MAPP DTP.
Updated module handbooks for 2013/14 (they will be labelled as such under the Modules and Materials tab) will be uploaded onto our LibGuides page in August, if you would like a hardcopy sent to you, please drop me an email confirming this with the postal address you would like it sent to and I'll be happy to do this. As always, any queries you may have about the modules please do talk to your advisor.
Otherwise, enjoy your summers, enjoy some pre-reading, preliminary research AND a break!
I leave you with a quote from an Alexander Technique workshop I took with Rebecca Netti-Fiol over the weekend,
'We must remain adjustable...always'
Helen
Friday, 21 June 2013
Practice or Performance...
After a great evening at RichMix watching, talking with, listening to a group of artists, makers, creative people, as part of the Free to Fall Trip season, my mind is on overdrive with the main questions of the evening, surrounding practice and performance and the apparent need to define and identify each.
When is something a practice, when is it a performance? This was raised during the Q&A after artist/maker Charlie Ford's installation work combining movement, himself, drawing, designing the space and creating an on-going dialogue whilst the 'audience' moved in and out of observation. Charlie talked about the want to be himself while he was creating and not feel pressured into stepping into any sort of performance mode just because of there being people watching him create his art. So what defines performance for us? Is it the presence of an audience? The offering of something by an artist for public consumption? What is the difference from watching an artist practice his art to watching a performance of it? Or is it just language?
Other artists presenting work were no more conventional in their art but all presented their work in a theatre/stage space (Charlie's was in a foyer space outside the theatre). The very framing of the stage space, the use of lighting, if only to denote the beginning and end of something we are watching tends to put that work into a performance context. Why? Isn't it our prior experiential learning that has conditioned us to see something presented this way as a performance? Something with a beginning and an end, defined largely by lights or dancers or music which occupies a space a 'safe' distance from us, enabling us to observe, from a distance, and whilst I would not suggest an audience does not interact with a work purely because of its proximity, it is, I believe, a very different experience of interaction than that of being within and closely moving around an installation. So, if we are in a theatre space, by prior knowledge of these conventions we 'expect' a performance to take place? If we are walking through a more open, public, non-seated area we do not have the same expectations? Maybe. So do we interpret Charlie's installation as a performance or as us being witness to him practicing his art? Whilst he wanted to remain at ease within his process, he acknowledged an awareness of his audience, of their presence, pleasure he drew from them moving around the space, though he was not creating the work for them as such, there was undoubtedly a level of interaction between artist and audience.
If you are being observed doing something, could that in itself be classed as a performance? Is it your awareness of others or indeed your awareness of your self in the presence of others that shifts the mode from that of practice (private) to performance (public)? Marketing of events, platforms for artist's work aside, who is defining the moment of performance?
A presentation from another artist this evening, Mari Frogner, saw us come back into the theatre after the interval, taking our seats whilst dancers were already moving (and talking) on stage. The beginning of a performance was not indicated in the way that lights/music may have done, but the placement of the dancers within the stage space, and our pre-defined knowledge of that, we assumed this was a performance. Had the dancers been amongst the audience (a thought that was raised in this particular Q&A) we would undoubtedly had a different experience. Would we still have viewed the 'dance' as a 'performance'?
I guess we come to frames of reference. If familiar with site-based work and/or audience interaction within performance contexts, then yes this would probably still have been viewed as a performance. However if our experience of performance, is situated only within stage/theatrical contexts then anything outside of that frame of reference raises questions for us. Questions then of interpretation? Of interpreting our experiences based on our own frames of reference, coloured by our own back stories, our own cultural, social, philosophical values, inherent in us, in how we perceive and interact with the world around us. So is what defines practice from performance actually us?
Room for much more discussion here...would like to hear your thoughts.
Helen
When is something a practice, when is it a performance? This was raised during the Q&A after artist/maker Charlie Ford's installation work combining movement, himself, drawing, designing the space and creating an on-going dialogue whilst the 'audience' moved in and out of observation. Charlie talked about the want to be himself while he was creating and not feel pressured into stepping into any sort of performance mode just because of there being people watching him create his art. So what defines performance for us? Is it the presence of an audience? The offering of something by an artist for public consumption? What is the difference from watching an artist practice his art to watching a performance of it? Or is it just language?
