Conclusion

The learning outcomes for the course are as follows:

• demonstrate an awareness of the broad range of contemporary practice in the creative arts
• demonstrate an understanding of the scope and interrelationship of a range of cultural disciplines through an exploration of key themes
• demonstrate a knowledge of basic research tools and skills
• think critically and reflect on aspects of contemporary culture

Looking back through my progress on the course, I would say that in Part 1 I was beginning to understand what skills were required to meet these outcomes. I think I was better at demonstrating and awareness of contemporary practice and thinking critically about art than I was at understanding the relationships between disciplines or demonstrating knowledge of research. My tutor’s comments suggested similar, saying that I needed to engage with academic texts and to proof-read my work. Because of this, I decided to re-work the final essay to try and address some of these issues.

In part 2, I felt like I connected more with the course material and was able to address some of the points raised in my feedback. I understood more of what was required and think I was now meeting the criteria for the first and last outcome. My tutor commented that my own observations were good, this is probably because I’m used to doing close readings of texts at work, so was already familiar with this technique. Again incorporating research material was an area to work on so, as in part 1, I re-worked the final essay for this part of the course to act on this feedback.

Part 3 was where I think it all clicked. I would say I was able to meet the first, second and last learning outcomes and was beginning to see links between this and earlier parts of the course. I began to make connections between the work I’d discussed previously and the themes of place and time and understand that this was key to the course content. I was able to incorporate more of my research points into my written work and use the learning from one of the books I’d read to analyse my chosen images.

Despite feeling like I’d hit a bit of a dip in part 4, in hindsight, I can now see that I was meeting more of the learning outcomes than in previous parts of the course. I was researching more thoroughly and referencing this in my work and was now able to confidently draw on relevant theoretical and critical writing to analyse works. I think that this is the first occasion when I would say that I was meeting all of the learning outcomes on most occasions.

The final part of the course required more concentration and research than before as it was the one area of the arts that I had very little knowledge of. I’m glad this subject came last, as I was able to use what I’d learnt in earlier parts to meet the assessment criteria. I was much more confident at demonstrating my awareness of contemporary practice, and in my ability to think critically. Using the key theme of place was becoming an integral part of my written work and drawing on the texts suggested by the course guide (and my tutor) enabled me to draw on this learning to support my work.

Overall, I enjoyed learning about visual communications and creative reading the most. Despite this, I am not pursuing the later and will hopefully be progressing to Drawing 2 and Illustration 2 after this course as they are the two fields that best support my intended career progression. I have also missed the practical aspect that the drawing and illustration courses require and, despite trying to draw as often as possible, I just haven’t been able to do as much of it as I would like. I have enjoyed this module and have learnt a lot about how to analyse and discuss my thoughts and those of others. These skills should lie me in good stead for the future.