Other artists presenting work were no more conventional in their art but all presented their work in a theatre/stage space (Charlie's was in a foyer space outside the theatre). The very framing of the stage space, the use of lighting, if only to denote the beginning and end of something we are watching tends to put that work into a performance context. Why? Isn't it our prior experiential learning that has conditioned us to see something presented this way as a performance? Something with a beginning and an end, defined largely by lights or dancers or music which occupies a space a 'safe' distance from us, enabling us to observe, from a distance, and whilst I would not suggest an audience does not interact with a work purely because of its proximity, it is, I believe, a very different experience of interaction than that of being within and closely moving around an installation. So, if we are in a theatre space, by prior knowledge of these conventions we 'expect' a performance to take place? If we are walking through a more open, public, non-seated area we do not have the same expectations? Maybe. So do we interpret Charlie's installation as a performance or as us being witness to him practicing his art? Whilst he wanted to remain at ease within his process, he acknowledged an awareness of his audience, of their presence, pleasure he drew from them moving around the space, though he was not creating the work for them as such, there was undoubtedly a level of interaction between artist and audience.
If you are being observed doing something, could that in itself be classed as a performance? Is it your awareness of others or indeed your awareness of your self in the presence of others that shifts the mode from that of practice (private) to performance (public)? Marketing of events, platforms for artist's work aside, who is defining the moment of performance?
A presentation from another artist this evening, Mari Frogner, saw us come back into the theatre after the interval, taking our seats whilst dancers were already moving (and talking) on stage. The beginning of a performance was not indicated in the way that lights/music may have done, but the placement of the dancers within the stage space, and our pre-defined knowledge of that, we assumed this was a performance. Had the dancers been amongst the audience (a thought that was raised in this particular Q&A) we would undoubtedly had a different experience. Would we still have viewed the 'dance' as a 'performance'?
I guess we come to frames of reference. If familiar with site-based work and/or audience interaction within performance contexts, then yes this would probably still have been viewed as a performance. However if our experience of performance, is situated only within stage/theatrical contexts then anything outside of that frame of reference raises questions for us. Questions then of interpretation? Of interpreting our experiences based on our own frames of reference, coloured by our own back stories, our own cultural, social, philosophical values, inherent in us, in how we perceive and interact with the world around us. So is what defines practice from performance actually us?
Room for much more discussion here...would like to hear your thoughts.
Helen
Saturday, 1 June 2013
And Relax...
WELL DONE!!!! May 31st submissions all in, looking forward to reading through them all.
A reminder that Adesola and I would love to see you on June 7, 4pm for coffee and a chance to catch up, Hendon Campus, if you can make it, please let us know.
In the meantime..Happy June, and all best wishes for some time to relax for you all now : )
Helen
A reminder that Adesola and I would love to see you on June 7, 4pm for coffee and a chance to catch up, Hendon Campus, if you can make it, please let us know.
In the meantime..Happy June, and all best wishes for some time to relax for you all now : )
Helen
Friday, 3 May 2013
Bringing fresh energy in...letting go of unnecessary clutter
The title for this post is something I say (in some form or another) with reference to the process of breathing at the start of a release-based class. The notion of breathing in fresh oxygen/energy to every cell of our being and of emptying on exhalation unwanted tension and clutter from mind and body. A process akin to a practical working environment but equally I feel in the process of drafting essays, proposals, literature reviews; to continue to draw in, to be open to fresh ideas/thoughts and recognise how they may fuel your writing, your research, and (possibly harder) to be able to let go of the clutter, editing your drafts, being able to lose what is not so relevant, to really find the essence of what it is you are trying to say. This, I believe, is a huge learning task in itself, finding what you want to say, how you are going to say it and not being too precious over all your have read, experienced and learnt, if it is not relevant to the purpose of the particular piece of writing you're engaging with now. That is ok, hang onto it, it may well come to the fore in another task, or in another context altogether of your practice. The knowledge is still with you, but you need to make choices as to where it is shared most appropriately.
Like the process of making work choreographically. I am in the process of making a new work for our BA Dance Performance students show on May 23rd and was talking to dancers this week about not being precious over material they/we create if it is not then used in the final piece. It is not wasted. The process of creating it has still been of value, and the resulting material is (in my mind) theirs to use as they please in their own work, in another project when/where it may be more relevant.
So, as the essay writing for you as well as the choreographic process for me comes to the editing and refining phase, embrace the 'in' breath, let go of the 'out' breath, keep breathing, keep learning, seek relevance and clarity in mind, body and on paper!
Helen
Like the process of making work choreographically. I am in the process of making a new work for our BA Dance Performance students show on May 23rd and was talking to dancers this week about not being precious over material they/we create if it is not then used in the final piece. It is not wasted. The process of creating it has still been of value, and the resulting material is (in my mind) theirs to use as they please in their own work, in another project when/where it may be more relevant.
So, as the essay writing for you as well as the choreographic process for me comes to the editing and refining phase, embrace the 'in' breath, let go of the 'out' breath, keep breathing, keep learning, seek relevance and clarity in mind, body and on paper!
Helen
Friday, 19 April 2013
Looking Ahead...
So, aware that much of your time (particularly those on Module One) has been spent looking back, reflecting on past experiences, I thought we'd take a look forward now in light of working towards your next deadline of May 31, but DON'T PANIC, we do have time before we get there!!
Module Ones, you're now well into writing up your AOLs and gathering evidence to support the claims that you are making in these for academic credit. A reminder here not to worry too much about the number of individual AOLs, nor to stress about each being of equal volume. By the nature of your prior learning and experiences some of you will have more individual AOLs, which may be less weighty by cover a range of titles amongst them (teaching, managing, directing, marketing, business, choreography, working with children...) others may have less AOLs in number, but more weight within these depending on your experience of fewer roles in greater depth perhaps. So please do remember that YOU are the key to all of these, that each Portfolio submitted is individual, reflective of YOUR learning journey, YOUR experiences, they do not have to conform to any standardised method as such. You portfolio once complete should comprise of your CV and current Job Description, your Areas of Learning (in number and depth appropriate to your experiences) with accompanying evidence to support these claims, and finally your Review of Learning essay, drawing on the reflection you've engaged with during this module, integration of theory you've applied and an evaluation of your learning journey on the MAPP so far. Remembering you can discuss your draft RoL with your advisor for feedback before submitting.
Module Twos, you've been busy looking at what's out there in the way of literature on and around your proposed areas of research, of philosophical thought that may influence or underpin your stance as a researcher, trying out some pilot studies to ascertain the possibilities of your planned inquiries. Start looking now at drafting your inquiry proposal. Thinking about the design and methodology you will use, the ethical considerations of your proposed research (remembering that an Ethics form along with employer consent and individual consent forms must be completed and submitted as part of this proposal - check on LibGuides for the form/format of this) and its potential impact. Continue to blog and to contribute to discussions on Linked-in where appropriate in order to fuel your own journey and support each others. Looking lastly to your Review of Learning essay. As in Module One, this is an evaluation of your journey through the MAPP from Module One through Module Two, reflecting on how your learning has developed, changed, been influenced by the process of arriving at your planned inquiry. Remembering that you can draw on thoughts noted in your personal Reflective Journals, on blogs, through discussions here too.
On June 7, Adesola and I would very much like to offer the opportunity for all MAPPers to get together for coffee/tea, dare I say a cold drink, should the weather improve ever! We thought it would be a good opportunity to meet, with us and each other to share experiences in person, get to know one another more and review/question any aspect of the MAPP. So please do make a note of the date in your diaries, FRI JUNE 7, 4pm at our Hendon Campus.
Wishing you all a good week for now..
Helen
Module Ones, you're now well into writing up your AOLs and gathering evidence to support the claims that you are making in these for academic credit. A reminder here not to worry too much about the number of individual AOLs, nor to stress about each being of equal volume. By the nature of your prior learning and experiences some of you will have more individual AOLs, which may be less weighty by cover a range of titles amongst them (teaching, managing, directing, marketing, business, choreography, working with children...) others may have less AOLs in number, but more weight within these depending on your experience of fewer roles in greater depth perhaps. So please do remember that YOU are the key to all of these, that each Portfolio submitted is individual, reflective of YOUR learning journey, YOUR experiences, they do not have to conform to any standardised method as such. You portfolio once complete should comprise of your CV and current Job Description, your Areas of Learning (in number and depth appropriate to your experiences) with accompanying evidence to support these claims, and finally your Review of Learning essay, drawing on the reflection you've engaged with during this module, integration of theory you've applied and an evaluation of your learning journey on the MAPP so far. Remembering you can discuss your draft RoL with your advisor for feedback before submitting.
Module Twos, you've been busy looking at what's out there in the way of literature on and around your proposed areas of research, of philosophical thought that may influence or underpin your stance as a researcher, trying out some pilot studies to ascertain the possibilities of your planned inquiries. Start looking now at drafting your inquiry proposal. Thinking about the design and methodology you will use, the ethical considerations of your proposed research (remembering that an Ethics form along with employer consent and individual consent forms must be completed and submitted as part of this proposal - check on LibGuides for the form/format of this) and its potential impact. Continue to blog and to contribute to discussions on Linked-in where appropriate in order to fuel your own journey and support each others. Looking lastly to your Review of Learning essay. As in Module One, this is an evaluation of your journey through the MAPP from Module One through Module Two, reflecting on how your learning has developed, changed, been influenced by the process of arriving at your planned inquiry. Remembering that you can draw on thoughts noted in your personal Reflective Journals, on blogs, through discussions here too.
On June 7, Adesola and I would very much like to offer the opportunity for all MAPPers to get together for coffee/tea, dare I say a cold drink, should the weather improve ever! We thought it would be a good opportunity to meet, with us and each other to share experiences in person, get to know one another more and review/question any aspect of the MAPP. So please do make a note of the date in your diaries, FRI JUNE 7, 4pm at our Hendon Campus.
Wishing you all a good week for now..
Helen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)